2019年CRI 历史学家认为澳大利亚需要亚洲视角（在线收听）

When David Walker started studying the history of the Asia-Pacific region decades ago, it was quite natural for him to dedicate a lot of attention to looking at China.

"So my interest is in how Australians have understood or talked about or reflected upon Asia. So that includes China, obviously. I guess that interest got became a lot sharper became clearer in the last twenty years or so."

His first trip to China was in the early 1990s, when he went to the eastern city of Yangzhou. According to Walker, Yangzhou makes a perfect example of the scale of the transformation China has gone through over the years.

"Yangzhou is a beautiful city, actually. I mean it was not on the railway line then and it was still not very heavily developed. But when we went back there around 2015, it was almost unrecognizable, actually across that 20 years period. The railway line had gone through, and there were lots of developments there."

People in China have been getting richer, and not just in the showcase cities like Beijing and Shanghai. A rise in living standards has also taken place in the country's rural and remote areas.

Walker is especially impressed with China's work on poverty alleviation. He thinks China's experience provides a path to prosperity for many other developing countries.

"I'm sure a lot of African countries have looked to China and look to China's development is being a model that they could follow."

As a historian, Walker believes that the study of the past helps people to understand what is happening today. That also applies to China-Australia relations.

Walker believes that the cooling of bilateral relations between China and Australia is due in part to a lack of understanding about China's long history.

"I don't think Australia can move close to the Chinese system. China is not going to move a lot closer to the Australian system. I think we just have to accept that there're different modes of governance. I do think it's important for Australia that we understand the history better, that we understand China's history better. Because I think historical will is important. China has such a rich history, and you cannot understand the world we live in now without understanding the Chinese history."

Walker says that with a better understanding of the past, China's role in Australia's history will be better recognized, and so will its importance to the country's future.

For CRI, this is Fei Fei.

大卫·沃克在几十年前开始研究亚太地区历史时，他很自然地投入了很多精力来关注中国。

“我的兴趣在于澳大利亚人如何理解、谈论或反思亚洲。这当然包括中国。大概是在过去的二十多年里，我的这份兴趣变得越来越强烈，而且越来越清晰。”

沃克在上世纪90年代初第一次来中国，当时他去了东部城市扬州。沃克认为，扬州是中国多年来所经历的转型规模的完美典范。

“实际上，扬州是一座美丽的城市。当时这座城市不在铁路线上，而且还没有发展得很好。但是当我们在2015年左右回到扬州时，20年之后的扬州已经焕然一新，我差点认不出来。铁路线已经开通，还有很多开发项目。”

中国人越来越富裕，这不仅局限在北京和上海这样的代表城市。中国农村和偏远地区的生活水平也有所提高。

沃克对中国的扶贫工作印象特别深刻。他认为中国的经验为许多其他发展中国家实现繁荣提供了途径。

“我相信很多非洲国家都在关注中国，希望中国的发展成为他们可以效仿的典范。”

作为历史学家，沃克认为，对过去的研究有助于人们了解现在发生的事情。这也适用于中澳关系。

沃克认为，中澳双边关系冷却的部分原因在于对中国的悠久历史缺乏了解。

“我认为澳大利亚不会接近中国体制。中国也不会更接近澳大利亚体系。我们必须接受不同的治理模式。我认为我们更好地了解历史，更了解中国的历史，对澳大利亚来说很重要。我认为历史意志很重要。中国有着悠久的历史，如果不了解中国的历史，你就无法理解我们现在所处的世界。”

沃克说，通过更好地了解过去，中国在澳大利亚历史中的作用将得到更好的认可，对国家未来的重要性也将得到更好的认识。

CRI新闻，菲菲（音译）报道。