Learning Chinese opens a window to understanding China's culture and way of life. China is a multiethnic society made up of 56 ethnic groups and has a rich heritage of cultural diversity. Since 2008 especially, China has played an increasingly active and significant role in world culture, economy and politics, and the Chinese language is a key to understanding the redistribution of power in the Asia-Pacific region. There are separate majors for native speakers of Mandarin and other Chinese dialects. You can also undertake specialist courses in literature, culture, translation, business and language teaching.

Graduates are typically interested in pursuing careers with international agencies, government or nonprofit organisations, such as UNESCO, UNICEF or the World Health Organization.

Beyond a career in international relations, policy or humanitarian services, our graduates also keenly pursue careers in the global private sector, across industries such as:

• banking and finance
• legal affairs
• advertising
• media
• journalism
• market research
• translation and interpretation services
• international education services.

Many of our graduates also choose to further their research ambitions by enrolling in an honours year, or progress to postgraduate coursework programs including International Relations, Peace and Conflict Studies, Development Practice, Governance and Public Policy, or Interpreting and Translation (Japanese or Chinese) at UQ.