Date: Thursday 28 July
Time: 4.00 – 6.00pm AEST
Location: IAC, EA Building, Parramatta South Campus, Western Sydney University, Parramatta NSW 2150
This is a face-to-face event. Registration is free but essential.
About this event
The Institute for Australian and Chinese Arts and Culture (IAC) has launched a face-to-face conversation series entitled My China Story. The series invites Australian public figures from a wide range of professions who have lived and worked in China for an extensive period of time to share their lived experiences and times in China, enabling audiences to build an understanding of multifaceted China.
We are thrilled to announce that our second episode will feature the highly successful and celebrated TV and radio presenter, journalist, author and educator, Tracey Holmes. Tracey has 30 years of experience as an international anchor and journalist on ABC Australia, China Global Television Network (Beijing), CNN International (Abu Dhabi), Arirang TV (Seoul) and Dubai Eye. She was the first Australian female to host a national sports program – ABC Grandstand. She has anchored, reported and commentated for many of the world’s biggest events, including 14 Olympic Games. She is currently the host and executive producer of The Ticket on the ABC, focusing on the politics, governance and business of sport. As an educator and mentor, Tracey has taught at the University of Technology, Sydney, Macleay College, the Australian Film, Television and Radio School and IOC’s Young Reporters Program. In Feb 2022 the IOC awarded Tracey the 2021 Women and Sports Award for Oceania for her journalism, leadership and mentorship, the first journalist to receive this prestigious award.
Tracey lived and worked in Hong Kong from 2002 to 2004. She moved to mainland China and worked at China Central Television from 2005 to 2006, again in 2008, and worked at China Global Television Network in 2010. On the family history front, in late 2018, it was discovered that her paternal great-great grandfather was a doctor of Chinese medicine called Joseph Lin, who came to Australia from Fujian, China in the 1850s to treat Chinese gold miners in Cooma NSW and settled in Gundagai. He married an Anglo-Australian woman and they had three children. They changed the children’s Chinese family name from Lin to Holmes to avoid racial discrimination.
Tracey’s life and work experiences in Hong Kong and mainland China, and her many stories about the Chinese society, culture, language, people, street food and the broadcasting system will provide many insights in the China of the last two decades. And her success story as a journalist and broadcaster will be an inspiration for many.
This session will be opened by Kevin Hobgood-Brown AM, Managing Director of HHK Advisory Pty Ltd, Chair of the Advisory Board of the China Studies Centre of Sydney University and former Chair of the Foundation for Australian Studies in China.
We conclude our program with another look into Chinese music.
Chinese Music Appreciation 2: Pipa Pathways
The pipa (4-stringed lute), like the guzheng, is another well-known instrument from China. Of Persian ancestry, it has charmed countless audiences over many centuries to the present day in solo and ensemble contexts. Sydney-based virtuoso Dr Lulu Liu presents an exciting demonstration of the diverse palette of tone colours and techniques on the modern pipa in traditional and contemporary use. Her demonstration is followed by a performance by the Australian Pipa Association.
