Three Trade Languages: Japanese, Chinese and Indonesian

Abstract

This chapter is devoted to three Asian languages, Japanese, Chinese and Indonesian. Aa the chapter shows, these languages had very different beginnings in the Australian tertiary sector. The chapter also reveals the beginnings of Australia’s interaction with Japan, China, and Indonesia. Again, the White Australia Policy reared its head in Australia’s early dealings particularly with China and Japan. Political influences, strategic concerns about communism and the nearby emerging democracy of Indonesia shaped Australia’s policies towards these countries and the importance, or otherwise, of their languages. Some universities gained funding for these languages from endowments, others from the government when defence concerns were paramount. It was, however, as representing countries important for Australia’s trade, that these three languages gained priority funding from the Federal government.