On 25 March 2002 I arrived back to my then home in Los Angeles in the morning, very tired after a long overnight flight from London. My wife’s family had arrived during my short absence, and I was trying hard to stay awake long enough to catch up with them.  Then the phone rang with a call I had some difficulty understanding in my befuddled state.  It was Professor Ishizawa telling me I had won the Fukuoka academic prize of 3m yen! [Of course that called for a bottle of champagne as I tried to explain to my New Zealand in-laws where Fukuoka was and why they should be interested in me. That certainly revived me for a few more hours before I collapsed into bed.] 

By the time of the prize ceremony the following September I had moved from UCLA to Singapore, to become first Director of the Asia Research Institute at the National University of Singapore (NUS). This change of institutions made it hard for me to celebrate with colleagues at either one. It must also have confused the Fukuoka Prize officers. Could they label ‘Australian’ a New Zealand-born scholar with one foot in the US and the other in Singapore?

Then and since I was mightily impressed by the efforts of Fukuoka City to create an Asian cultural community by means of this prize. I learned much from my co-awardees. Malaysian cartoonist Lat over lunch drew me on a napkin a lightning sketch of an unmistakable Dr Mahathir.
 
My own vision for Australia is to play a role in Asia like Japan’s, as an odd but creative member of the broader Asian community, marginal to it in many ways  including wealth and stability, but able to play creative roles in bringing the region together.  Fukuoka is a path-breaker in this regard, and I thank the city profoundly for that.