Antonia Finnane is interested in cultural and technological changes affecting patterns of daily life of people in China, past and present. She is currently writing a book about clothing in Maoist China: who made the clothes, how they were made, what they looked like and signified.
She first visited China in 1972, when studying Chinese as an undergraduate at the University of Sydney. Her early research was in the area of urban history, the focus of PhD research undertaken at the ANU, and later of her prize-winning book, Speaking of Yangzhou: A Chinese City, 1550-1850 (Harvard, 2004). An interest in Chinese urban society led to major research project on consumption and fashion, resulting in a critically acclaimed book, Changing Clothes in China (Columbia UP 2008), and in essays in areas ranging from fashion to department stores. Current research, funded by the Australian Research Council, concerns production and consumption in Maoist China, with a focus on clothing manufacture in Beijing and Shanghai. Her Australian base has also meant engagement with Australia's Chinese history: she has written on Jewish migration from post-war Shanghai, and is at present researching the Chinese community in between-the-wars Perth. Essays on contemporary issues arising from this research have been published in Inside Story, The Conversation, and The Deal. Antonia has studied and worked in China for varying periods in her career, beginning with language study in Beijing in the 1970s, and including a period of five years 2008-2013. For a number of years prior to her retirement at the end of 2018, she also taught an intensive subject in China, taking Melbourne University students to Nanjing University. Now an honorary professorial fellow in the School of Historical and Philosophical Studies, she is the principal supervisor for five PhD students working in Chinese and Australian history, and associate supervisor for another four, all in Asia-related areas..
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Antonia Finnane's highlights
FEATURED Book Chapter
Disappearing from the picture? Female Figures in Pattern Books of the Mao Years
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Projects
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Project Types
3
Research Grant
2
Internal Research Grant
Scholarly Works
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Honours, Awards and Fellowships
The Woodward Medal in Humanities and Social Sciences
The Joseph Levenson Book Award for a work on pre-1900 China, awarded for Speaking of Yangzhou, A Chinese City, 1550 - 1850, Harvard University Asia Ce
FAHA - Fellow of the Australian Academy of the Humanities
Credentials
Positions
It Access
Arts
Casual
Historical And Philosophical Studies
Honorary
Historical And Philosophical Studies
Fellow
Australian Academy of Humanities
Education
Bachelor of Arts
University of Sydney
Doctor of Philosophy
The Australian National University