CHINA ARTICLES by Brian Hennessy

Dragons Backbone Rice Terraces

Brian Hennessy. China Australia Consult. April 2010 If you believe the tourist brochures, Guilin is a pleasant city situated in a beautiful limestone kharst mountain environment. However, despite its attractions, this city in Guangxi province is not worth visiting for its own sake. It’s not the type of town to be out on the streets […]

Trouble on the Tibetan Plateau

Brian Hennessy. China Australia Consult. 2007 It was the first week in August when the Tibetan nomads come into the township of Litang for a yearly festival. Horse racing, dancing, singing, socialising, and so on. It’s the event of the year, and a time when provisions are bought, marriages are arranged, and the clans are […]

2003: welcome to China

Brian Hennessy. An Australian in China. 2003 I was feeling apprehensive despite the excitement. China seemed so far away from Australia and my familiar Western culture. The China I had heard about was an out-of-date model shaped by the experiences of an older generation. Emotive words like, Communism, Red China, and the Cultural Revolution kept […]

China: a land of contradictions

Brian Hennessy. An Australian in China.  China is a land of contradictions. While on the one hand China presents herself as an outward looking developing nation proud of her new economic strength and rising international status; on the other hand she remains a culturally conservative, inward looking nation influenced by her isolationist past. Foreigners who live and work […]

Reading the tea-leaves in China

Brian Hennessy. An Australian in China. March, 2013 It’s official now. The sometimes deadly jockeying for power has run its course and Xi Jinping has replaced Hu Jintau as President of China. Li Keqiang, who replaces Wen Jia Bao is now Premier. Xi Jinping leading the Standing Committee in rank order. Reading the tea-leaves in China […]

The Tao of travel in rural China

Brian Hennessy. China Australia Consult. February, 2013 You need to have your wits about you when travelling independently across the countryside in China. Having said this, as long as you can speak a little functional Chinese language and have a normal ration of common sense and patience, your journey will be a rewarding one. If […]

Politics and power in China

Brian Hennessy. An Australian in China. 2012 A case example: Bo Xilai was the Communist Party Secretary of Chongqing for several years. This huge metropolis is the central government’s hub for growth in southwest China. As Party Secretary, he outranked the mayor, and was the main instrument of central government control. His downfall – and that […]

Understanding China

Brian Hennessy. An Australian in China. May, 2010 “We need to ramp up the critical mass of Australians who are China literate… Unless we do so, our relations with China risk being seriously undermined by miss-perceptions and neglect.”  Alan Dupont, director of the Centre for International Security Studies at the University of Sydney, published in The Australian Newspaper, April 12, […]

China from the inside out

Brian Hennessy. An Australian in China. February, 2012 I hesitate to write about my observations of life in China. The boundary between my Western culture and Chinese culture has blurred. For example: when I arrived in 2003 everything was new and exciting and it was easy to spot the differences. Nowadays they are not so obvious. Nevertheless, […]

Butuo

Brian Hennessy. An Australian in China. 2009 Butuo. A dangerous small town in southwest China. Alcohol, drugs, violence and orphans. Too many of them. A depressing place. Don’t go there.   Butuo ____________________________________________________________ Butuo is the saddest town I have seen in China. It is a couple of hours by local bus from Xichang, the […]


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