Dalu Zhao ‘Lao Fei’ Stephen Fitzgerald

Professor Stephen FitzGerald is chairman of The Asia-Australia Institute at the University of NSW and also chairman and managing director of FitzGerald Consulting Pty Ltd. Between 1973 and 1976 he was the first Australian ambassador to the People’s Republic of China and from 1974 to 1976 was the Australian ambassador to the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea as well. He speaks fluent Mandarin.

Dalu Zhao was introduced to him recently by a mutual friend, also an artist, as someone whose portrait he might like to paint. Zhao has called the portrait Lao Fei, which is Chinese for ‘old FitzGerald’ – ‘lao’ or ‘old’ being a popular term in Chinese showing friendly respect.

Born in Beijing, China, in 1953, Zhao emigrated to Australia in 2001. He was a professor at the Capital Normal University in Beijing. His work was seen in the All-China Teachers Exhibition in 1987, The Great Wall Exhibition in 1988 and the National Art Exhibition in 1992. He has had four solo shows in Rome and, in June 2001, was the only Asian-Pacific artist in the first Men for Earth exhibition for the United Nations in Rome.

Zhao’s portrait of FitzGerald is now in the collection of the National Portrait Gallery, Canberra.