Dr Gerry Groot
Biography/ Background
Currently head of Discipline at the Centre for Asian Studies, the University of
Adelaide, Gerry Groot was born in Murray Bridge South Australia and raised in SA's
South East and graduated from Millicent High school. After working as a farm, forest
and factory labourer and tree faller, the would-be park ranger eventually went on to do a
BA at the University of Adelaide.
Shortly after commencing his BA Gerry was convinced to study Chinese to
complement his interests in history and politics, a decision he has never regretted.
Under the wonderful teaching of Prof Andrew Watson, Hsu Chiacheng, Sylvia Chan,
Prof Trevor Wilson and others, Gerry was inspired to go on to Honours and in 1989
wrote a thesis on Chinese historiography of united front work.
Gerry subsequently spent much of the early-1990s in China, mainly at Shanghai's East
China Normal. There he experienced the sweet & sour of the foreign student
(liuxuesheng) life but among some of the highlights were appearances in Chinese
movies and TV soapies, most notably Shanghai Yi Jia Ren (A Shanghai Family) in
which he acted atrociously but had a key role, and Xiao Dao Ji (The Small Knives
Society) in which he acted as the only Western good guy. More importantly for nonChinese, he also appeared as an extra in two thirty second scenes in Jackie Chan's
Drunken Master II and has dined out on this twelve hour experience since. The movie
script or novel of these times has yet to be written.
After returning to Adelaide Gerry commenced a PhD on united front work and China's
minor parties and groups. A book version of this work appeared as Managing
Transitions: The Chinese Communist Party, united front work, corporatism and
Hegemony and was launched by the then opposition spokesman on foreign affairs,
Kevin Rudd in 2004. Last year he finally came up with a better title.
Gerry has wide-ranging interests and teaches across a wide variety of areas, from Asian
studies, the impact of Asian influences on shaping Western societies, to Chinese
politics, religion and culture.
Other interests include the diffusion of Chinese and Asian food styles and Western
attempts to encapsulate oriental themes in music. Unfortunately, he neither cooks using
the recipes in his extensive Chinese cookbook collection, nor plays any of the kitsch
tunes in his Orientalia-ist music collection.
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Main Publications
Groot G. (2004) Managing Transitions: The Chinese Communist Party, United Front
Work, Corporatism and Hegemony (Taylor & Francis, New York)
Recent Publications
Gerry Groot (2012) “A History of the Centre for Asian Studies at the University of
Adelaide,” in Nicholas Harvey, et al (Eds) The Faculty of Arts at the University
of Adelaide (1876-2012) (University of Adelaide Press, Adelaide).
Groot G. & Glen Stafford (2012) “China - South Australia Relations 1836-2011,”
in Purnendra Jain & John Spoehr (Eds) The Engaging State: South Australia’s
Engagement with the Asia Pacific (The Wakefield Press, Adelaide)
Groot G. (2012) “A Self-defeating Secret Weapon? The Institutional Limitations of
Corporatism on United Front Work Effectiveness in 21st Century China” in
Jennifer Hsu and Reza Hasmath (Eds) The Chinese Corporatist State:
Adaptation, Survival and Resistance (Routledge)
Groot G. (2006) “Soft Power in the Asia-Pacific post 9-11: The cases of China, Japan
andIndia,” Ch 4 in Groot G. & Jain, P. & Patrikeeff, F. (Eds) Asia-Pacific and
a New International Order (New York, Nova Publishers)
Groot G. (2004) Managing Transitions: The Chinese Communist Party, United Front
Work, Corporatism and Hegemony (Taylor & Francis, New York)
Groot, G. (2002) "Crises in China and Potential Dangers for Asia" In Purnendra Jain
(Ed) Crisis and Conflict in Asia (New York, Nova Science Publishers, Inc.)
2002
Groot, G. (May 1998) ‘“Petrol stations”? Political Education in China’s Institutes of
Socialism’, Issues and Studies, Vol. 34, No. 5 (Taibei, Taiwan, ROC)
Groot, G. (1993) ‘Waiguo ren zenme kan Zhongguo de tongyi zhanxian?’ [How
foreigners see China’s united front.] Shanghai Tongyi zhanxian lilun yanjiu
[Shanghai United Front Theoretical Research], 3, pp. 34-36.
Ongoing Projects
The Nature and History of the Chinese Communist Party’s United Front Work: How
the CCP manages relations with key interest groups such as intellectuals, religious
believers, ethnic minorities, Overseas Chinese, newly emerging business groups and
others.
How Beliefs in Qi, Fengshui, Ghosts and Other Ideas Shape Chinese Culture A
planned volume on the origins and meaning of ghosts in Chinese traditional and
contemporary culture, the nature and consequences of beliefs in Qi, fengshui,
numerology and the like.
The Asian West: How Asian Influences have Shaped Western Culture: a longitudinal
study of how, what is often taken as "Western" is in fact a complex mix of oriental and
occidental influences, among others.
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Other Contributions
Gerry Groot has been an active organiser of conferences:
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• AU Representative Australian Universities China research Committee
• As Deputy Convenor of the 2010 Asian Studies Association of Australia Biennial
Conference held in Adelaide
• Convenor of the ARC sponsored Asia Pacific Futures Research Network Signature
Event for 2008, Globalising Religions and Cultures in the Asia Pacific.
• In 2006-2007 Gerry was the interim director of the Confucius Institute at the
University of Adelaide
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