Dr Gary Sigley

Professor

Research Interests

• Asian studies
• Chinese studies
• Globalisation and culture
• Political, social and governmental reform in China
• Rural China, citizenship, sexuality and gender, ethnic minorities in China
• Social and political theory

I have been working in Asian and Chinese Studies at The University of Western Australia since 1997. I'm currently Senior Lecturer in Asian Studies (www.asianstudies.uwa.edu.au) and Director of the Confucius Institute (www.confuciusinstitute.uwa.edu.au). I also coordinate an annual end-of-year cultural and study tour of China (www.chinastudytours.com).

In the Asian Studies programme I lecture in contemporary Asian and Chinese Studies, teaching and coordinating the Chinese studies units ‘"Social Issues in Contemporary China" (ASIA2211) and "Chinese Media and Society" (ASIA2212) as well as the Asian Studies unit "Understanding Asia-Australia Issues" (ASIA2206). More information about these units can be found at:

http://handbooks.uwa.edu.au/units/asia/asia2211
http://handbooks.uwa.edu.au/units/asia/asia2212
http://handbooks.uwa.edu.au/units/asia/asia2206

I also supervise postgraduates with research projects with a strong focus on China. Currently I have several postgraduate students researching topics ranging from the politics of same-sex identity in Beijing to the discourse of development in remote and peripheral areas of southwest China. I believe in working closely with postgraduates in projects which overlap with my own interests so as to foster a research environment conducive to achieving outstanding results.

My primary research interest focuses on governmental reform in contemporary China. The approach I take is a combination of governmentality studies and political economy. I'm particularly interested in the shift from government as it was reasoned and practiced under conditions of the socialist plan to the emerging discourse of government in conditions of the "socialist market economy". At present I'm completing a manuscript on this topic titled "Governing Chinese Bodies: Population Discourse from Plan to Market" which will be published in 2006 by Edward Elgar. With the completion of this project on population planning and government I will proceed to begin a new project on governmental reform in China that examines the development and significance of social work in Shanghai. In conjunction with Elaine Jeffreys from University of Technology Sydney, I'm also jointly editing a Special Issue of the journal Economy and Society on the theme of "governmentality and China" which will be published in 2006. I'm also working with Tamara Jacka from the Australian National University in editing a book on the discourse of 'quality' (suzhi) in contemporary China.

In addition to the interest in government and China, I’m also engaged in two other research projects. "Christmas in Kunming" is a study of globalisation, culture and identity in the context of a small provincial capital in southwest China. Based on interviews with students, entrepreneurs, scholars and government officials and extensive monitoring of online bulletin boards and the media, this project seeks to examine and explain the phenomenon of Christmas in contemporary China. The initial results of this study will be published in 2006.

"Yellow Peril" is a study of the relationship between politics and sex in contemporary China (in Chinese the term for yellow – huangse – is used to describe pornographic material). The initial results of this project will be published in Elaine Jeffreys (ed) Sex, Politics and Society in Contemporary China, London & New York: Routledge, forthcoming in 2006.

Recent Publications:

2006: Governing Chinese Bodies: The Discourse of Population from Plan to Market, Cheltenham, UK: Edward Elgar.

2006: "Sex, politics and the policing of virtue in the People’s Republic of China", in Elaine Jeffreys (ed) Sex and Sexuality in China, London & New York: RoutledgeCurzon.

2006: "A Chinese Christmas story", in Shi-xu (ed) Discourse as Cultural Struggle , Hong Kong: Hong Kong University Press.

2004: "Liberal despotism: Population planning, government and subjectivity in contemporary China", Alternative: Global, Local, Political, 29: 5, pp. 557-575.

2004: "Marketing Theory: Sexuality, Subjectivity and Government in China", Asian Studies Review, 28: 1, pp. 75-82.

2002: "Keeping it in the family: Government, marriage and sex in contemporary China", in Margaret Jolly and Kalpana Ram (eds) Borders of Being: Citizenship, Fertility, and Sexuality in Asia and the Pacific, Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press.