Happy Together Bridging the Australia-China Divide

In the late nineteenth century, as crippling famine devastated northern China, the Li family had no choice but to leave Shanxi province. Heading north, they began a new life, farming the remote grasslands of Inner Mongolia. They prospered as landowners and teachers, but could not escape the ravages of warlords, soldiers and revolutionaries. Born into this pioneering family, Li Yao grew up in Mao's China. He dreamt of becoming a writer, but his dreams were torn apart by the Cultural Revolution. When the storm finally subsided, the young man turned to translation. In Australian writing, he found colourful tales set in new landscapes, a literature quite unfamiliar to him. Li Yao's story is interwoven with that of his friend, Australian historian David Walker. David's family had also settled in an unfamiliar and difficult land, a world away in distant South Australia. The two men became friends as Li Yao translated one of David's books into Chinese, and their personal histories provide a fascinating, illuminating window into life in China, an experience inevitably shaped by China's relations with the wider world.

Li Yao is a Professor at the International Business Training Institute, Beijing and holds visiting professorships at the Australian Studies Centre, Beijing Foreign Studies University, and at Western Sydney University. He has translated over 60 works including nearly 40 by Australian writers. In 1986, he became a member of the Chinese Writers’ Association and was recognised in 2014 by the University of Sydney which awarded him the honorary degree of Doctor of Letters. In 2019 he also gained an honorary Doctor of Letters from Western Sydney University. He won awards from the Australia China Co David Walker  is an Australian historian who holds Honorary Professorships at the University of Melbourne, Western Sydney University and Deakin University. From 2013– 2016 he was the inaugural BHP Chair of Australian Studies at Peking University, Beijing. For many years he has studied Australia’ s responses to Asia. His books include  Anxious Nation: Australia and the rise of Asia, 1850– 1939;  Stranded Nation: White Australia in an Asian Region  and (with Louise Johnson and Tanja Luckins)  The Story of Australia: a new History of People and Place.