Slow Train to Democracy

Anne McLaren is Professor of Chinese Studies at the Asia Institute University of Melbourne where she has taught Chinese language culture gender and human rights since 2000. Born in Sydney she studied Modern and Classical Chinese at the Australian National University where she completed a PhD in 1983. From September 1978 to August 1979 she lived as a student in China most of that time at Shanghai's Fudan University. She is the author of numerous books and studies on Chinese traditional popular culture fiction oral ritual and performance art. Her research has been funded by several awards from the Australian Research Council. In 2010 she was elected a Fellow of the Australian Academy of the Humanities for pioneering research in the oral and ritual culture of Chinese women.