THEY feel scared, vulnerable and targeted -- and they are appealing for help.

Young Chinese students in Hobart are too terrified to go out at night after the murder of fellow student Zhang "Tina" Yu.

Some are so fearful of being attacked they are packing their bags and returning home, no longer willing to live in a place they feel is not safe.

One of the students, Kitty Liu, said she and her fiends no longer liked to be out past 6pm.

"When it is dark I head for home," she said.

Ms Liu was with a group of University of Tasmania Chinese students last night preparing a Salamanca Market stall to honour Ms Yu. They have written an open letter to give out to the public.

The students said they had all experienced some form of attack while living in Tasmania -- some verbal and others physical.

Some had been pelted with eggs and bottles, while others had been blasted with water bottles and one had even had their letterbox bombed.

University of Tasmania Chinese Student Association vice-president Wen Zheng said it was difficult to know whether all of the attacks were racist, or whether it was just random violence.

Whatever the motivation behind violence against Asian students, Mr Zheng said authorities needed to do something to improve student safety.

He said he hoped the State Government would hear their fears and act to improve security for Asian students.

Mr Wheng said he knew of some students who had decided to leave Tasmania because they feared violence was becoming more common.

And questions about student safety in Tasmania were being raised in Chinese media. Mr Wheng said a Beijing newspaper and television station had interviewed him yesterday about the level of safety for international students in Tasmania.

Student Zhilang Yan said most Chinese students lived around Sandy Bay, near the university, where the streets were terrifyingly dark at night.

He said he had twice been attacked on Churchill Ave by a carload of "laughing" people who pelted him with eggs and bottles.

Ms Liu said this was the time of year when students would normally be out partying because exams had just finished.

"It [the murder] happened just the day after exams, but we have not been able to relax or celebrate," she said.

Commercial cookery student Nicholas Ng said he had beer bottles thrown at him from a passing car when cycling in Glenorchy soon after he arrived in Tasmania a year ago.

"They swore and yelled 'Go home Asians, go back to your country'," Mr Ng said.