Feng Yunsi sits in her Sydney home with only pictures of her mother and father to look at that.
But she says she has spoken with them every day since they were first prevented from leaving China on a return flight to Sydney.
"I haven't received any indication that he will come home anytime soon, but, at the same time, he is still safe, his health is fine, and that really helps me be a little more relieved about the situation."
Feng Yunsi says it has been nearly a week now since her father, Feng Chongyi, (fong chong-YEE) was stopped from boarding the flight in Guangzhou in China.
"My dad's a very strong man. I think he's doing his best to keep in good spirits. Obviously, my mum is a little more anxious, especially as the days go on and there doesn't seem to be any sign he'll be released anytime soon. But my dad's in a good mood. That keeps me in a good mood."
Feng Chongyi is an associate professor in China Studies at the University of Technology, Sydney.
He has spent more than 20 years teaching in Australia, but not without controversy.
He is an outspoken critic of China's ruling Communist Party, although it appears he has not been arrested or charged with any offence.
In the past, among other matters, he has criticised China's influence on Australia's media.
He also spoke to SBS last year when he was campaigning against a Sydney exhibition celebrating communist revolutionary Mao Zedong.
"Multiculturalism is to support cultural diversity, but there's a bottom line here. If some ideologies are violating basic human rights, that should not be part of that basic multiculturalism."
He is a permanent resident of Australia, but he travelled to China under his Chinese passport.
He was in China apparently to speak to lawyers about human-rights issues there.
His daughter says her father is an educator, not an agitator.
"My father's a very caring man. He's a very hard worker, and all he ever wanted to do is further peoples' understanding of China and China's role in our world and China-Australia relations."
At the Australian National University's Strategic and Defence Studies Centre, Professor Clive Williams says China's secret police are keeping Chongyi Feng in a form of open detention.
"The message he will have been given is, if he behaves himself and doesn't write further criticism of China, he will eventually be able to leave. But the more he agitates and causes problems for China, the less likely he is to be able to leave."
In a statement to SBS, the Federal Government says it is aware of what is happening to Feng Chongyi and has raised his case with senior Chinese officials.
But the Government says it cannot give him any consular assistance because he is not an Australian citizen.
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