Harnessing Australian-Chinese Cultural Fluency to Bridge the Export Gap

This report was conducted between 2016-2017 with the support of the Australia-China Council. The objective was to study how the cultural fluency of Australian-Chinese professionals and business migrants can contribute to export success. The term "cultural fluency" here refers to the ability to act as intermediaries and translators. In the report, we occasionally use the term "translator-intermediary" to convey the sense implied by our respondents. We refer to registered businesses in this report: the report does not include the category of "daigou", the individual shopper who sends products back to China, although we do note in passing that the activities of these individuals does make a contribution to the Australia-China trade environment. Migrants from mainland China comprise the second largest source of business migrants. Added to this is the high intake of tertiary students, many of whom will seek permanent residency or return to China with an intention to pursue further business with Australia.1 Harnessing their cross-cultural fluency and skills is likely to be an important factor in ongoing trade relations between China and Australia