Literature Review

International education has become Australia’s third largest export industry and was worth AU$35.2 billion to the country’s economy in 2018 alone.^[3]Consistently ranking as the biggest market for Australian education services in recent years，China’s mainland contributed 33%，or AU$11.7 billion，to Australia’s total education export income in 2018.^[4]Not surprisingly，many studies about Chinese international students have been carried out to gain a better understanding of the life and study experience of this increasingly visible community，as evident in the work of Cao and Tran(2015a，2015b)，Martin(2014 and forthcoming)，Lu and Singh(2017)，Han(2012)and so on.However，little scholarly attention has been given to the learning curves and challenges that they face in the study of the humanities at the higher education level.

Cao and Tran(2015a，2015b)examined Chinese international students’decision-making for higher education and charted out patterns through which they seek help and information in Australia.Pham et al.(2018:62)looked at the employability of Chinese international students in Australia，citing“competence in English and understanding of the local working context”as two key factors for their job hunting.Martin’s longitudinal research relating to female Chinese international students aims to provide a bigger picture of the impact of the Australian experience on their understanding of gender roles and cultural identity(2014 and forthcoming).^[5]Lu and Singh(2017:13)called for“a shift in research away from English-only monolingual theory，pedagogies and policies”in the study of Chinese students’critical thinking capabilities，arguing that recognition of“students’multilingual capabilities”is crucial for assessment of their critical thinking ability.Han studied the literature review documents of nine Chinese international research students and found that“their challenges were in the critical use of other scholars’works in their research context”(Han，2012:122).We are yet to learn more about the learning curves of Chinese international students in their study of the humanities，with questions concerning“social adjustment”“English competence”“job prospects”or even“cultural identity”as identified by the aforementioned studies，requiring investigation.