Chinese Australian

Chinese Australian (simplified Chinese: 华裔澳洲人; traditional Chinese: 華裔澳洲人; Mandarin Pinyin: Àozhōu huáyì; Jyutping: wa4 yeui6 ou3 jau1 jan4) is an Australian of Chinese descent. Chinese Australians constitute one of group Overseas Chinese and is the largest Overseas Chinese community in Oceania. Many Chinese Australians are immigrants along with their descendants from Mainland China, Hong Kong, Macau, Taiwan, as well a handful of other countries such as Indonesia, Malaysia, Singapore who have immigrated from Southeast Asia that include large populations of the Chinese diaspora. Chinese Australians are also a subgroup of East Asian Australians and represent the single largest minority in the country constituting approximately forty-percent of the Asian Australian population. As a whole, Australian residents identified themselves as having Chinese ancestry make up around four percent of Australia's population or approximately 865,000 people as of 2011.

The early history of Chinese Australians had involved significant immigration from villages of the Pearl River Delta in Southern China. Less well known are the kind of society Chinese Australians came from, the families they left behind and what their intentions were in coming. Many Chinese were lured to Australia by the gold rush. (Since the mid-19th century, Australia was dubbed the New Gold Mountain after the Gold Mountain of California in North America.) They sent money to their families in the villages, and regularly visited their families and retired to the village after many years, working as a market gardener, shopkeeper or cabinet maker. As with many overseas Chinese groups the world over, early Chinese immigrants to Australia established Chinatowns in several major cities, such as Sydney (Chinatown, Sydney), Brisbane (Chinatown, Brisbane) and Melbourne (Chinatown, Melbourne).

In spite of cultural transition difficulties, language barriers, and a strong fortitude from racial discrimination, Chinese Australians have evolved dramatically from working as indentured laborers to being one of the most well-established immigrant ethnic groups in Australia compared with the earlier immigrant arrivals. They record high levels of educational attainment that match and occasionally surpass the national average. With a high degree of upward academic and socioeconomic advancement and achievement, Chinese Australians are among the most well educated groups in Australia and comprise a large percentage of Australia's educated class, and hold higher educational records achievement among most demographic groups in the country.