Shirley Chan

Dr Shirley Chan is Associate Professor in Global Cultures and Languages, specialising in Chinese philosophy and culture. Her current research focuses on the language and philosophy of crisis and leadership in Chinese tradition, as well as broader themes of human nature and society. These concerns remain highly relevant today, offering valuable insights into contemporary challenges of leadership, governance, and resilience, while fostering intercultural dialogue.

Dr Chan has shared her expertise through national and international media, including the BBC documentary (with British historian Bettany Hughes), ABC, SBS, MOOC, and Coursera, and has delivered invited lectures at museums, cultural institutions, and universities worldwide. She has also served as President of the Chinese Studies Association of Australia (CSAA) and held editorial roles with leading academic journals such as the Journal of the Oriental Society of Australia, Bamboo and Silk, and the Journal of Chinese Philosophy. She has held visiting appointments at the University of Cambridge, University of Bern, Tsinghua University, National Taiwan University, and the Chinese University of Hong Kong.

Shirley continues to build bridges across cultures through her research and public engagement, encouraging dialogue between past and present, and between academia and the wider community. She is available to supervise HDR and research projects.

- history of ideas, political philosophy, Chinese culture and philosophy, leadership, crisis management and strategic thought in Chinese political traditions, intellectual history and transmission of ideas, Chinese excavated texts, etc.

• FAMES and the Needham Research Institute, the University of Cambridge. "Chaos and Crisis in Chinese Myths and Manuscripts." 2025.
• The Honourable Dr Helen Sham-Ho Research Funding for Project "Crisis Management in Chinese Mythology." 2023-2024
• Mr Kenny Li Research Funding for Project on Excavated Ancient Chinese Texts. 2017-2022.
• Mr and Mrs Albert Li /Kenny Li Research Funding for Ancient Chinese Culture and Chinese Texts 2016-2022 (CI)
• Faculty of Arts Themed Research Workshop Grant, 2014. (CI)
• Faculty of Arts Publication Subsidy Scheme, 2013. (CI)
• Macquarie Research Development Grant, 2010-2012. (CI)
• Research Grant, the Chiang Ching-kuo Foundation for International Scholarly Exchange, 2009-2011. (CI)
• Departmental Teaching Index Grant Funding, 2011. (CI)
• Macquarie University New Staff Grant，2005-2006. (CI)  

PhD and HDR Supervisions

• Shuo Liu (PhD): The Pulse of Power: Etiology, Diagnosis, and Governance in Early Chinese Medical Thought: Reading the Excavated Tianhui Manuscript (Principal Supervisor) (2025-)
• Yitong Wu (Master by Research): Printing the Deities: the Imagination of Harmony and Power in the Ming Court (1388-1644) (Principal Supervisor) (2025-)
• Ziyao Zhang (PhD) Integrating Visual Representation with Translanguaging Pedagogy in Chinese Reading Instruction (Associate Supervisor)(2025-)
• Lili Cai (PhD): Globalisation in the First Half of the Nineteenth Century: Knowledge, Power, and the Entangled Worlds of Sir John Francis Davis (1795-1890) (Principal Supervisor) (2024- )
• Xiansong Chen (Visiting PhD student): The Chu Writing Scripts and Ancient Chu Culture (Principal Supervisor) (2023-2024)
• Wang Xia (MRes): The Politics of Translation: Paratext Narratives in the Service of the Hundred-Day Reform in China (1849) (Principal Supervisor) (2022-2023) (Completed)
• Tyler, Dehn (MRes): “Nature” (性), “Mind” (心), and “Sentience” (有情) in Zhanran’s Jingangpi (金剛錍)”: An investigation of “nature” and moral cultivation in Jingxi Zhanran’s “Diamond Scalpel” (Principal Supervisor) (2021-2023) (Completed with HD)
• Lam Wai Hung: Interpreting and Understanding Traditional Chinese Medical Texts: Chinese Philosophy in Zhang Xichun’s 張錫純 Yixue zhong zhong can xi lu 醫學衷中參西錄 (On Medicine: Chinese at Heart and Western as Reference) (Part-time) (Principal Supervisor) (2015-2021) (PhD, completed)
• Sabrina Yuan: Robert van Gulik: Life and Work (Associate Supervisor) (2012-2016) (PhD, completed)
• Esther Li: The Effect of Australian Culture on Compliment Responses of Mainland Chinese Speakers of English (Associate Supervisor) (2011-2015) (PhD, completed)
• Daniel Lee: The Sensual and the Moral: "Confucian Poetics" and the Book of Odes (2010-2013) (Principal Supervisor) (PhD, completed)
• Iain Clark: Legitimacy from Antiquity: Qing Imperial Ceramic Ritual Vessels for State Occasions (2010-2014) (Principal Supervisor) (PhD, completed)
• Jonathan Goodall: An Examination of the Syncretic Nature of Han Fei's Philosophy and His Utilization of the Concept of Wuwei in the Han Fei Zi (2011) (Principal Supervisor) (Honours, completed)
• Daniel Lee: Eileen Chang on Hong Kong: a Cultural Delineation of a Colonial Discourse (2009) (Principal Supervisor) (Honours, completed)