Sydney's bustling inner-city suburb of Haymarket is home to Australia's largest Chinatown district.
Formed in its current location by Chinese immigrants during the 1920s, Chinatown is a popular precinct for the city's Asian community with wall-to-wall restaurants and shops.
Despite its origins, a new book written by Macquarie University academics has found that the most spoken language in Haymarket was not Mandarin or Cantonese - but Thai.
Macquarie languages expert Dr Alice Chik is a co-editor of the book titled Multilingual Sydney, 
With Thai, Mandarin, Indonesian, Cantonese and Korean spoken in Haymarket, Dr Chik said the Chinatown of 2018 was more like "Asiantown".
Chinatown's Friendship Arch (SBS) Source: SBS
"What we found with the Haymarket statistics is that Thai speakers are the biggest group with 20.4 per cent, which is bigger than Mandarin which is 20 per cent," Dr Chik told SBS Mandarin.
"Indonesian accounted for 10 per cent, Cantonese 5 per cent and Korean around 5 per cent."
The book also found that Haymarket was one of Sydney's most linguistically diverse suburbs, along with Regents Park, Haberfield and Parramatta.
Dr Chik highlighted that people speaking Mandarin in Sydney had increased by 71 per cent between 2011 and 2016.
Chinese dancing dragons perform in the Chinese New Year Festival in 2010. Source: AAP
She said this was due in part because international students were now counted in the census.
Sydney's Thai community runs numerous cultural events in and around the Haymarket area, including Thai National Day celebrations, Thailand’s Grand Festival and Thai New Year Day.
Tarpthip Hansavesa, the Vice President of Buddharangsee Thai Community Language School told SBS Mandarin that speaking Thai had become more popular over the past decade.
"There are many Thais around, Thai restaurants, trade, organisations, and workforce," Ms Tarpthip said.
"There is also a Thai Town in Sydney too.
"Thai people, in general, are family oriented. They are very supportive to their children to learn Thai language and especially its culture."
Dr Chik emphasised the importance of language diversity in Sydney.
Dr Alice Chik was a co-editor of the book. Source: Macquarie University
“I didn’t realise it at the time, but Sydney is among the most linguistically diverse cities in the world and its diversity is its strength, and hallmark," she said.
"Multilingualism opens you up to new perspectives and new cultures. It helps Sydney becomes a stronger and more resilient society" and being multilingual is a good thing economically."
The release of the book comes after Sydney City Council recently , a move it said would add to the "inclusiveness" of the event.
More than 300 languages are spoken in Sydney, according to data from the Australian Bureau of Statistics.
