Introduction

The beginning of the new millennium ushered in a period of boom as far as learning and teaching of Chinese language is concerned.Rapid economic development in China ignited an intense and worldwide interest in China in understanding this country，its culture and its people.As a result，people around the world became keen on learning the Chinese language，and schools and universities started to offer Chinese courses to meet this demand.Australia was no exception.This contrasted a situation in which the numbers of learners of other languages were declining in Australia，such as Indonesian and some European languages.This article examines some issues encountered in various areas in the Chinese language teaching and learning ecology of Australia，which is an international context for the teaching and learning of Chinese in an environment where Chinese is a community language and in fact a foreign language to some learners who speak English as their first language with no or very little contact with Chinese.Specifically，it will look at the backdrop of language policy and planning(LPP)of Chinese teaching in Australia，challenges in internationalisation and localisation of Chinese teaching，the types of learners of the Chinese language in Australia，issues relating to Chinese language education planning，and Chinese teaching at the university level.