Professor Mobo Gao

Director, Confucius Institute and Professor of Chinese Studies

Professor Mobo Gao was born and brought up in a small Chinese village and did not leave the village until he went to Xiamen University to study English. He then went to the UK and had studied at Wales and Westminster universities before he completed his Master and doctorate degrees at Essex.

Profesor Gao has working experience at various universities in China, UK and Australia and has been visiting fellow at some of the world's leading universities, including Oxford and Harvard. Professor Gao teaches Chinese language as well as Asian studies courses. Professor Gao's charismatic style of lecturing was considered "legendary" at the University of Tasmania where he had worked before he was appointed the Director of the Confucius Institute at Adelaide in 2008. Professor Gao's resarch interest includes studies of rural China, contemporary Chinese politics & culture, Chinese migration to Australia and Chinese language. Professor Gao's publications include four books and numerous articles. His latest book The Battle of China's Past: Mao and the Cultural Revolution is a reassessment of the Mao era and the Cultural Revolution.

Major Publications

The Battle of China’s Past: Mao and the Cultural Revolution , London: Pluto, 2008.

Mandarin Chinese: An Introduction , Melbourne: Oxford University Press, 2000, reprinted in 2002.

A Reference Grammar of Mandarin Chinese , Queensland: XACT Publications, 2000.

Gao Village: Rural Life in Modern China , ( London: C. Hurst & Co. (Publisher) LTD; Hawaii: Hawaii University Press; Hong Kong: Hong Kong University Press; Bathurst: Crawford House Publishers, Australia, 1999, reprinted in paper back by Hawaii University Press in 2007.

[Click here or a list of Professor Gao's selected publications]