Introduction

The popularity of learning Chinese has been growing significantly in recent years.Countries such as the US，Russia and Australia，to name just a few examples，now offer Chinese as one of the elective subjects for their university entrance examinations.In Melbourne，there are seven universities and six of these offer Chinese courses as a major or an elective，with significant enrolment numbers.Leading scholar of comparative literature，Emily Apter，notes，“Chinese is now a major language of Internet literacy and is taking on English as never before”(Apter，2013:3).Growing interest in China’s national language as well as its culture and politics makes it imperative for language educators to rethink the teaching of Chinese.What teaching pedagogies can be applied to improve students’learning experience and outcomes?What is our goal in teaching Chinese?How can teaching and learning Chinese contribute to the humanistic purpose of education?These are not easy questions to answer and they demand careful attention.In response to the foregoing，this chapter offers perspectives on incorporating Chinese literary texts into the curriculum design for Chinese as a second language in Australian tertiary education.

Existing curricula for Chinese as a second language in Australian universities basically focus on communication and tourist skills.The most commonly used textbooks routinely place a large emphasis on everyday practical communication，such as asking for directions，bargaining when shopping，renting a house or opening a bank account.As Jane Orton and Andrew Scrimgeour remind us，the study of a second language should be undertaken“not simply as‘training’for a job or even for life in an interconnected world.”They argue that“the value and affordances of modern language study”should be“understood first and foremost to be potentially educational”resulting in“desirable cognitive and affective growth in the learner”(Orton and Scrimgeour，2019:2).For the purposes of this discussion，“growth in the learner”includes a deepening awareness of Chinese culture.This raises questions about the emphasis on everyday oral proficiency in the Chinese courses offered in Australian universities which tend toward a touristic rather than a cultural approach.Does a student truly understand Chinese culture even if she/he can run errands smoothly in China?Can we expect oral proficiency to automatically provide the cultural awareness，that most important of cognitive abilities which Orton and Scrimgeour emphasize?

This pragmatic paradigm focused on oral proficiency over-emphasizes the four linguistic skills while potentially overlooking the inseparable relation between language and culture.What tends to be neglected is the fact that the aim of language learning(especially in tertiary education)is not just to conduct daily conversations but also to explore，to understand and to respect other cultures and communities.As Liddicoat and Scarino argue，“there are inherent intercultural processes in language learning in which meanings are made and interpreted across and between languages and cultures”(Liddicoat and Scarino，2013:2).The“integral nature of the relationship between language and culture”，insist Orton and Scrimgeour，“implies one cannot exist without the other，and as a result cannot be taught in isolation from each other”(Orton and Scrimgeour，2019:152).This intrinsic connection between language and culture demands more attention to culture in language classes.This is not to suggest that we should totally abandon our current teaching practice for imparting communication skills since it is surely important for the students to master a second language sufficiently to carry out daily communications.However，it is also imperative for second-language educators to explore possibilities of amending the current curricula in order to enhance Chinese second-language learners’cultural awareness.

Hui Huang perceptively points out that，“L2 learning is a process of becoming a member of a community，which involves not only developing the ability to communicate through the language，but also acquiring the behaviours that are considered appropriate in the community’s culture”(Huang，2016:38).For Huang，it is hardly a satisfying learning outcome if a second-language learner cannot become a part of the community where the target language is spoken.Huang’s concern again reminds us that second-language learning should not be limited to daily communication but needs to expand and deepen into the realm of culture.In the 2nd“One Belt，One Road”Language and Culture Forum，which was held on 25th of October in Beijing in 2018，French sinologist Joel Bellassen(Chinese name:Bai Lesang)said that Chinese has become an international language in the world.He also pointed out that foreign language education has three major goals:the first goal is communication，the second is to understand the culture of the target language from the perspective of the learner’s culture，and the third goal is to cultivate learners’thinking skills.Obviously，Chinese second-language education in Australia is in its primary stage and needs to be further developed in order to achieve the second and third goals that Bellassen proposes.But what could be a valid and efficient method for us to reach those goals?What can serve as a bridge to connect language learning with cultural understanding and critical thinking?The recommendation in this study is to incorporate Chinese literary works into the second-language learning class with the aim of attaining a level of understanding of Chinese culture.

It might be objected that improving cultural understanding through literature is“old-fashioned”and a less relevant means of developing students’communicative abilities than more contemporaneous，effective and accessible methods such as social media.Indeed，in the digital era，the most updated information seems extremely easy to obtain.However，will the information obtained from the internet or social media automatically translate into knowledge?As Sofia Ahlberg astutely notes，it is a complex matter to secure“some knowledge in a world of information”.Information，she continues，may be“fit for everyone everywhere，but nowhere in particular”(Ahlberg，2016:1).In light of this，knowledge can be seen as more elusive and precious in comparison to information and thus literature can make knowledge，especially cultural knowledge，more tangible and recognizable.As David Damrosch points out，“we can learn much about a culture from its art and its architecture，but we learn immeasurably more when we have written records as well”(Damrosch，2009:3).Thus，a guiding assumption in this chapter is that learning a different culture through its literary archive surpasses other methods of approaching that culture.