Close Menu
Honi Soit
    Facebook X (Twitter) Instagram
    Trending
    • A meditation on God and the impossible pursuit of answers
    • Week 11 Editorial
    • Losing My Religion: Elegies from an Atheist who desperately wants to believe in God
    • The Islamic Spirituality of Romanticising your Life
    • Loss, to which I return often.
    • My Name is Anonymous and I’m an Alcoholic
    • Modern Chaos
    • Time Machines: The Architecture on Campus
    • About
    • Print Edition
    • Student Journalism Conference 2025
    • Writing Comp
    • Advertise
    • Locations
    • Contact
    Facebook Instagram X (Twitter) TikTok
    Honi SoitHoni Soit
    Wednesday, May 14
    • News
    • Analysis
    • Culture
    • Opinion
    • University
    • Features
    • Perspective
    • Investigation
    • Reviews
    • Comedy
    • Student Journalism Conference 2025
    Honi Soit
    Home»Analysis

    ‘Oriental Studies’ at the University of Sydney

    One need not look further than USyd’s history of ‘Oriental Studies’ to understand how the University has supported the military industrial complex and reinforced structural racism towards Asian cultures.
    By Luke CassOctober 20, 2022 Analysis 5 Mins Read
    Source: Vogue.
    Share
    Facebook Twitter LinkedIn Pinterest Email

    Near the left entrance of USyd’s Quad, room S204 is labelled the ‘Oriental Studies Room’. A framed poster on its entrance states that it was built in 1859, and used to house the Nicholson Museum’s collection. Perhaps that explains why the rooms weren’t used to teach ‘Oriental Studies’ until almost sixty years later, with the creation of the Department of Oriental Studies in 1918. The Department’s creation is an early example of the University of Sydney’s connection with the military in the academic sphere. 

    Following the Russo-Japanese War between 1904-1905, Australia’s political and military establishment has had a racist preoccupation with the threat of Japanese invasion. In the aftermath of WWI, Japan’s newfound control of ex-German colonies and Britain’s withdrawal from the Pacific provided an arguably more rational basis for this fear. It became important for the Australian military to understand the cultural and militaristic ambitions of Japan. To develop this understanding, the federal government’s Department of Defence installed Scottish Professor James Murdoch to a lectureship in Japanese at the Royal Military College at Duntroon in 1918. 

    Upon the request of the Faculty of Arts and under the influence of business elites who were keen to trade in Japan, Murdoch was then installed into a lectureship in Japanese at the University of Sydney the same year. The Commonwealth, particularly eager to expand students’ knowledge of Japanese (for ostensibly military ends), subsequently bestowed annual grants between $500 and $700 (or $48000 and $65000 in 2022) to the University for the maintenance of the Oriental Studies Department for decades, between 1918 and 1945.

    Murdoch was handpicked for the positions by the Director of Military Intelligence at the time, E.L. Piesse. Such military influence within the University was compounded throughout Murdoch’s tenure. Murdoch and Piesse maintained frequent correspondence, with Piesse learning Japanese from Murdoch at the time. Murdoch also went on a military-funded trip to Japan to report back on the country’s political environment.

    This close relationship between a USyd lecturer and the Department of Defence was arguably less pernicious than USyd’s present relationship with the military: better engagement with the Japanese political sphere is less unethical than undertaking research to develop the weaponry of private defence companies and support for the aggressive posturing of the AUKUS pact. Nevertheless, it demonstrates that governments have historically, and will continually be driven more by advancing military interests over public ideals of a liberating education, and provides a warning of the extent to which universities can become entangled within the state project of militarism.

    Murdoch and Piesse, despite being military collaborators, viewed the study of Asian language, culture, and history as a means of combating ignorance and racism towards Asia. Piesse was highly critical of Australian Prime Minister Billy Hughes’ vetoing of the ‘racial equality principle’ at the Paris Peace Conference. Both men supported the revision of the White Australia Policy, viewing it as unnecessarily discriminatory and diplomatically inflammatory. This indicates the significant potential of Asian studies in challenging the hegemonic power of racist attitudes such as those embodied within the White Australia Policy. More broadly, it indicates the capacity of an education that openly engages with other cultures to contribute to a more just society. 

    This is not to say that Piesse and Murdoch were not deeply racist; Piesse believed that ‘racial differences’ were due to environmental factors as opposed to being inherent. The entire practice of ‘Oriental Studies’, and the pair’s view of the Japanese people, is a reflection on the West’s exoticisation and othering of Asian cultures.

    Murdoch’s courses in Japanese language and political culture were initially popular. Eighty students enrolled to study under Murdoch during the first year of the Department. This number failed to grow significantly as students found it difficult to learn Japanese. Instead, courses on ‘Oriental History’ which did not require knowledge of Asian languages became popular in the inter-war period under Professor Arthur Lindsay Sadler. Chinese language subjects were added to the Faculty of Arts after Sadler’s departure in 1947. However, those classes, along with Japanese language classes, ceased four years later when the University thought it was impossible to recruit suitably qualified academics to replace departing staff.

    USyd’s abandonment of Asian languages in 1951 reflects a country and a University that lacked the commitment to resourcing the departments which enable us to understand the world, and reduce racist antagonism towards Asia. It’s easy to draw parallels with today’s University landscape; language subjects have continually been cut while military research grants proliferate.Much has changed since Murdoch took the Chair of the Oriental Studies Department: Oriental Studies became Asian Studies, which became the School of Languages and Cultures. Indian studies came and went. Other things haven’t changed: Australian universities are deeply entangled with the military, and at USyd, we still have the ridiculously named ‘Oriental Studies Room’.

    AUKUS Japan military S204

    Keep Reading

    Genuine Help or a Band-aid Fix? An Assessment of Early Feedback Tasks

    Capitalism Won’t Save You

    Your Therapist Is Not Your Messiah

    From Critique to Care: Rethinking Our Faith in Our Youth

    I Have Read Little, and Understood Less

    Great Minds Against Themselves Conspire: Theatre, the mind, and society

    Just In

    A meditation on God and the impossible pursuit of answers

    May 14, 2025

    Week 11 Editorial

    May 13, 2025

    Losing My Religion: Elegies from an Atheist who desperately wants to believe in God

    May 13, 2025

    The Islamic Spirituality of Romanticising your Life

    May 13, 2025
    Editor's Picks

    A meditation on God and the impossible pursuit of answers

    May 14, 2025

    We Will Be Remembered As More Than Administrative Errors

    May 7, 2025

    NSW universities in the red as plague of cuts hit students & staff

    April 30, 2025

    Your Compliance Will Not Save You

    April 16, 2025
    Facebook Instagram X (Twitter) TikTok

    From the mines

    • News
    • Analysis
    • Higher Education
    • Culture
    • Features
    • Investigation
    • Comedy
    • Editorials
    • Letters
    • Misc

     

    • Opinion
    • Perspective
    • Profiles
    • Reviews
    • Science
    • Social
    • Sport
    • SRC Reports
    • Tech

    Admin

    • About
    • Editors
    • Send an Anonymous Tip
    • Write/Produce/Create For Us
    • Print Edition
    • Locations
    • Archive
    • Advertise in Honi Soit
    • Contact Us

    We acknowledge the traditional custodians of this land, the Gadigal people of the Eora Nation. The University of Sydney – where we write, publish and distribute Honi Soit – is on the sovereign land of these people. As students and journalists, we recognise our complicity in the ongoing colonisation of Indigenous land. In recognition of our privilege, we vow to not only include, but to prioritise and centre the experiences of Indigenous people, and to be reflective when we fail to be a counterpoint to the racism that plagues the mainstream media.

    © 2025 Honi Soit
    • Privacy Policy
    • Terms
    • Accessibility

    Type above and press Enter to search. Press Esc to cancel.