Karen Fisher

University of New South Wales, Australia
Exchange to Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, China

I received the Endeavour Australia Cheung Kong Award in 2005 facilitating 6 months as a Visiting Scholar to the Institute of Sociology, Chinese Academy of Social Science, Beijing. It was a thoroughly rewarding experience both professionally and socially. The award enabled me to dedicate 6 months to both completing my PhD draft thesis in social policy and undertaking research about disability policy in China.

For me, this type of award was unique because it gave me a concentrated period immersed in Chinese academia and a local community. I was searching for a way to facilitate spending time in China to decide whether to take up my earlier interest in Chinese social policy. I had studied in Nanjing and Beijing in 1985 to 1987 when China was a very different country. I wanted a chance to see if I was interested in conducting comparative social policy in China. Would it be worthwhile for me and could I appropriately contribute to Chinese and Australian social policy? The award meant that I had 6 months living there to understand that.

The good news is that it was a fabulous experience. Beijing is a modern, international city and compared to the 1980s, an easy place for foreigners to live. I travelled with my partner and 10 year old son. Without too much bureaucracy, my son attended our local school as its first foreigner and of course leapt ahead with full language immersion. My partner had the joy of bicycling around the city enthralled with the culture and history. My more studious activities were collaborating with local researchers. We developed new research opportunities that I will now pursue through my employment at the Social Policy Research Centre, NSW.

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