Walking along the main strip of Box Hill in Melbourne's east, you'd be forgiven for thinking you were on a street in suburban Shanghai.

Shops are plastered in Chinese writing, restaurant after restaurant serves up all manner of Asian food, real estate agents speak Mandarin and Cantonese and even your banking can be done without speaking English.

"Box Hill looks and feels like a residential area in Nanjing or Shanghai," said Kuan Yan, 77, who moved to Australia from China in 2003 and now lives in Box Hill North.

It's for this reason areas like Box Hill, or Hurstville near Sydney and Sunnybank near Brisbane, have come in for some criticism.

"Spot the Aussie" was said to be the title of one now-banned social media page complaining about the population of Box Hill.

But those who have migrated to Australia and started out in areas like this say it's made the transition to a new society far easier.

Lily Yan says it's hard to define what it means to be Australian. ( ABC News: Kai Feng )

"If they settle in Box Hill they feel like it's a more familiar environment," said Kuan Yan's daughter Lily Yan, who came to Australia in 1996 before later helping her mother to migrate.

"They can settle in this community gradually and maybe later on after a few years they will move on to different suburbs and different places.

"I do know from my own experience and my friends' experience that once they are here for a couple of years, as long as they don't have a language barrier anymore, they tend to move away."

Migration agent Sean Dong packed up his life in Shandong, China and moved to Melbourne with the aim of finishing high school here.

He also lives near Box Hill, where more than one third of the population has Chinese ancestry, and said the focus should not be on any one community but rather what multiculturalism has brought to Australia.

"You should embrace Australian culture, Australian people, or Korean people, or Aboriginal people, that's the value of this land," he said.

Sean Dong moved to Australia from China in 2002 and now runs a successful migration business. ( ABC News: Kai Feng )

What does it mean to 'fit in'?

Australia is one of the most culturally diverse countries in the world, with nearly a third of the population born overseas.

There is overwhelming agreement that multiculturalism makes Australia a better place to live, but when it comes to how immigrants are fitting into society, people are more divided.

The ABC's Australia Talks National Survey found Australians are split on whether immigrants try hard enough to fit in.

While 50 per cent of people say immigrants do try hard, one in three think they are not doing enough.

Lily Yan said she understood some concerns people may have, but said the first issue was working out what fitting in actually meant.

When she first touched down in Australia by herself from China's Xinjiang region 22 years ago there was something she wanted to know straight away.

"If I didn't really like the barbecue or didn't understand cricket does it mean I'm not Australian?" she asked.

"It's really hard to define … what it is exactly to be Australian.

"In general, migrants do want to fit in, that's the whole reason they come here in the first place. But there's always barriers there."

She said young people who moved to Australia with a good grasp of the English language, or with a good chance of picking it up quickly, were far better placed than older migrants.

"I know for example my mum tried really, really hard to learn English … but it's really difficult."

Ming Kong says there are different ways for people to "fit in" to society. ( ABC News: Kai Feng )

Mr Dong's wife Ming Kong moved from Suzhou in China to Australia in her early 20s to study and agrees with Lily Yan.

"Personally I came as a student so I was trying very hard to fit in the society," Dr Kong said.

"For people like my parents and in-laws, they try to fit in as well in different ways.

"For example, English might not be their perfect thing that they're good at, but like my parents-in-law, they join a singing group and they perform.

"I think it's just different ways of how people fit in."

'Australian value, Chinese culture, there's no conflict'

People of Chinese ancestry now number more than 1.2 million in Australia, with universities one of the big drawcards; Chinese nationals make up 10 per cent of all university students in Australia.

Mr Dong used to be one of these students. When he arrived in Australia in 2002 as a teenager he had hopes of one day graduating from a top Australian university.

Sean Dong and his family enjoy life in Melbourne's eastern suburbs. ( ABC News: Kai Feng )

Now in a partnership running a migration business with more than 30 employees, Mr Dong said there was nothing wrong with differences.

"Fitting in is not necessarily becoming the same. There is a Chinese saying that you try to find similarities but also respect the difference. I think that's the sense of fitting in," said Mr Dong, who now has a master's degree in immigration law from the University of Melbourne.

"Preserving the cultural tradition is important, it's good. There's nothing wrong with that.

"Australian value, Chinese culture, there's no conflict."

Mr Dong's parents migrated to Australia six years ago and live nearby as part of the Chinese tradition of keeping family close.

His parents help look after their daughter, while in turn Mr Dong and his wife help take care of the parents.

Mr Dong said there were always slight differences in habits and etiquette.

"I keep telling my parents, don't hang their clothes in the garage door which you can see directly from the street, it's sort of the Australian way [not to do this]," he said.

"But I wouldn't say that Chinese people don't want to fit in, [some] just don't know the Australian way."

'I walked into a country pub and everyone stopped'

Lily Yan, at home with her husband, says she loves cricket and barbecues. ( ABC News: Kai Feng )

As Australia's migrant population continues to grow, the issue of racism remains a prominent one.

Seventy-seven per cent of respondents to the Australia Talks National Survey said they thought there was still a lot of racism in Australia.

Lily Yan said she had experienced racism, but for the most part she found Australia very friendly and welcoming.

"I used to have an old car, it broke down all the time and I always had people approach me to help me," she said.

She said her experiences could vary depending on where she was in the country.

"I remember one of the first times stepping in the local pub, a very small pub in a small country town, and literally everyone just stopped," Ms Yan said with a smile.

"They were all busy chatting and the moment I opened the door and walked in people just stopped. But they were really friendly to me."

Despite the occasional odd looks, she said from the moment she arrived in Australia she has felt comfortable.

And these days she said she can't get enough of that sport synonymous with the Australian summer.

"Now I do love barbecues and I do love cricket. In fact, I found very few of my local friends actually enjoy cricket as much as I do!"

The Australia Talks National Survey asked 54,000 Australians about their lives and what keeps them up at night. Use our interactive tool to see the results and how their answers compare with yours.

Then, tune in at 8.30pm on November 18, as the ABC hosts a live TV event with some of Australia's best-loved celebrities exploring the key findings of the Australia Talks National Survey.

Related story in Chinese: 相关中文文章

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