Associate Professor Ruying Qi, PhD

Dr Ruying Qi is Associate Professor, PhD Supervisor, Associate Dean International, and Co-Founder and Director of the Bilingualism Research Lab @WSU–JNU in the School of Humanities and Communication Arts, Western Sydney University. She is also Visiting Professor at Nanjing University (2024–2027). Dr Qi previously served as Head/Leader of the China Liaison Unit for more than a decade and has held multiple leadership roles at both School and University levels.

As the founding architect of the Chinese language program and the Graduate Certificate in Language Teaching and Bilingualism (Birth to 12 years), Dr Qi brings extensive experience across early childhood, primary, secondary, vocational, tertiary, and doctoral education in Australia, China and internationally. She has built wide-ranging collaborations with community, industry, and international institutions. She has held four international research fellowships and visiting professorships at Nanjing University, Jinan University, the Chinese University of Hong Kong, and the University of London. Dr Qi has also served as expert advisor, assessor, and reviewer on nine state, national, and international educational advisory and academic bodies, including China’s Ministry of Education, the NSW Board of Studies, and the Australian Office of Learning and Teaching. She has also acted as Expert Witness in the NSW Supreme Court on legal bilingualism.

Her work has received significant media coverage, including features in The Australian (2014), People’s Daily (Overseas Edition, 2023), China’s Xinhua News Agency, People’s Online TV, People’s Daily, TVS TV, SBS TV, and TVB Australia, as well as 33 global news outlets (2017, 2025).

Dr Qi has been twice awarded the Australian National Teaching Award for Outstanding Contribution to Student Learning. In 2021 she received the Excellence in Teaching Award at Western Sydney University.

Her research focuses on bi- and multilingual development, bilingual first language acquisition, Chinese language and culture pedagogy, and their applications to curriculum design for Chinese L2 learners, TESOL, and early childhood bilingual education. Her monograph The Bilingual Acquisition of English and Mandarin: Chinese Children in Australia (New York: Cambria Press, 2011) remains the only systematic study of Mandarin–English childhood bilingualism and has been described in scholarly reviews as “a ground-breaking study.” She has published widely in leading journals and edited volumes, and she is a frequent invited speaker at national and international conferences, workshops, and public lectures in Chinese education, bilingualism, and applied linguistics. Dr Qi also serves as an Editorial Board Member of International Chinese Language Education Studies. 

Dr Qi is also a NAATI-accredited English–Chinese translator whose literary translations have appeared in top journals such as Foreign Literature and World Literature. She has secured and delivered four external competitive grants and four competitive WSU research grants in collaboration with international scholars, community organisations, and industry partners in the UK, USA, Hong Kong, and China.