It's an online slang widely used in Australia's boisterous Chinese-language media outlets.

But its meaning, and whether it's affectionate or condescending towards Australia, remains a hot topic of debate.

Taken literally, TuAo means "unrefined, backwards Australia".

The term's widespread use in headlines on popular WeChat platforms like Sydney Today is a window into how the hundreds of thousands of Chinese students, graduates and migrants view the country where they reside.

"I feel it refers to how close you are to nature in Australia", said Annie Zhang, a permanent resident and Sydney University graduate who migrated from Beijing.

But she says the term also refers to the "coarse" Australian accent, and the country's perceived backwardness in everything from urban design to mobile payment technology.

"I've heard people say that England is America's village, and Australia is England's village, so it's really rural and unrefined," she said.

"China is so grandiose, whereas in Australia there aren't as many magnificent tall buildings."

Each day, tens of thousands of readers of the fast-growing Australian-based Chinese WeChat platforms see clickbait-style headlines referring to TuAo.

Many Chinese migrants say the term is mainly affectionate.

"Those students who are attracted to Australia, who are interested in facets of Australian life and like it here, they'll say TuAo," said Josh Rong, a journalist who also studied in Sydney.

'Laidback, modest, unassuming'

Some members of the Chinese community though see the word as representing an increasingly confident nationalism among young Chinese.

"This is a phenomenon for those we call the 'little pinks'," said Feng Chongyi, a Chinese studies professor at the University of Technology, referring to slang for young patriots.

"It's popular among them, not among the older generations.

"For them, [the term] is also loaded with some political meaning to show their own nationalism — to compare the Chinese modernisation to Australia, which they call a large village."

Chinese internet slang is dynamic and often open to interpretation and regional differences.

Wai Ling Yeung, a former Chinese studies professor at Curtin University, points out that many Chinese-Australians use the character for village when referring to suburbs.

"Because of that, many China-based netizens think all Australian cities are like country towns, but this is in fact not what Chinese-Australians mean," she said.

She contrasts TuAo with humorous slang used by Chinese abroad in other countries, including FuGuo for Britain, meaning "decadent country" — a coded term believed to refer to the UK's attitudes towards homosexuality.

The US is also sometimes referred to online as MeiDi, meaning "American empire".

"In a way we are very proud of being 'Tu'," Ms Yeung said.

"We interpret it as laidback, modest and unassuming."