Brisbane’s South Bank is one of the most varied cultural spaces in Queensland, but along with the beach, the Wheel and the museums it offers one relatively small statue of particular significance to relations between Australia and China. In 2009 the people of China presented a 2.7 metre bronze statue of the fifth century Chinese scholar Confucius, or Qiu Zhong Ni. Confucius, whose thinking emphasised personal and governmental morality and rectitude in social interaction, verbalised one of the earliest versions of the Golden Rule: “Do not do unto other people what you would not wish to be done to you.” The statue’s purpose is to foster a greater degree of mutual understanding between the peoples of China and Australia.
