On 1 May-5 May, the Australian Centre on China in the World at The Australian National University celebrated its new building (designed by Beijing-based architect Gerald Szeto with the Canberra architectural firm Munns Sly Moore) with a series of events:
1 May, a screening of the documentary film on the Cultural Revolution, ‘Morning Sun’ 《八九点钟的太阳》, made by the Long Bow Group (Boston, 2003)
2 May, a speech by the New York photographer Lois Conner on her three decades of work in China, followed by a launch of Conner’s new book Beijing, Contemporary and Imperial (Princeton Architectural Press, 2014), a collaboration with the Centre Director, Geremie Barmé, and the opening of the inaugural exhibition in The CIW Gallery, ‘Beijing, Unfurling the Landscape‘, work by Lois Conner, introduced by Gael Newton, senior photography curator at the National Gallery of Australia
3 May, the recording of a Sinica podcast by Jeremy Goldkorn, ‘China in Three Keys: first experiences from the 1970s through 1990s‘, with Geremie R. Barmé and Linda Jaivin, followed by the oral historian Sang Ye introducing the rare documentary film made of the 1 October 1969 celebrations of the twentieth anniversary of the founding of the People’s Republic of China (directed by ‘China’s Leni Riefenstahl‘). These events were also a celebration of the 95th anniversary of the May Fourth Movement.
5 May, a lunchtime concert in The CIW Gallery by the noted musician and performer Wu Fei 吴非. Followed, that evening by a public lecture, the Fourth Annual CIW Oration, by the architect Gerald Szeto 司徒佐 titled ‘The Architecture of Education in Canberra and Beijing’, which also featured another musical performance by Wu Fei.
For an overview of the CIW building and ‘Scenes at the Centre’ 中心十景, see CIW Ten Scenes.
These two views of the Australian Centre on China in the World were made by the photographer Ben Wrigley
