John Wong (4)

Professor Emeritus John Wong DPhil Oxon, FRHS FASSA FAHA Professor of Modern History Department of History University of Sydney Professor Wong is a Fellow of the Academy of Social Sciences in Australia, a Fellow of the Australian Academy of the Humanities, as well as a Fellow of the Royal Historical Society in the UK. His life-long research on British imperialism is showcased in his Deadly Dreams: Opium, Imperialism, and the 'Arrow' War (1856-1860) in China (Cambridge hardback 1998, Paperback 2003 and 2008). An updated and greatly expanded Chinese version will be published in 2019. His concern for China's fate will crystallise in his forthcoming four-volume tome on the founder of Modern China Sun Yatsen (1866-1925) in a rapidly Globalising world (1800-2024). This project is gradually built up on the basis of his independent studies, the latest of which being entitled Sun Yatsen before the Age of Thirty. Written in Chinese and published in Hong Kong at the height of the centennial celebrations in 2011 of the October 1911 Chinese National Revolution led by Sun Yatsen, it took China by storm. The influential Phoenix TV devoted the entire 8 minutes of a book-review program to it on 13 October 2011. Then feeling that he had not had enough of his say, the reviewer devoted another 8 minutes to it the next day. Chapter by chapter the reviewer pointed out how the book exposed the way orthodox Chinese historians had faked a Father of the Nation. Numerous Chinese-language bloggers relayed the review, probably as a silent protest against their drowning in fake milk, dying at the hands of fake doctors, feasting on fake birds-nests, etc, Despite all this, the censors granted permission for a Beijing edition of the book, which was published in March 2012. Not a word had been changed without Professor Wong's permission - a sign of progress indeed - and Professor Wong used the opportunity to fine-tune his work further. The two editions made a total print run of 8,500.