A New Wave—Teenage Chinese Studying in the U.S in the 2010S ______

A NEW WAVE—TEENAGE CHINESE STUDYING IN THE U.S IN THE 2010S ______

A Thesis

Presented to the

Faculty of

California State University, Fullerton ______

In Partial Fulfillment

of the Requirements for the Degree

Master of Arts

History ______

Angela Sugiyama

Thesis Committee Approval:

Laichen Sun, Department of History, Chair Kristine Dennehy, Department of History Lisa Tran, Department of History

Fall, 2016

ABSTRACT

Research of Chinese students in the United States has focused on the adult students who studied in American colleges and universities. Little is known about the younger ones, who are between 13 and 17 and whose stories are equally, if not more, important historically. My research aims to investigate the motivations, the goals, and the life experiences of Chinese teenagers who dare to cross the biggest ocean on Earth—the

Pacific. Their physical presence since the 2010s apparently becomes a new wave from the East to the West. Through analysis of students’ surveys that were conducted both in

China and in the United States in 2013 and 2014, of interviews with school directors, parents and minors, I seek to understand the push-and-pull factors behind this new wave, the motivations for these teens’ willingly and non-willingly Western cultivation, and their life experiences embedded in the transcontinental sojourn. I also aim to examine the impacts they make in American society, and the effects of the boundary crossing on the host nation. Through my examination of the teenagers’ motivations and the economic and political factors that make them move, I argue that Chinese teens’ sea-crossing voyage continues the one century and a half Chinese western-learning legacy since the late 19th century, and yet, their motivations and goals in the transformation are for self-gain, not for China.

TABLE OF CONTENTS

ABSTRACT ...... ii

LIST OF TABLES ...... v

LIST OF FIGURES ...... vii

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS ...... viii

Chapter 1. INTRODUCTION ...... 1

The Five Stages ...... 3 The Teenage World Travelers ...... 5 The Chinese Students in Historical Literature and Highlights ...... 8 Two “Push” Factors: Political and Economic ...... 8 Three Issues ...... 12

2. CHINESE ACTIONS ...... 18

Parents as the Most Important Agencies: The Push ...... 19 International Schools as Agencies: The Market ...... 25 A Survey in China...... 29 The Process of Data Collection ...... 30 The Survey Results from the Teenagers in China ...... 31 Summation of the Survey ...... 53 The Teenage Chinese Arrived in the United States ...... 55

3. AMERICA’S RESPONSES ...... 56

School Ethnicities ...... 58 The School’s Instructional Programs ...... 60 International Curriculum: A Separate-and-Combine Approach ...... 61 Educational Technique: How the Newly Arrived Chinese Teens Learned ...... 62 Individualized Teaching Approach: How Their Language Program Functioned. 64 How the School’s Other International Programs Work ...... 65 The Joint Diploma Program (JDP) ...... 65 The Immersion Program ...... 66 The Interviews ...... 69

iii

4. THE SURVEY IN THE U.S...... 75

The Survey Results from the Teenagers in the U.S...... 76 New Findings from the Survey in the U.S...... 116

5. TEENAGE CHINESE EXPERIENCES IN THE U.S.: CASE STUDIES...... 118

One Family: A Mother and a Son ...... 120 Two Girls: The Degraded vs. the Decent ...... 122 Three Stories: The Good, the Bad, and the Hobbledehoyish ...... 124 The Story of John ...... 124 The Story of Yo Yo ...... 127 The Story of Chaw ...... 131

6. CONCLUSION ...... 134

Three New Aspects Stand Out from the Surveys ...... 135 Parents, Schools, and Teens Work Together ...... 137 The Teenage Actors and Agents ...... 139

APPENDICES ...... 140

A. THE USE OF HUMAN SUBJECTS APPROVED BY CSUF IRB ...... 140 B. THE SURVEY QUESTIONNAIRES ...... 145

BIBLIOGRAPHY ...... 152

LIST OF TABLES

Table Page

1-1 In 2015, Approximately 45% of the Chinese Studying Abroad Were High School Students ...... 7

2-1 Family Background ...... 32

2-2 Family Annual Income ...... 33

2-3 Whether or Not Return to China ...... 34

2-4-1 Family Support...... 35

2-4-2 Family Support in Relation to Annual Family Income ...... 36

2-5 Family Support for Permanent Stay ...... 37

2-6 Business with China ...... 38

2-7 Three Positive Factors about the U.S...... 40

2-8A Three Negative Factors about the U.S. (Male) ...... 43

2-8B Three Negative Factors about the U.S. (Female) ...... 44

2-9A The Reasons for Returning to China (Male) ...... 46

2-9B The Reasons for Returning to China (Female) ...... 47

2-10A The Reasons for Not Returning to China (Male)...... 49

2-10B The Reasons for Not Returning to China (Female) ...... 50

2-11A The Main Reasons for Returning or Not Returning (Male) ...... 52

2-11B The Main Reasons for Returning or Not Returning (Female) ...... 53

3-1 International Schools and Students Visited Fairmont Schools 2013-2014 ...... 67

4-1 Decisions Made Prior to Leaving China for the U.S...... 77

4-2 Motivations to Study in the U.S...... 78

4-3 The Purposes in the U.S...... 81

4-4 Visas the Chinese Teens Hold ...... 83

4-5 Financial Support ...... 85

4-6 Family Desire for Staying in the U.S...... 87

4-7 Family Support for Studies in the U.S...... 88

4-8 Parental Influences ...... 90

4-9 Family Support for Post-Graduate Decision ...... 91

4-10 Business with China after Graduation ...... 92

4-11 Living Arrangements in the U.S...... 93

4-12 Housing Comparison ...... 95

4-13 Three Positive Things about the U.S...... 97

4-14 Three Negative Things about the U.S...... 99

4-15 The Top Three Reasons to Return ...... 102

4-16 The Top Three Reasons Not to Return ...... 104

4-17 Historical Family Suffering ...... 106

4-18 The Importance of Family Suffering History ...... 107

4-19 Economic Effects ...... 108

4-20 Political Effects ...... 109

4-21 The Teens’ Dreams ...... 111

4-24 The Teens’ Hometown Geographical Locations ...... 115

LIST OF FIGURES

Figure Page

1. Chinese teens were waiting to get on board for the U.S...... 2

2. Europe and Canada are becoming Chinese teens’ new favorite destinations ...... 6

3. The United States is the first choice for Chinese teenage students...... 21

4. Teenage Chinese rushed to Hong Kong to take SAT test in May 2016 ...... 23

5. The American-style education in Beijing ...... 26

6. The Percentage of Asian teenage students ...... 59

7. Robert Esquerre facilitates the students’ learning ...... 62

8. Advanced reading and math performance in Fairmont Schools ...... 68

9. A group of Chinese teens just arrived in Fullerton, California ...... 138

vii

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

Through the research and writing of this paper, I have accrued a great many debts to many people, most particularly to my professors in the history department at California

State University, Fullerton. To Dr. Laichen Sun, I owe my greatest thanks. Dr. Sun is a great mentor who cares, who guides me on the right track and encourages me to see the historical significance of my project. Without the help of Dr. Sun, I would not even have known where to start, and I would not have been able to find the schools, the students, and the teachers to conduct my surveys and interviews. I offer my warmest thanks to Dr.

Kristine Dennehy and Dr. Lisa Tran, who give generously of their time, insights, and support in countless ways for my research. They discuss the paper with me, share their visions with me, and even correct my words and sentences for my drafts. For his close and critical readings of my early chapter drafts, I wish to extend my gratitude to Dr.

Wang Zuoyue of Cal Poly Pomona, who assists me in finding materials and molds many of the ways that I think about Chinese students educated in the United States. I offer my appreciation to Director Rebecca Lugo, Director Matt Calabria, Director Sherry Lin, and

Curriculum Director Laura Michaels of Fairmont Schools, who allow me to interview them and provide me insights about the Chinese students in their schools, who spend hours and make great efforts in helping me in my research. I am fortunate to have

Chinese scholars in the Education Bureau of Guangdong, and teachers in 11 high schools, who willingly distribute the surveys and collect the completed surveys for me in China. I

viii

appreciate the help of Dr. Yang Aihua, a Chinese scholar who distributes and collects the survey for me in the United States. I owe a special debt of gratitude to Wang Shuang

Ying, who introduces me to some of the Chinese parents and teens who studied in the

United States in 2013 and 2014. Most of all, I owe a great debt to the 704 teenagers in

China and the 52 teenage Chinese students in the United States who shared with me their views and life experiences.

CHAPTER 1

INTRODUCTION

Bai Yun International Airport in Guangzhou, China, was flooded with passengers in the early evening around 6:00 pm on August 25, 2011. A father rushed in with his son and wife. He carried four big pieces of luggage from outside the departure building in both hands. The teenage son carried nothing. The father let the wife and son stand in line, and he checked in all four bags. Soon after, he appeared at the counter for over-weight- luggage charges and paid all fees for the bags without a blink of an eye. He hustled to send his son and wife all the way to the gate at the security checkpoint. He stopped. The son kept moving forward, with a wave of his hand and a smile on his skinny face. At an age of about 14, the teenager was barely four feet nine inches tall, thin and weak with tiny bones. The father, however, was over six feet two inches, largely built and strong. As the tiny back turned away from him and merged into the passenger flow, the father wiped his eyes and could not help crying in front of the security officers. In that moment, short vs tall, weak vs. strong displayed a dramatic shift. The short and weak took his steps forward firmly and determinedly; the tall and strong shed his tears soberly in public.

Shocking and startling to many foreigners, but for the security and customs officers at the airport, this scene was a non-surprising daily episode. For the father, it was a heart- breaking love-separating life experience. For historians, it is one of the incidents on stage that serves as the epitome of the play, where the agents—the father and the teenage

2 child—both function as actors in the transcontinental production. It is time to tell the stories of the minors and the ignored: the America-bound Chinese teenagers.

Figure 1. Chinese teens were waiting to get on board for the U. S. Guangzhou, China. December 2012. (Author takes all photos unless indicated otherwise.)

Little is known about these Chinese teens. The research of this new wave from the

East to the West has not been done. However, they are the youths that dare to cross the largest ocean. I wonder whether their actions can be termed a transnational adventure, as sociologist Allan G. Johnson defined it as the action of “crossing national borders.”1 The teenage Chinese who came to study in the United States in my research, in the years of

2013 and 2014, were all born and raised in China and had never set foot on this new land.

They take the risks and are willing to live an “in-between” life that is framed by Chinese

1 Allan G. Johnson, The Blackwell Dictionary of Sociology: A User’s Guide to Sociological Language (Malden MA: Blackwell Publishing, 2000), 331.

3 traditions and is, or will be, transformed by American education. If the 120 teenagers who were sent by the Qing court in the 19th century were the chosen ones, these audacious teens are the ones who choose alongside with their parents.

This study seeks to understand the Chinese teens’ border-crossing actions—their motivations, goals, and personal experiences—on a global stage. As transcontinental thespians, these teens function to continue the Chinese Western-learning legacy, and yet, break away from the traditional trajectory. To better comprehend the Chinese foreign learning, I first address its five stages in modern Chinese history.

The Five Stages

In 1847, Yung Wing was the first Chinese student who came to the United States through the help of an American missionary. While the Industrial Revolution greatly improved people’s lives in the Western world, the two Opium Wars made the Chinese realize the fact that, when China was weak, they should prepare to be beaten. Some

Chinese students studied abroad in the mid-19th century especially during the Self-

Strengthening movement. The goal of the Self-Strengthening movement was shi yi zhi chang yi zhi yi (师夷之长以制夷 to learn from the advanced countries and turn their advanced knowledge to our own benefit). The United States was the destination for the

Chinese to learn the advanced technology for self-strengthening. However, the conflicts between the reformers and the conservatives led to the decline of foreign learning, until the Qing court sent out the largest group, the 120 teenagers, to the United States. The flow of mainland Chinese students into the United States between 1900 and the early 21st century can be divided into five stages. They include:

1). The pre-collapse of the Qing court in 1911 starting with the first 120 teenagers’ landing on Western soil. The Boxer Indemnity Fund, set up by the government of the United States in 1909, financially supported Chinese students studying in the US.

2). Between 1912 and 1949. While the Boxer Fund continued to finance Chinese students studying in the US, the Nationalist government adopted new rules in order to regulate and encourage more students to study abroad.

3). The PRC era from 1949 to the late 1960s. The Chinese Communist government structured their foreign policies under the guidance of the “Soviet Big

Brother” with three layers, which included “setting up another stove (另起炉灶),” or, prepare a new source to educate your people, “staying only in the Soviet bloc (一邊倒),” and “clean the house first and then invite the guests (打掃干净屋子再請客),”2 or, accept

Communist ideology then come accept our education. With the Cold War mentality,

Chinese students were shifted from the US to the Soviet Union.3 By the late 1950s, the split of Sino-Soviet relations ended the educational cooperation between China and the

Soviet Union. In the 1960s, when the Chinese were struggling in the Cultural Revolution, there was not much impetus for studying abroad.

4). Between Nixon’s visit to China in 1972 and the turn of the 21st century. Deng

Xiaoping’s economic reforms in 1978 speeded up the wave of the foreign study, ad occidentem. The Shanghai Communique signed between the two nations stated that more

2 Tian Tao and Liu Xiaoqin, A Complete History of Chinese Studying Abroad: A New China (Zhong Guo Liu Xue Tong Shi: Xin Zhong Guo Juan 中国留学通史：新中国卷), ed. Li Xisuo (Guangzhou, China: Guangdong Education Publisher, 2010), 30. Translation is mine unless indicated otherwise.

3 Tian and Liu, 36.

“people-to-people contacts and exchanges” should be promoted.4 Studying in the US became the most efficient apparatus for the Chinese youth to understand a world economic system and be more competitive in China’s internal markets.

5). A new stage appears beginning in the first decade of the 21st century, in which more Chinese teens—between the ages of 13 and 17—voyage to the West especially to the US for their high school education. This group is a lot younger than the previous groups.

The Teenage World Travelers

After the new millennium, the presence of the Chinese teens—not the adult

Chinese students—is all over the world. They can be seen in the United States, the UK,

Australia, Canada, Switzerland, New Zealand, and some countries in Asia. While

English-speaking countries are still their favorite destinations, some of the teens, in the

2010s, influenced by their parents’ desires, already choose some traditionally non-

English-speaking countries in Europe such as France and Germany as their final stops. A

Report on the Chinese Studying Abroad White Cover Book of 2016 showed, “From 2014 to 2015, students to the UK for secondary education rose 27.5%, while, to Germany, rose

50%.”5

4 Jonathan D. Spence, The Search for Modern China (New York: W. W. Norton & Company, Inc., 1999), 600.

5 Zheng Xiaohan, “It Becomes a Normal Phenomenon for Chinese Students Studying Abroad; It Becomes Difficult to Apply for Colleges Especially the Famous Ones (中國學生留學常態化；美本科和名校申請難),” The Epoch Times, May 31, 2016, Focus, sec. A3.

Figure 2. Europe and Canada are becoming Chinese teens’ new favorite destinations. Source: The Epoch Times, May 31, 2016, Focus, sec. A3.

In addition, the number of the teenagers rises dramatically in the 2010s. The motivations seem complex, maybe the pressure of college entrance examinations, maybe the desire for better education. In 2010, the number of Chinese who studied abroad below college level was 76,400 (a 19.8% of the total students who studied abroad), while, in

2011, teenagers who studied abroad exclusively for secondary education reached 76,800

(a 22.6% of the total students who studied abroad), and in 2012, a 38% were the teens who studied abroad for secondary education.6 To compare the rapid trend of the teenage

6 Chinese Education Online, “Chinese Education Online: the Report of the Trend of Studying Overseas 2013 (中国教育在线 2013 年出国留学趋势报告),” http://www.eol.cn/html/lx/baogao2013/page1.shtml (accessed February 28, 2014).

Chinese studying abroad, in 2015, among the 520,000 Chinese who studies abroad (an increase of 14% compared to 2014), 44.33% of them were out of China for their secondary education.7 While the United States, the UK, and Australia remained the top first, second and the third most favorite terminus, in 2015, the teenage Chinese who pursued the secondary education in the United States were over 40,000, out of 140,000 from all foreign countries, an increase of more than 5000 compared to 2014.8

Table 1-1. In 2015, Approximately 45% of the Chinese Studying Abroad Were High School Students

Education A Total Percent

Elementary Schools 8.30%

Junior High 13.76%

High Schools 30.57%

Colleges 23.14%

Post-Baccalaureate 6.11% Source: The Chinese American Professors and Professionals Network. A Report of “Minors’ Studying Abroad Has Become the Mainstream for a Probable One Million a Year; the Process of Reconfirmation of Foreign Degrees (低龄留学成主流，每年将达百万 & 《归国学历认证流程》).”

This study puts the Chinese teens in the United States in the spotlight. Unlike the studying abroad students in the past one hundred years (1911-2010), the teenage Chinese take the risk based on individual choices and dare to cross the Earth’s biggest ocean.

7 The Chinese American Professors and Professionals Network, “Minors’ Studying Abroad Has Become the Mainstream for a Probable One Million a Year; the Process of Reconfirmation of Foreign Degrees (低龄留学成主流，每年将达百万 & 《归国学历认证流程》),” October 11, 2016, http://scholarsupdate.hi2net.com/news.asp?NewsID=20878 (accessed October 20, 2016).

8 The Chinese American Professors and Professionals Network, “Minors’ Studying Abroad Has Become the Mainstream for a Probable One Million a Year; the Process of Reconfirmation of Foreign Degrees (低龄留学成主流，每年将达百万 & 《归国学历认证流程》),” October 11, 2016, http://scholarsupdate.hi2net.com/news.asp?NewsID=20878 (accessed October 20, 2016).

They are not selected and sent by the Chinese government, nor are they paid for their study here with any public funding. Their differences especially show in their motivations and personal goals, which are the paper’s focus. It is not a comprehensive research of all teenage Chinese students. Instead, it focuses only on those who are between 13 and 17, family-financed and studying in the United States. I explore their demarche from the west coast to the east coast of the Pacific, search their impacts on the host nation, and examine the pain and pleasure they experience as foreign minors. To better frame the magnitude of the Chinese students studying in the United States, I start with an exploration of existing historical literature.

The Chinese Students in Historical Literature and Highlights

Historians, both Chinese and Western, have carried on certain research on the

Chinese students studying in the U.S. in the 19th and 20th centuries. What “the Chinese students” means in historical literature is exclusively college-bound students and over 18.

The majority of the Chinese students were selected, financed, and sent by the Chinese government, and were required to return to China after they finished their studies in the

US. “Study-abroad” was about patriotism, loyalty, and devotion to one’s motherland.

Two “Push” Factors: Political and Economic

Two factors, political and economic, functioned as pushing force of the Chinese foreign study program in historical literature. Nearly all historians, in both the East and

West, agree that before 1978, political factors exclusively played the main role in pushing the Chinese students to the West’s shores.

The relevant scholarly works by all historians and scholars emphasized political factors before Deng Xiaoping’s economic reforms. The foreign learning students’ main

9 motivation was to rescue China from being humiliated by Western powers, to strengthen

China through Western schooling and later, by studying in the Soviet Union for a better society of Communism. For example, Xie Changfu and Huang Xinxian, two Chinese historians in the 2000s, presented the history of Chinese foreign study from the end of the

19th century to the 1920s.9 Both of them focused on the political background of governmental programs for studying abroad and emphasized the political gains from the

United States and Japan when the two nations actually paid for and assisted the Chinese students studying in these two countries. Xie believed the Americans’ goal for paying back China through the Boxer Indemnity Fund was to foster a closer relationship with

China, to control the Chinese educational system, and to protect American benefits in

China by cultivating American-minded Chinese intellectuals.10 Huang, a history expert studying Japanese influence on China, strongly considered the Japanese motives to assist and accept Chinese students were to enlarge Japan’s political influential sphere and to control all of China, which had nothing to do with helping China nurture any talent.11 Ye

Weili and Jonathan D. Spence, as representatives of Western scholars who are experts in

Chinese history, interpreted Chinese foreign study as a positive way to cultivate a modern

China. Paula Harrell, on the other hand, in her Sowing the Seeds of Change, demonstrates

9 The Chinese naming custom follows: last name, middle name, and first name. I will adhere to this naming system in this paper.

10 Xie Changfa, The History of Chinese Studying and Education Abroad (Zhong Guo Liu Xue Jiao Yu Shi 中国留学教育史) (Tai yuan, Shanxi: Shanxi Education Publisher, 2006), 95.

11 Huang Xinxian, A Historical Rumination of Chinese Foreign Learning and Education (Zhong Guo Liu Xue Jiao Yu De Li Shi Fan Si 中国留学教育的历史反思) (Chengdu, Si Chuan: Si Chuan Education Publisher, 1990), 69-70.

10 how the Japanese influenced and modeled for the Chinese in order to teach the Chinese to

“be modern, powerful, and Japanese.”12 If the Sino-Japanese War in 1895 was China’s humiliation, then, at the turn of the 20th century, the author states, it was time for a broad political revolution, as many of the Eastbound young Chinese became revolutionaries after they finished their studies in Japan. This contrasts to Liel Leibovitz and Matthew

Miller’s claim in Fortunate Sons that the 120 Chinese teenagers—sent by the Qing court and studied in the U. S.—revolutionized the old China.13 Among the Eastbound Chinese students, there were some phenomenal revolutionists. Chen Duxiu (陈独秀), who studied in Japan from 1901 to 1907 and became the founding father of the Chinese Communist

Party, who was one of the most important figures in modern Chinese history, and who created the magazine, New Youth, that promoted new cultures that stimulated the May

Fourth Movement. Li Dazhao (李大钊), who studied in Japan from 1913-1916, devoted himself to the New Cultural Movement in China soon after his return. Together, Chen and Li, the so-called “nan Chen bei Li (南陳北李, Chen of the South and Li of the

North)” became the two most distinct and influential figures in revolutionizing Chinese culture and thought, and in establishing the ideology of the Chinese Communist Party. Lu

Xun (鲁迅), a prominent author who studied in Japan from 1902 to 1909, published The

Mad Man’s Diary (狂人日記) in 1918, The True Story of Ah Q in 1922 called to arms,

12 Paula Harrell, Sowing the Seeds of Change: Chinese Students, Japanese Teachers, 1895-1905 (Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press, 1992), 29.

13 Liel Leibouitz and Matthew Miller, Fortunate Sons: The 120 Chinese Boys Who Came to America, Went to School, and Revolutionized an Ancient Civilization (New York: W. W. Norton & Company, 2011), 9.

11 and discovered some new vocabulary in Japanese periodicals that were imported from the

West, such as “human rights,” “constitutions,” “democracy,” “representation,” and

“parliament.”14 While historical narratives tended to posit both political and economic factors before 1978, historical writings tended to emphasize the economic factor after

1978.

After 1978, economic factors’ impact on Chinese foreign learning obviously rose to be the keynote. Under the slogan of “Building Socialism with Chinese

Characteristics,” the government policies changed from zheng fu gong pai (政府公派, financed and sent by the government) to gong pai zi fei (公派自费, sent by the government, but self-financed)) to zi fei liu xue (自费留学, self-financed for studying overseas), starting in 1984. By the end of the 1980s, an overseas-bound fever dramatically and intensely hit the whole of China. For those returned since the 1990s, historians Tian Tao and Liu Xiaoqin argued, they were attracted by China’s economic development especially after the financial recession in Western countries since 2009.

These so-called “Sea Turtles” would be looked up to in Chinese society, as a result, it would be easier for the returned to gain more economically.15 That is why the study-

14 Spence, 238.

15 “Sea Turtle” is a synonym of the returned popular in Chinese media. As the name “Hai Gui 海归” in Chinese pronounced the same as “Hai Gui 海龟,” Sea Turtle, the Chinese media uses it as a vivid description of those who have studied overseas and returned to China afterward.

12 abroad is also called “gold-coated (镀金).”16 In their account, Zhong Guo Liu Xue Tong

Shi, Tian and Liu wrote:

Many of the returned had legal residency overseas and had long working experiences outside China. The reasons for them to return definitely had nothing to do with patriotism. They returned because the distance between China and developed nations shortened by China’s economic development, in terms of economic base, incomes, the quality of life, the openness of the society, and the modern thoughts and world-view.17

Although this general statement might not rationalize all the motivations and goals of the returned in historical writings, this is definitely one important assertion that watchfully spoke the truth. Thus, it will not be hard to understand the economic hand behind the wave.

Three Issues

Three issues stand out in the historical literature on Chinese students: the total number of students who studied abroad; female students tended to be invisible; the brain drain. While Western historians basically had no idea about the number, or, ignored the female students, many of the Chinese historians intended to justify the brain drain.

The Number Issue. Historians and writers find it difficult to know the total number of Chinese students and scholars in the United States. Not a single book in either

Chinese or English gives the whole account of the total number of Chinese students studying in the U.S. Leo A. Orleans points out that, for both sides, China and the United

16 A Chinese exaggeration for the experience of studying abroad. Since the majority of them tend to hold better careers and earn more in Chinese society after they come back to China, their studying abroad becomes the process of coating with gold—believe it or not.

17 Tian Tao and Liu Xiaoqin, 586.

States, the number is so elusive that “its absence inevitably draws first, surprise, then disbelief.”18 Orleans highlights that the Chinese rarely publish any breakdown of students and scholars by country of study and Chinese statistics exclude all visiting scholars who spend less than six months in the United States.19 Echoing Orleans’ statements, Qian

Ning affirms that it is hard to tell how many Chinese students have studied abroad since

1978, and, as the number of self-financed students has grown since 1979, no exact data reflects the real total number as these numbers contradict each other.20 One thing that

Qian pointed out was that, in the 1990s, more than 90% of the Chinese students were in graduate school.21 Qian mentioned nothing about Chinese teenagers.

The Gender Issue. Research on female Chinese students is scarce in comparison to the existing scholarship on male students. According to Chinese historian Huang

Xinxian, between 1909 and 1911, no female students were allowed to take the tests to study abroad even though the US government provided the money, while, there were three groups, a total of forty-seven male students who passed the tests and were selected by the Qing government.22 And yet, according to scholar Stacey Bieler, no Chinese girl

18 Leo A. Orleans, Chinese Students in America: Policies, Issues, and Numbers (Washington, D. C.: National Academy Press, 1988), PDF File, part 2, 77.

19 Orleans, 78 and 81.

20 Qian Ning, Chinese Students Encounter America (Liu Xue Mei Guo—yi ge shi dai de gu shi 留学美国— ㇐个时代的故事) (Nan Jing: Nan Jing Literature and Art Publisher, 1997), 77-80.

21 Qian, 239.

22 Huang, 113-116.

14 received any financial support from the Boxer Indemnity Fund before 1929, thus female students had virtually no chance to study in the US.23 Bieler writes:

The American ambassador in Beijing asked the officials of China’s Foreign Affairs Commission why there was no female receiving the Indemnity Fund Scholarship. Not until then were female students allowed to take the test.24

Bieler’s Zhong Guo Liu Mei Xue Sheng Shi (zhong guo liu mei xue sheng shi 中國留美學

生史) appears to be the only account written by a Western scholar that bountifully discusses the female Chinese students in the U.S. However, there was another version of the female students’ histories that complicated the gender issue in historical records. On the one hand, according to Huang Xinxian, in 1914 under the Nationalist rule, ten female students, having been allowed to take the tests and having passed them all, came to the

United States to study along with another thirty-four male students; and, in the following years of 1916, 1918, 1921, and 1923, the numbers of female students that came to the US were 10, 8, 10, and 5.25 On the other hand, more self-financed female students chose

Japan, instead of the U.S., as their destination. One famous female student was Japan- bound self-financed revolutionist Qiu Jin (秋瑾). Together with other female students,

Qiu Jin proposed that getting an education was not only for the self but also for China.26

23 Stacey Bieler, A History of Chinese Students Studying in the United States (Zhong Guo Liu Mei Xue Sheng Shi 中國留美學生史), trans. Zhang Yan (Beijing: Life, Reading, New Knowledge Three Union Bookhouse 生活，讀書，新知三联書店, 2010), 73.

24 Bieler, 73.

25 Huang, 131.

26 Huang, 85-89.

Japan-bound Chinese students contributed not only to the development of nationalism in China but also to increasing the number of the female students who studied abroad. Xie Changfa’s The History of Chinese Studying and Education Abroad

(Zhong Guo Liu Xue Jiao Yu Shi 中国留学教育史) appeared to be the first account that comprehensively analyzed Japanese influence on Chinese Western-learning alongside

American influence.

The Brain Drain Issue. First, some historians spotlighted China’s brain drain to the United States, while other historians believed that study-and-stay was a normal phenomenon. Chinese historian Huang Xinxian stated, by the end of 1924, the number of returned students funded by Boxer Indemnity was about 620 in toto, including Qian

Zhongshu (錢钟書), Hu Shi (胡适), Wen Yiduo (闻一多), Liang Shiqiu (梁实秋).27 Yet, how many students were sent out but did not return? There is no further discussion in

Huang’s Zhong Guo Liu Xue Jiao Yu De Li Shi Fan Si. At a recent academic conference, when talking about Chinese scientists’ exiles, Professor Wang Zuoyue points out, there were once about 5,000 Chinese students and scientists in the US in 1949, later, 1,200 returned to China while 4,000 stayed in the United States.28 Chinese scholar Qian Ning, who himself studied in the U. S. in the 1980s, argues it is not a surprise or a brain loss for

China. According to Qian, the reasons for students’ not returning are their lack of

27 Huang, 134.

28 Wang Zuoyue, “Scientists as Exiles: The Case of Chinese Americans in Southern California during the Cold War and Beyond.” (PowerPoint presented at the history conference, California State University, Fullerton, California, April 11, 2015).

16 patriotism and China’s poor living standard.29 Contrasting to Qian’s statement, Zweig and Chen claim that, from their collected data, even in the 1990s, as many as 49% of the interviewees mistrusted the government and the most common reason for students’ not returning was “lack of political stability.”30 Zweig and Chen are the two historians that labeled the political effect in the students’ decision.

Second, the brain-drain issue reflected the subjectivity of historical arguments. A scholar sent by the Chinese government to study in the United States, Qian Ning, claimed the most important reason for the brain drain was the economic factor, and yet, a scholar in the U.S., David Zweig, affirmed that the reason of not-returning was obviously political. Chinese historians Tian Tao and Liu Xiaoqin’s A Complete History of Chinese

Studying Abroad: A New China (Zhong Guo Liu Xue Tong Shi: Xin Zhong Guo Juan 中

国留学通史：新中国卷) is the only account that abundantly recorded the not-returning phenomenon. They claimed the majority of the returned (three-quarters of the total studying abroad) were from the United States, and after a returning wave occurred between 1949 and 1951, the number of returning declined.31 This account also disclosed the economic boom in China starting in the 1980s and speeding up in the 1990s did not considerably change the brain-drain pattern especially for those who studied in the U.S.

Historical research on American-educated Chinese students from mainland China is not abundant compared to research in business and economics between the two nations.

29 Qian, 287.

30 David Zweig and Chen Changgui, China’s Brain Drain to the United States: Views of Overseas Chinese Students and Scholars in the 1990s (Berkeley: The Regents of the University of California, 1995), 58-60. 31 Tian and Liu, 17-19.

For the teenage Chinese who study in the United States in the early 2010s, there is yet no book or investigation about them. As a result, their experiences are missing from the historical record. I contend that this research can provide an insight to the border-crossing history and a new contribution to global inquiries. Research on these minors is new and yet, it is important as they are not only a part of contemporary Chinese history but also world history makers who dare to blend and bridge Chinese national elements with a global span through their brave endeavors. Why do these teens come study in the U.S.?

What would be the reasons for their staying in the United States or returning to China?

Would there be any significant change in the early 21st century in terms of patriotism?

Let us start by looking to the East.

CHAPTER 2

CHINESE ACTIONS

The lack of study of the teenage Chinese who have studied in the United States is the result of some historians ignoring the minors and parts of traditional Chinese culture.

Moreover, it is difficult to attempt research both in the United States and in China. This chapter offers a glimpse of the background of the new wave, which explains the very reasons why the Chinese teens cross the Pacific and what are the pushing powers. Like many Chinese history scholars, I argue that economy functions as the most constituent impetus and globalization connects every thread of a nation’s web.

Globalization keeps the legacy of Yung Wing alive. Nearly forty years of economic growth since Deng Xiaoping’s economic reforms has dramatically changed the

Chinese people’s lives. China surprises the world with its unparalleled economic growth, in historian Joyce Appleby’s words, “The GDP of China expanded sevenfold in twenty- five years, and its world purchasing power rose, in the fifteen years between 1989 and

2004, from 5.4% to more than 12%.”32 Globalization not only brings in foreign companies, commercial banks, manufacturers but also alters lifestyles and adds a hodgepodge of Western tastes. As China’s door opens wider, more students who earned their bachelor and master degrees in the West at the turn of the century returned to China

32 Joyce Appleby, The Relentless Revolution: A History of Capitalism (New York: W. W. Norton & Company, 2010), 374.

19 compared to the 1980s and 1990s. These young Chinese, who work for the foreigners in

China, are seen as the most successful because they are highly paid, own houses, and in many cases, are treated fairly. In them, people see many similarities, that they are more individualized, that they tend to be more creative, and that they are looked up to in society. The Chinese parents want their children to be the ones being admired. Their wills extended, as their wallets distended.

Parents as the Most Important Agencies: The Push

By the end of the 20th century, the number of middle-class Chinese started to bloom. The first decade of the 21st century steadily witnessed this trend, as China’s economy became a colossus. While Obama’s TPP (Trans-Pacific Partnership) Pact is supposed to prevent China from writing the rules for the global economy, some South

East Asian nations are ready to make deals with the Middle Kingdom. The AIIB (Asian

Infrastructure Investment Bank), led by China, is ready for investing in Asia by countries not only of Asia but also of Europe. Xi Jinping—I would like to call him “the

Thaumaturgus of the East” for being the worker of miracles—continues his great success fighting against corruption and promoting economic growth, creating a political tsunami in the government body and yet, increasingly building up a big middle-class, from which,

Xi’s government hopes, China would be the theodicy of all possible worlds. Global capitalism had made China’s living standards tripled while its output quadrupled in twenty years after Deng’s Economic Reform, according to Jeffry A. Frieden.33 Their wealth was accumulated well into the 2010s. China now, with peace and plenty, owns the

33 Jeffry A. Frieden, Global Capitalism: its Fall and Rise in the Twentieth Century (New York: W. W. Norton & Company, 2006), 424.

20 largest middle-class in the world in terms of numbers. As more and more middle-class families no longer need to worry about their bellies and clothes, the only child in their families become their focus and their anxiety in terms of education and the consideration of elevating their social status. How to arm their only child with the most advanced knowledge as the Chinese market becomes more and more competitive? How to create opportunities for him or her to be The One that could gain an advantage over his or her peers after they finish school? In what way could their social status be retained and even move up a little or more?

Parents in China have long been nervous about college entrance examinations since around the 1980s. The parents in these middle-class families believe that the public education system in China set barriers for their children’s growth especially in the young generation’s individual development and that the one-time-determining-the-whole-life college entrance examination makes it harder for some students who are not great test- takers. If a child in a family did not get a good score on the entrance examination, the whole family would lose hope and suffer. Among those “losers,” there are a lot of good students and hard workers.

The majority of these middle-class parents are well traveled, college-educated, and thus open-minded. It is not hard for them to understand that, if a Western-educated man like Yung Wing, who returned to save China and was positively assigned a more important mission than his peers in the 19th century, a Western-educated person today could become a more useful being than his never-West-bound peer. Accordingly, the parents who dare to look beyond China’s national borders find a need to take action—it’s

Now or Never! —in order to turn their only child into the goose that laid the golden eggs in the future.

Figure 3. The United States is the first choice for Chinese teenage students. “The United States is the most favorite destination for the Chinese when traveling and studying aboard. Among them, the percentage of Junior High and High School students reached 71.9%,” Lu Zhixun reported.34

The push by parents directly results in the outflow of the teenage Chinese in large numbers. There are at least four groups of teenagers. The first group is the ones that are willing and even voluntarily take actions alongside their parents. These are the ones that

34 Lu Zhixun, “More Than 50 Percent of the Chinese Students Selected the United States as their First Choice When Traveling and Studying Abroad,” US China Press, April 17, 2016, sec. A3.

22 properly behave in schools and are high academic performers. They eagerly want to come, in one student’s words, “in order to challenge myself to learn more, and build a brighter future.”35 The second group is the ones that are convinced by their parents and then take actions accordingly. They know the reasons why they should come to study in the U.S. Although coming to the U.S. is not their desire in the first place, they trust their parents’ wisdom. They believe studying in the U.S. would do well for them, eventually.

The third group is the ones that wander some doing-not-so-good in every level. Their parents are the ones that want badly to send them to the West, as they reason, their children’s lack of excellence is caused by their teachers and their school environments, not themselves. The teachers in China since the 1980s, under the pressure of teaching to the college entrance examination, usually only pay attention to the good ones, criticizing the lag-behinds and even ignoring some of them completely. The teachers also give the parents of the “wandering” students a lot of anxiety. Everything is decided by the percentage of high school seniors that are accepted by colleges and universities each year.

Unfortunately, the more time needed to read books, the less time for on-campus or off- campus activities. Following the magic stick of the conductor, the entrance examination, as soon as the teenagers enter high school they barely have any school activities except to read, to review, and to be ready, in the early morning and late at night, very much like an old Chinese saying, xuan liang ci gu 悬梁刺股 (“Work hard and never allow sleep by hanging hair on the beam and poke the bottom with needles”). One of the parents I interviewed showed his “understanding” for why the teachers behave like that, “I don’t

35 Chen Y. Z, interview by author, May 21, 2015. Walnut, California.

23 blame them; I blame the educational system, especially the college entrance examination, by which all students’ activities are being vanquished.”36 The initial longing of these parents is to make a change of environment so that their children can progress and grow to their full potential. The fourth group is the ones that do badly in school but do not care, and yet, their parents wish they could change in a new environment—let the new environment change him. Does the emperor have any new clothes?

Figure 4. Teenage Chinese rushed to Hong Kong to take SAT test in May 2016. “They can seriously learn more practical things in the United States. A school environment is very important. It’s also important to allow them to freely make individual choices,” said Wu, a mom from Shanghai who accompanied her son in Junior High to take SAT test in Hong Kong.37

36 Chen Wansong, interview by author, August 10, 2015. Anaheim, California.

37 Wang Wenjun, “First Time of the New SAT Test, Hong Kong Was Crowded by High-School Students from Mainland China (新 SAT 亞洲首考，大陸考生雲集香港),” The Epoch Times, May 9, 2016, sec. A3.

An ugly duckling could become a beautiful white swan, given time to grow. As acceptance in American colleges and universities becomes harder and harder for the college-bound Chinese, their parents decide to take actions earlier, even before their teens enter high school. “Timing is very important,” one of the parents told me, and, “the earlier, the better.”38 The goal, according to the parents, is to get their children educated in the West, to earn degrees, and to build a sunny and solid future. It does not matter if the students return or don't return to China since the diploma of a Western school seems more shiny than the ones of the East. Thus, many of the Chinese teens are poured by their parents onto American soil, hoping their dreams (parents’ dreams and children’s dreams) would come true. According to the Blue Book of Global Talent (2015), published in

Beijing in 2015, the percentage of Chinese high-schoolers who chose to study abroad dramatically increased from 17% to 27%, while, in a six-month period from July 2014 to

February 2015, the percentage of Chinese teens attending American high schools rose

50%, furthermore, for those who were in China in 2015, more than 1/3 of the teens planned to attend high schools, prep schools, and language schools in the West.39 The actions they take include migration of the whole family through the help of their relatives and sponsors, migration through investment such as EB-5 projects, sending their children directly to schools in the U.S. by seeking help from foreign study and travel agencies,

38 Lai X. R, interview by author, June 12, 2015. Fullerton, California.

39 The Chinese American Professors and Professionals Network, “Beijing published the Blue Book of Global Talent: the Development of the Chinese Studying Abroad (2015) (北京发布国际人才蓝皮书:《中国留学发展报告（2015）》),” Internal News, http://www.scholarsupdate.com/ (accessed March 10, 2016).

25 and, sending their children to so-called “international schools” in China as their first stepping stone, preparing them for American high schools, colleges, and universities in the United States. The majority of the parents choose the last method.

International Schools as Agencies: The Market

The parents’ push directly results in an increased number of international schools.

International schools first sprout up in larger cities, spread to medium-sized cities, and recently start moving inland. In the most recent two-year period from 2014 to 2015, the

“international schools” grew quickly, like bamboo shoots after rain in a jungle, especially in Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou, and Shenzhen. According to reporters Wang Lingyu and Li Zhiyi of Beijing, there were 276 international schools in the whole of China in

September 2011. In 2015, the number rose to 546, almost twice that of four years prior.40

Among the 546, over 50% of them are located in Beijing, Shanghai, and Guangzhou. The regulations of the Chinese government seem vague because some of the schools have not registered, do not have qualified teachers, and only target the parents’ wallets. Compared to the large number of international schools and their students, not so large a number of the youngsters are accepted to American universities or even American high schools.

Caveat emptor! (Let the buyer beware!) For doing the business, basically, the international schools usually hire teachers from the United States, Canada, and some

European countries, charge the parents a fortune, adopt the American textbooks, and provide different arrangements for the Chinese students by synchronizing their different academic levels, qualities, and English-language readiness.

40 Wang Lingyu and Li Zhiyi, “The International Schools Became the Aromatic Steamed Buns (国际学校成香饽饽),” US China Press, May 29, 2016, Weekend edition, sec. A2.

Figure 5. The American-style education in Beijing. “In the international schools, where nurturing and globalizing the whole beings was the ultimate sell-point of ‘the American- Style Education,’ the Chinese parents hoped the pedagogy and technique of International schooling could prepare the Chinese kids for the world.”41

International schools hire teachers from English-speaking countries. Teachers from the United States are their first choices. The majority of them hold qualified diplomas and curriculums in terms of teaching in elementary and high schools. They land on Chinese soil like an invading paratrooper army with the invitations of these schools.

However, about every two years, “old teachers’ are replaced by “new ones” as these teachers tend to chase higher salaries at any school that would pay them more.42 On the one hand, any connections between teachers and students are completely lost. On the other hand, the surge in the number of international schools and the influx of students leave many parents baffled and lost: what city to choose? What school to choose? What program to choose?

41 “American-Style Education in Beijing (美式教育在北京),” US China Press, May 29, 2016, Weekend edition, sec. A1.

42 Li Zhiyi, “The Messy Situations of the International Schools (国际学校乱象),” US China Press, May 29, 2016, Weekend edition, sec. A4.

International schools charge the parents an arm and a leg. In Beijing, in 2014, the annual tuition fees in an international school were between 100,000 and 350,000 yuan

RMB (ren min bi 人民币), approximately 18,000 to 50,000 US dollars. The Chinese parents also need to pay for housing, food, transportation, fundraising, etc. The cost of housing is nearly equivalent to the tuition fees in many international schools in Beijing.

In an oligopolistic market, the parents pay a fortune for their children’s Westward endeavor. The math is not difficult for a three-year high school education. Yet, the goal of the Chinese parents is to smooth the transition when their teens apply for high schools, colleges, and universities in the U.S.

The majority of the international schools adopt American textbooks. Every international school claims they hold the “original” textbooks even though there are no standardized textbooks in the U.S. Of course, the textbooks they adopt were all written in

English. However, which school selects which US textbook for which subject is the luck of the draw. Moreover, which international high school has the best version of which high school textbooks from the United States?

The international schools provide different arrangements for Chinese high schoolers. They are called “3 + 4,” “2 + 1 + 4,” etc. For example, the “3 + 4” model means the Chinese students attend an international high school for three years in China, then, after having improved his/her English especially in reading and writing, these students become more qualified to apply for American colleges and be a success in a four-year university in the United States. The “2 + 1 + 4” model means the Chinese students attend an international school for two years, then, his/her senior high year would be in some cooperative high school in the United States. They would get an American

28 high school diploma, instead of a Chinese one, paving the way for a college or university education in the United States.

If the international school education in China is meant to prepare the youngster for Western knowledge and language, the Chinese parents who have the means are more than ready to send their teens to the United States. The international schools simply bob their baits; so many parents have already grabbed the hoops. That joint force is powerful.

On the one hand, the international schools want to show that the high price the parents pay has an outcome. It does not matter if he is a great teen, an average one, a lazy one, or a do-nothing—if he were an impossibility, let him be a “probable impossibility,” in

Aristotle’s words. The international schools maneuver the parents into believing that

American schools have the zest to cause the youngsters to excel— even the worst teens in

China could develop well in American schools with its Western paradigm and matrices.

On the other hand, the parents want to prove that their teens move in the right direction.

As the Chinese market demands more Western-educated and fluent English speakers, who, as usual, are paid well and respected, why not send the teens directly to the West and let them get educated in an American environment? The nation of e Pluribus Unum.

The omphalos of Western education. The land of the free, home of the brave.

An American diploma is the ultimate objective. To call a spade a spade, if sending their children to the international schools en route to the United States appears mainstream in China, the international schools, and these parents could not play their cards without the other. Their ultimate goal is to send their youngsters to the United

States and it takes two to tango. However, the schools’ target is on the parents’ wallets; the parents’ eyes are on the teen’s potential diplomas. The diploma is more important

29 than anything else. A diploma from a school in the United States would be analogous to a bright future. For it, the parents willingly violate and convince their youth to infringe on

Confucius’ teaching, fu mu zai, bu yuan you 父母在，不遠遊 (Children should not travel far away while their parents are still alive), which is one of the core principles of the propriety of Confucian thought for harmonious social order. For it, the parents willingly sacrifice their time and wealth, the children willingly or unwillingly take the risks.

A Survey in China

In order to better understand Chinese teens’ studying abroad endeavor, I conducted a survey in China in 2013 and 2014, with the support of 11 high schools. The survey was anonymous and was carried out with 704 samples. The idea for the survey emanated from the desire to discover the motivations and goals of these teens, what might be the differences between the young generation and the old one, and the push-pull factors behind the scenes.

The survey in China serves as a comparative tool for examining those who came in the U.S. during the same period. In order to see the similarities and differences, if there were any, between the Chinese teenagers who physically moved and lived in the U.S. and those who still lived in mainland China in the past two to three years, I also conducted a survey at four high schools in the United States in 2014 with 52 random samples, from which, I collect the statistical data and analyze the result in Chapter 4.

The Process of Data Collection

In China, the survey questionnaires were sent through the mail to 11 randomly chosen high schools. The education bureau in Guangdong province helped distribute the survey questionnaires.

High schools’ names were put on a list as potential survey-conducting agents. The

Guangdong Education Bureau members then randomly made contact with the schools and asked whether they were willing to help. Schools located in different areas (urban, rural, and small town) were handpicked. Thus, three big cities, three medium-sized cities, and three small towns were selected. The Chinese teens volunteered to take the survey in places they felt comfortable and in their spare time. The 11-question survey conducted in

China took an average of 15 minutes. To make it easy for the survey-takers, the survey questionnaire was written in Mandarin Chinese.

One aspect of the survey is that in every school before the students start the survey questions, the school principal or headmaster tells them not to worry and informs them that no one will report anything about their answers to any authority. One feature of the questionnaire is that it is not allowed to include information about whether or not they come from families affected by any of the historical political movements, including the

Cultural Revolution.

While the author cannot guarantee the findings from the surveys truly reflect the viewpoints of all younger Chinese students, an unbiased outcome is the author’s objective. As a drop of water reflects sunlight, the author hopes the findings could provide an opportunity to gain a glimpse into this transcontinental phenomenon based on empirical evidence.

The characteristics and profiles of the sample show as below:

1. Dates of surveys conducted: China: 2013-2014

2. Total number of survey-takers: 704

3. Sex of the survey-takers: China: Male: 371, Female: 333

4. Age of the survey respondents: 13-17 years old

5. They were born and raised in China and had never been to the United States.

The Survey Results from the Teenagers in China.

The majority of the high schoolers in China have the desire to study in the US and are supported by their parents. They take political freedom and a good environment as the two best parts of American life. Yet, there is a gender difference in their responses to the survey questions. For instance, in responding to the question of whether or not to stay in the US after they finished their studies, only 18.3% of the male students wanted to stay, while 32.4% of their female peers hoped to stay.

Oddly, even though males outnumber females in China, more females are opting to stay in the US, if they get the chance to come here. In addition, according to the

Chinese government’s statistical data from a 1% government census taken in 1990, 2000, and 2010, the ratio of males to females in this one-child generation was 106.60:100,

106.74:100, and 105.20:100.43 In small towns and in the countryside, the ratio can be as high as 120:100. The one-child policy has produced more males than females, as the traditional Chinese norms value the male over the female.

43 National Bureau of Statistics of China, National Data 国家数据, http://data.stats.gov.cn/easyquery.htm?cn=C01&zb=A030704&sj=1990 (accessed November 2, 2016).

Question 1: “Your family background.”

Table 2-1. Family Background

High- Middle- Lower- Business ranked ranked ranked and/or government government government commercial Left Total officials officials officials family Workers Peasants Blank

704 M 25 M 27 M 55 M 81 M 106 M 56 M 21 M 371 F 18 F 11 F 53 F 121 F 73 F 42 F 15 F 333

Total 43 38 108 202 179 98 36 Note: M=Male; F=Female

The majority of the still-in-China students came from three types of families: lower-ranked government officials, business and/or commercial families, and worker families. The number of the teen’s families that worked for the government was 189 (out of 704).

Different family backgrounds were covered in the survey. The objectivity of the data was only achieved from the diversity of the selected. History should not only tell stories of the elite. The real lives of ordinary people can reflect social and political changes thus signal the trends of social development. The answers to question 2 from the teens in China in Table 2-2 reflected the changes at the turn of the 21st century when economic reforms deepened and extended to almost every corner of China.

Question 2: “Your family’s Annual Income.”

Table 2-2. Family Annual Income

Family Income (RMB: Ren The number of student Min Bi 人民币) families Total families

Less than 10,000 RMB M11, F8 19

10,000-20,000 RMB M20, F40 60

21,000-30,000 RMB M6, F5 11

31,000-40,000 RMB M1, F4 5

41,000-50,000 RMB M10, F9 19

51,000-60,000 RMB M5, F3 8

61,000-70,000 RMB M2, F2 4

71,000-80,000 RMB M3, F2 5

81,000-90,000 RMB M11, F0 11

91,000-100,000 RMB M18, F10 28

101,000-200,000 RMB M102, F84 186

201,000-300,000 RMB M37, F42 79

301,000-500,000RMB M36, F35 71

501,000-1,000,000RMB M24, F30 54

1,001,000-5,000,000 RMB M32, F36 68

More than 5,000,000 RMB M13, F4 17

Left Blank M25, F9 34

Not Sure M15, F10 25

Male student families: 371, Total 704 Female student families: 333. Note: M=Male; F=Female

An economic gap had been created in China in the early 21st century. While the majority of the students’ family income is between 100,000RMB and 500,000RMB, the gap between the poor and the rich was vast. This survey was conducted in public high

34 schools and international schools. For a teen from a family with an annual income of

20,000 RMB or less, there is no hope to study abroad.

As the gap broadened, would the teenage Chinese have the desire to study abroad? In addition, if they had the desire, would they choose to return to China? The answers to Question 3 provided insights in Table 2-3.

Question 3: “Whether or not return to China after finishing schools in the United

States.”

Table 2-3. Whether or Not Return to China

Returning to China Staying in the United States (percentage)

68 (18.3% of the total number of the Male Male students 302 students)

108 (32.4% of the total number of the Female Students 225 Female students)

Left Blank: 1 (Male student)

On the one hand, while over 80% of these teens who lived in the U.S. in 2014 would choose Not to return as shown in Table 4-1, the majority of the students in China would choose to return, no matter whether or not their families wanted them to stay in the

United States.

On the other hand, the gender differences were obvious in the answer. Female students tended to choose to stay in the United Stated if they came here to study, almost twice as many as the male students (32.4% compared to 18.3%). I interpret this phenomenon as the consequence of the relatively low social status for women in China, even in the early 2010s. Thus, females feel the need to change their social environment.

Studying and staying in the United States thus becomes a way to improve their status.

Nonetheless, the percentage of students in China that planned to return after they finished schooling in the U.S. was much higher than that of the teenage Chinese currently living in the United States.

In order to know whether their family would support their decision if they chose to stay in the U.S., the author posted the following question to seek student’s answers in

Table 2-4.

Question 4: “Whether or not your family will support if you want to study in the

US.”

Table 2-4-1. Family Support

Family doesn’t Don’t Family supports support know Left blank Total

89 (12.6% of the Male 276 (74.4%) 2 4 371 total samples)

81 (11.5% of the Female 250 (75.1%) 1 1 333 total samples)

Their families overwhelmingly Remarks support their studying in the United States.

The data can also be interpreted as a sign of an immense wave of Chinese teens yet to move from East to West. As with the families that had moved to the United States in 2014, the families that were still in China in 2013 and 2014 would support their teenagers’ decision if they chose to study in the United States.

Almost 75% of the students’ families would support their decision if they wanted to study in the United States. The percentage was the same as that of the families who

36 lived in the U.S., as shown in Table 4-6. The answers to Question 4 from the teens in

China surprisingly echoed their counterparts in the U.S.

About 24% of the student families in China were said to not support the teenagers’ desire to study in the U.S. For the students that answered “Not supported by their families to study in the United States,” their annual family income was below the median level.

Table 2-4-2. Family Support in Relation to Annual Family Income

Family annual income (RMB) Male Female

Less than 10,000 or 10,000 8 9

11,000-20,000 4 5

21,000-30,000 3 2

31,000-40,000 0 2

41,000-50,000 2 1

51,000-60,000 1 0

61,000-70,000 2 0

71,000-80,000 3 1

81,000-90,000 3 0

91,000-100,000 6 2

101,000-200,000 14 12

201,000-300,000 8 10

301,000-500,000 5 9

501,000-1,000,000 8 12

1,001,000-5,000,000 8 11

More than 5,000,000 1 2

Don’t know 9 2

Left Blank 5 0

No predictable family income 1

Total students 91 81

Students who said they would NOT be allowed by their families to study in the

U.S. came either from very poor families or very rich families. Students who came from very poor families might have known there was no way/no easy way for them to come study in the U.S. Students who came from the rich families might have known they either had money or were in a well-connected network (guan xi wang 关系网) in China that would benefit them at some point. As a result, they did not think they would benefit from study abroad.

To find out whether or not their families would support their decisions to permanently reside or find a job in the U.S., the author posted Question 5 to the teens in

China. As shown in Table 2-5, the majority of the Chinese families (approximately 70%) would support their children if they chose to stay or find a job in the United States.

Question 5: “Whether or not your family supports your decisions to permanently stay or find a job in the US.”

Table 2-5. Family Support for Permanent Stay

Family doesn’t Family supports support Don’t know Left Blank Total

122 (17.3% Male 245 (66%) of the total 1 3 371 samples)

93 (13.2% Female 239 (72%) of the total 0 1 333 samples)

Families in China were more willing to support their children’s decision to permanently reside or find a job in the United States, compared to the families that moved to the U.S. in 2014, as shown in Table 4-3. The data revealed the families’

38 intention to allow their kids to leave China to remain in the United States. It would be safe to say, 70% of families in China would consider the United States a good place for their children’s personal development. No matter how terrible it sounded to some, the data from the survey revealed, the goal of the Chinese teenagers to study in the U.S. was for personal gain, not for China.

Compared to Table 2-3, where female students who intended to stay were twice the number of male students if they came to study in the country, the number of male students whose families would support their decision to stay in the United States was almost the same as their female peers. In this case, the gender difference did not seem relevant.

However, sharply contrasted to the data collected in Table 4-10, the responses to

Question 6 from the teenagers in China (Table 2-6) appeared quite different. While 78% of the teenagers in China would be willing to do business with/in China, 50% of the teenage Chinese who lived in the U.S. in 2014 said “No” to doing business with/in China.

Question 6: “Whether or not to return to China for doing business.”

Table 2-6. Business with China

Return to China for Not to return to China for business business Left blank 85 (12% of the total Male 286 (77.1%) 1 samples) 69 (9.8% of the total Female 262 (78.7%) 1 samples)

The reasons were unknown as to why the teenagers in China in 2014 were willing to do business with/in China while the ones who moved to the U.S. a year ago, in 2014, were not willing to do so. This might explain how quickly a teenager’s mind can be

39 transformed after they physically changed environments. This also might suggest those who came to the U.S. were more determined to stay away from China. These are only the author’s guesses. The real reasons might be traced to their family backgrounds, economic and/or social class, parental influence, or even their personal experiences.

To learn how teenagers in China perceived the United States, Question 7 asked them about the positive factors of the U.S. Their knowledge about the U.S., without a doubt, would influence their decision-making process on whether or not to study or stay in the United States, or return to China.

Question 7: “List Three Positive factors in the United States, and label the factors with 1, 2, and 3 (“1” is the most important factor, “3” is the least important factor).”

Table 2-7. Three Positive Factors about the U.S.

Not labelled

#1, #2, Left Don’t #1 #2 #3 or #3 Blank know Total

M10, M199, Political freedom M110, F68 M42, F22 M31, F28 M5 M2 F8 F126

Better M225, M72, F92 M110, F71 M38, F42 M5, F4 Environment F209

More job M14, M198, M62, F43 M44, F67 M78, F44 opportunities F7 F161

M17, M178, Better life M56, F54 M53, F53 M52, F74 F6 F187

Good for M15, M145, M35, F55 M37, F65 M58, F63 personal F10 F193

development

Better M137, M45, F50 M38, F30 M42, F53 M2, income/economic F138 F1 benefit

M74, Safe foods M28, F16 M14, F10 M26, F27 M1 F57

M2, F3 (F2 for Gay marriage legalized, F1 for M2 cheaper house) (cultural M2 (Americans diversity, a F2 (there tend to be open- person can are many minded, more have many beautiful beauties in the boyfriends landscapes U. S.) M13 Others or in the M7, F3 F4 (A united F14 girlfriends.) United nation, an open- F2 (good States, a minded people, moral and land of the people enjoying tradition, intelligent.) more rights, more there are diverse universities) cultures in the United States.)

Note: M=Male; F=Female

1). Gender differences affected what they thought about the U.S. Among the male survey respondents in China, “political freedom” was the #1 most important positive

41 factor of the United States that would attract the young Chinese to study in the country.

Next was “better environment.” Third was “more job opportunities.” Among the female students, “better environment” in the U.S. was their first choice, next was “political freedom,” the third choice was “better life” in the U.S. However, the fact that more teenagers who took “political factor” as the #1 positive factor did not necessarily mean that the majority of the teenagers regarded it as the top positive factor. According to the data collected, 46% of the teenagers who participated in the survey in China took it as only one of the positive qualities of the United States.

Overall, the two top factors that could pull the teenage Chinese to the United

States were “political freedom” and “better environment.” While “political freedom” in the U.S. was the single most chosen answer as the most important factor attracting the teenagers in China, “better environment” was chosen by the majority of the teenagers

(434 out of 704).

Other factors appeared important as well. 359 out of 704 respondents believed positively that there are more job opportunities in the U.S. 365 out of 704 respondents believed they would have a better life in the U.S. 338 out of 704 samples believed that the U.S. would be a better place for personal development. 275 out of 704 teenagers felt they would benefit economically if they came to the United States.

2). When making comparisons, 61.5% of the teenage Chinese who studied in the

U.S. in 2014 took “better environment” as the most positive/ beautiful thing in the U.S., as shown in Table 4-13. Interestingly, 61.6% of the teenagers in China also took “better environment” as the most positive thing is the United States.

However, 50% of the teenage students who lived in the U.S. in 2014 affirmed they “like their schools here,” which was perceived as the second most important factor by the majority of them, 51.8% of the teenagers in China believed they would have a better life in the U.S. than in China. If their personal life meant a lot to them, the author assumed, eventually, these teenagers in China would find their way to the U.S. For the third most positive factor in the United States that attracted the teenage Chinese who lived in the U.S. in 2014, 42.3% of them selected “political freedom.” When looking at the other side, 51% of the teenagers in China took “more job opportunities” as the third most positive factor pulling them towards the United States.

It would be good if there were more job opportunities in the U.S. It would be better if they could live a better life in the U.S. It would be the best if they had a better environment in the U.S. These three most-chosen positive factors that were very attractive to the teenagers in China had everything to do with their personal life.

In order to collect data as objectively as possible, the author also asked the teenagers in China about the negative factors in the United States. The answers to

Question 8 revealed that there were some differences between the teenagers in China and the ones that lived in the U.S. in 2014. For the answers for Questions 8 through 11, male answers are recorded in the A tables and female answers are compiled in the B tables.

Question 8: “List Three Negative factors in the United States, and label the factors with 1, 2, and 3 (“1” is the most important factor, “3” is the least important factor.)”

Answers from male students as follows (Table 2-8A). Among the negative factors related to studying in the United States, the #1 reason for male students was that they disliked the “fast-paced life” in the United States. Next was they would “miss family and

43 friends in China.” Third, “have to learn English.” However, in terms of total number, the male teenagers mostly selected “miss family and friends in China” as the most negative factor.

Table 2-8A. Three Negative Factors about the U.S. (Male)

Not label #1, #1 #2 #3 #2, or #3 Total

Fast-paced life 96 46 57 21 220

Job Instability 60 85 29 9 183

Miss family and friends 89 97 81 23 290 in China

Racism in the 55 61 51 24 191 US

Have to learn 62 32 82 21 197 English

14 (Public security, 11 (Not 2 (safety Super- knowing 2, 1 (Do not issues), 1 Others powerism, Not American like President 13 (furious knowing customs and Obama.) competition) English, lower culture) income.)

No idea 1

Answers from female students are as follows (2-8B). Unlike their peers, among the negative factors related to study in the United States, the #1 reason chosen by female teenagers in China was that they disliked the “racism in the U.S.” Next was the “fast- paced life” in the United States. Thirdly, “miss family and friends in China.” In terms of the total numbers, the female teenagers also select “miss family and friends in China” as the most negative factor.

Table 2-8B. Three Negative Factors about the U.S. (Female)

Not label #1, #2, #1 #2 #3 or #3 Total

Fast-paced life 76 35 64 7 182

Job Instability 69 59 38 4 170

Miss family and friends 72 99 77 10 258 in China

Racism in the 79 64 42 3 188 US

Have to learn 59 45 65 9 178 English

2 2 (Afraid of not being able to adapt to the 1 environment in 3 (Safety the U.S.) 1 (social issues, traffic 1 (high-cost Others 1 (Native 12 inequality) jams, poor living) Americans treat public non-native-born security) people differently.) 1 (No friend/family)

No idea 0

Compared to the data collected in Table 4-14, in terms of total number, “missing friends or family” was taken by teenagers on both sides of the Pacific, as the most negative thing they would experience if they came to the United States (77.8%), and had experienced when living in the United States (55.8%). However, while 31% of the male students picked “fast-paced life” in the U.S. as their second important negative factor when studying in the U.S., as high as 26.7% of the female samples chose “racism in the

U.S.” as their second choice. While 28% of the male teenagers in China believed “have to learn English” was the third most negative factor if studying in the U.S., “fast-paced life”

45 in the U.S. was taken by 26% of the female teenagers in China as their third most negative factor about the U.S.

Compared to the data collected in Table 4-14, in terms of total number, the second factor most chosen as negative by the teenage majority in China was “fast-paced life” in the U.S. (57%). The third most negative factor taken by the majority was “racism in the

U.S.” (53.8%). In these female teenagers’ imagination—none of whom had ever been to the U.S. by the time they took the survey—racism in the U.S. was a big problem. The author has no idea whether this reflected their personal experiences or they perceived it second-hand.

On the other side of the story, “English-learning” was regarded as the 2nd most negative factor by the majority of the teenage Chinese (51.9%) who lived and studied in the U.S. in 2014. The 3rd most negative factor was their need to adapt to a new environment (38.5%). “Racism” to them was NOT a big issue in terms of negative factors of the U.S. when they took the survey.

The negative factors in the United States, directly or indirectly, would have an important impact on their decision in terms of whether or not to come to this country. As more Chinese parents purchased homes and physically lived with their children in the

United States, the sentiment of “missing friends or family” predictably declined.

Would the most chosen negative factors in the U.S. become the main reasons for the teenage Chinese to go back to China? Data in Table 2-9A and Table 2-9B did not match their claims made in Table 2-8A and Table 2-8B, as shown below.

Question 9: “The reasons for returning to China after finishing school in the U.S.”

Answers from male students as follows: (2-9A). “Patriotism” was taken by the majority of the male teenagers in China as the most important reason to return to China after they finished school in the United States. Next is “family Ties.” The third was

“social status moving upward.”

Table 2-9A. The Reasons for Returning to China (Male)

Not label #1, #2, #1 #2 #3 or #3 Total

Patriotism/I want to 33 28 16 135 212 change China

Family ties 33 25 12 111 181

Social status Moving 16 23 29 57 125 upward

More economic 12 15 30 43 100 benefit

3 3 (It is easy to make money in China, I feel homesick if I study in the U.S. 3 (I do not I do not learn want to live in 1 (I do not English well Others 1 a very 16 like U.S.) enough.) different 5 (In China, I place.) have a better plan for personal development and I have a Chinese dream.)

Answers from female students as follows: (2-9B). Similar to their male peers, in terms of total number, “patriotism” was regarded as the most important reason for their return. Next was “family ties.” The third was “social status moving upward.”

Table 2-9B. The Reasons for Returning to China (Female)

Not label #1, #2, #1 #2 #3 or #3 Total

Patriotism/I want to 34 25 13 104 176 change China

Family ties 54 25 10 79 168

Social status Moving 13 25 40 45 123 upward

More economic 7 20 31 36 94 benefit

7 2 (I feel comfortable in China; I believe Others 8 1 working in 18 China in the coming future would be better.)

Left Blank 2

The interpretation of the results from Question 9 could function as a predictable variable for studying younger Chinese students’ motivations and plans to return or not- return. The number of male students who ranked “patriotism/ I want to change China” as a reason for wanting to return to China is 87 while the total number of males selecting this answer as the #1 most important reason tallied 33. The number of the female students who chose this as one of their reasons is 72, while 34 of them selected it as the #1 most important reason for returning to China. A total number of 159 students chose “family ties” as one of their reasons for returning to China, while 33 male students and 54 female students took it as their #1 most important reason for returning to China.

It is understandable why the families of the Chinese teenagers were eager to purchase a single-family house or a condominium in the U.S. By so doing, they create family ties here in the US instead of in China. The teenage Chinese parents were all modern mothers of Mencius, the second most famous Confucian after Confucius himself, were willing to move and settle in new places, meng mu san qian (孟母三迁), in searching for a better environment for their children’s education.

If compared to the data in Table 4-15, “family ties in China” was chosen as their

#1 most important reason for returning to China by the majority of the teenage Chinese who lived in the U.S. in 2014, 65.4%. However, if their families moved to the United

States, their “family ties” moved with them. The number of students who chose

“patriotism” as their reason for returning to China appeared to be far less on the U.S. side. In sharp contrast to the older generations’ “saving China” sentiment, only 32.7% of the teenagers chose “patriotism.”

By studying the reasons for not returning to China, one could form some notions about the motivations and the goals of the teenage Chinese and their parents. As shown in

Table 2-10, political reasons stood out.

Question 10: “The reasons for not returning to China after finishing school in the

U. S.”

Answers from male students as follows: (2-10A). “No political freedom,”

“frequently changed governmental policies,” and “social instability” were mostly selected as the #1 reason by male teenage Chinese for not returning to China after they finished school in the U. S. In terms of total number, “social instability” was mostly selected, followed by “frequently changed governmental policies” and “no political freedom.”

Table 2-10A. The Reasons for Not Returning to China (Male)

Not label #1, #2, #1 #2 #3 or #3

No political freedom 26 19 22 57

Social instability 23 35 15 94

Frequently changed Governmental 26 21 31 63 policies

Unsuitable social environment for 20 13 21 53 personal development

Lower income/economic 7 9 7 45 gain

2 5 (Being able to adapt to the American environment. Having a good job/securing a stable job.) 1 6 (lower quality 1 (Good of citizenry in Others environment in 2 China, lower the United living standard States.) in China, unsafe foods in China, Having American dream, a must- return trip to the U.S., No reason for Not returning.)

Left Blank

Answers from female students as follows: (2-10B). “Unsuitable social environment for personal development” was mostly chosen as #1 most important reason by female teenage Chinese for not returning to China after they finished school in the

United States. Next was the reason of “social instability,” followed by “frequently

50 changed governmental policies.” However, among all the reasons for not returning to

China, the majority of the female teenage students selected “social instability”. Second was “unsuitable social environment for personal development,” followed by “frequently changed governmental policies.”

Table 2-10B. The Reasons for Not Returning to China (Female)

Not label #1, #1 #2 #3 #2, or #3 Total

No political freedom 14 12 20 60 106

Social instability 28 29 14 76 147

Frequently changed Governmental 18 28 21 46 113 policies

Unsuitable social environment for 39 15 12 59 125 personal development

Lower income/economic 8 23 29 35 95 gain

4 1 (I can live a meaningful life in the United Others 1 7 States.) 1 (No reason for Not returning.)

Left Blank 2

Remarkably, this question had many respondents mark only a single box on a single row. Whether they marked box #1, #2, or #3, they only marked one box. Among the male students who did this, 31 of them selected “no political freedom” as their only reason for not returning to China, 61 of them selected “social instability” as their only reason, and 40 of them selected “frequently changed policies” as their only reason. The

51 numbers choosing these three reasons as their #1 most important reason for not-returning are 21, 23, and 24, respectively.

The same as mentioned before held for the females. Among female students, 34 of them claimed “no political freedom” as their only reason for not returning to China, 54 of them stated “social instability” as their only reason, while 29 of them emphasized

“frequently changed policies.” The numbers choosing these three reasons as their #1 most important reason for not-returning are 12, 27, and 18, respectively. However, the female students mostly select the reason of “unsuitable social environment for personal development” as the #1 important reason for not returning to China (36 of them), while only 16 of the male students chose this reason.

In terms of total number, “social instability” was taken as the most important reason for teens in China not to return to China (34.2%). Next was “frequently changed governmental policies,” 25%, and “unsuitable social environment for personal development,” 25%. The third mostly taken reason was “no political freedom,” as 23% of the teenage Chinese claimed in the survey. The data from Table 2-10A and Table 2-10B disclosed the importance of political factors in China since all the reasons were about politics in China.

If compared to the reasons that were picked by the teenage Chinese who lived in the U.S. in 2014, we saw similarities and differences. As shown in Table 4-16, the 1st,

2nd, and the 3rd reasons of not returning to China were “poor environment in China,”

“lack of political freedom in China,” and “don’t trust the government” in China. While two of the main reasons were directly related to politics, the “poor environment” can be directly influenced by political policies.

By looking at the main reasons for returning or not returning to China, the argument concerning the political and economic factors can be supported or disproved by the teenage Chinese, both in China and in the United States. As shown in Table 2-11A and Table 2-11B, while “family reasons” was mostly chosen by both sexes, “political reasons” for male teenagers appeared the second most important reason, while “economic reasons” was mostly selected by females as the second most important reason. While male took “economic reason” as their third choice, the females regarded “political” as the least important among the three main reasons. It seemed the female students tended to consider the economic factors more important.

Question 11: “The main reasons for returning to China or not returning to China.”

Answers from male students as follow:

Table 2-11A. The Main Reasons for Returning or Not Returning (Male)

Not label #1, #2, #1 #2 #3 or #3 Total

Political reason 33 26 37 87 183

Economic 26 57 17 60 160 reason

Family reason 44 15 40 123 222

Left Blank 1

11 4 (cultural and environmental reasons, returning to Other reasons 1 2 18 China because of loyalty, I was born in China and I am a China.)

Answers from female students as follows (2-11B). “Family reason” was the #1 reason chosen by the Female Chinese students for returning or not returning to China after they finished school in the U. S. Next was “economic reason.”

Table 2-11B. The Main Reasons for Returning or Not Returning (Female)

Not label #1, #1 #2 #3 #2, or #3 Total Political reason 18 18 57 68 161 Economic 40 50 6 88 184 reason Family reason 49 26 26 100 201 4 Other reasons 7 1 1 (personal 13 reason) Remarks

The data in Table 2-11A and Table 2-11B revealed that “family reason” was chosen as the main reason to return or not return to China by 60% of the Chinese teenagers. Interestingly, in terms of percentage, the “political reason” and the “economic reason” appeared to be of equal importance for these teens as each was similarly selected by 48.8% of the samples.

Summation of the Survey

There are some new findings in the data collected from the survey in China. They reflect the changes in China, the motivation of young Chinese venturing West for learning, and the global connection in which China plays a more important role.

1. First, the changes in China create a large gap between the rich and the poor,

unlike in Mao Zedong’s era or the onset of Deng’s economic reforms. After 35

years of effort, a proportion of the Chinese are rich enough to send their children

to school abroad and some of them purchase houses in the U.S. as well.

2. Second, the change in China geographically redistributes the number of out-going

students. While Shanghai still exports the largest number of teenage students by

about double, the small sample size in the American survey precludes the

assignment of a 2nd place region, although Beijing and Guangdong show similar

numbers. The number of out-going students reflects the substantial changes in

China over time. As Shanghai emerges as the international economic center of

China in the 21st century, Guangdong, an import/export hub especially between

the late 19th century and the 20th century, is no longer functioning as the most

influential economic center. Beijing, on the other hand, is expanding its economic

force in the 21st century and yet, still holds on to its primary role in politics.

3. Third, the majority of the students’ families support their teens’ decisions if they

choose to stay and find a job in the United States. Studying in the United States

thus becomes the instrument for their own benefit and for remaining in this

country. In this case, more Chinese teenagers, who lived in China in 2013 and

2014 when the survey was conducted, would make the trip across the Pacific.

4. Fourth, as China moves forward toward becoming a global economic power,

deliberately or unintentionally, the younger Chinese might take a step forward

toward a bigger world and not just focus on China. It seems the teenage Chinese

exploits in the 21st century still echo, the late 19th century’s Fukuzawa Yukichi’s

words, “Good-bye Asia (Datsu-A Ron)”, in terms of self-determination and self-

improvement.44 Westernization is taking a steadier step in pulling the Chinese

youth out of China.

The Teenage Chinese Arrived in the United States

Their lives begin anew as soon as they dare start. Their life voyage apparently bifurcates from that of many young Chinese who remain in China. For these teens,

American high schools are a lot different from those they have attended. They experience smaller class sizes, lower student-teacher ratios, music, arts, and all kinds of on and off- campus activities. Many of them had no music or art classes in their schools for years.

Many of the students had to give up all kinds of school activities in order to make time for the college entrance examination. As soon as they set foot on this soil, they smile.

Jacta est alea! (The die is cast!)

They do not only dream of America; they live it.

44 Fukuzawa Yukichi, “Good-bye Asia, 1885,” in Worlds of History: A Comparative Reader, vol. 2, Since 1400, ed. Kevin Reilly (Boston: Bedford/St. Martin’s, 2013), 895.

CHAPTER 3

AMERICA’S RESPONSES

Global capitalism has brought momentous benefits to China in terms of economic growth. This growth has created a new demand for Western schooling, as more Western- educated graduates now are needed in Chinese markets thus more relatively wealthy

Chinese parents desire to get the best education for their children. As global capitalism has poured over China since the 1980s, China, in Joyce Appleby’s words, “May well change the character of Western capitalism.”45 While connections with the outside world significantly change China, conversely, China becomes a larger player in world economic game—if the ball does not get whacked back, how can you play ping-pong? Under global capitalism, where there is a need, someone will fill it. The new world-system, in the case of China, is no longer exactly the same as the one that historian Immanuel Wallertein described, in which economic relations created a hierarchy of powerful core regions that controlled subordinate peripheries.46 In other words, the East reacted or responded to the

West. The paradigm of the old “world-system” does not seem to suit China well in terms of this modern transnational phenomenon, as the West is now responding to the East, not the other way around. A binary opposition between East and West, which is characterized

45 Appleby, 366.

46 Patrick Manning, Navigating World History (New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2003), 61-65.

57 by its inferiority and antagonism in the Western perception of the East, argued by Edward

Said, doesn’t fit China’s new reality, either.47 Thus, when the new wave from the East comes to the shores of American West coast, how would the Americans respond? This chapter showcases an example of American schools and how they respond to the new wave of the Chinese teens who come for their secondary education.

The incoming streams of Chinese teenagers hit hard the Western shore of the

United States—California in 2011. Let us begin with a case study. The Fairmont School, located in southern California, is a private, accredited school, founded in 1953 with six campuses. Fairmont Preparatory Academy, elementary and preschools at Anaheim Hills,

North Tustin (formerly called Edgewood), an elementary school at Historic Anaheim

(formerly called Mable), a preschool at Citron, and a campus located near the Historic

Anaheim campus, together aim to teach a consistent program from preschool through twelfth grade. Four of the schools accept international students. International students have been accepted since about 2010. The Historic Anaheim campus has a rich history in academic achievement and is famous for its arts and science labs. They strive hard to provide a great environment for international teenagers. The bonhomie atmosphere in their schools is impressive which produces the soothing for those who have difficulties in adapting.

Although slightly different, each campus has a gymnasium, a science lab, a computer lab, a cafeteria, an athletic field, and a library. On campus, diversity exists in both the student body and the faculty. Parents come visit the campus with their children

47 Anna Green and Kathleen Troup, The House of History: A Critical Reader in Twentieth-Century History and Theory (New York: New York University Press, 1999), 280.

58 and are invited to join the school’s Parent Association, where the parents could volunteer or get involved in school activities. For those parents that cannot speak English fluently, especially those from mainland China, teachers act as interpreters.

The beginning of spring semester, 2013, Fairmont High School teachers and directors received quite a shock. They had never seen such a large group of Chinese high schoolers entering their campus offices at one time. In their 60 years of education, it was the first time for them to welcome so many Chinese teenagers at the start of a new semester. They did not well prepared. The fact is that, before 2011, there were less than

30 Chinese students spread from kindergarten to high school on all six Fairmont campuses. Since 2011, the numbers of Asian students, especially Chinese, have been rising slowly but steadily. From 2011 to 2012, the number of the Chinese teens rose from around 30 to 40 or so. However, they still were not prepared for the large number of teens that showed up in their offices that spring day. From 2012 to 2013, the number rose so dramatically that in fall, 2014, it reached over 400. In a very short period, Fairmont schools had to find more teachers, more classrooms, more teaching tools, and more homestay families to support the influx of Chinese teenagers. In addition, the directors and even the teachers had to spend much of their extra, personal time at school helping the teens get oriented, settled, and on the right track.

School Ethnicities

Fairmont School has diverse ethnicities. However, Asian students, excluding students from India, contributed 26% of the school’s total population in 2013, and 28% in

2014, making Asian students the largest group on their campuses, surpassing the

Caucasian group.48 If Indian students were included in the category of “Asian students,” the percentage would have risen to 37% in 2013 and 41% in 2014. Compared to African students, who made up only 2% of the total student population in the years of 2013 and

2014, as shown in Figure 6, the Asian group was 20 times bigger than the African group in 2014. The Historic Anaheim campus had three classes for international students in

2014. They just expanded from two classes to three as more and more Chinese students came in the fall of 2013 and in spring 2014. In one class I did observation, out of 30 international students, 23 were Chinese. The concinnity of Fairmont Schools is very remarkable. A diverse culture is definitely born to a mélange of all skin colors.

Student Ethnicities distribution in Fairmont School, 2013 vs. 2014

30%

25%

20%

15%

10%

0% Asian Caucasian Indian African

2013 2014

Figure 6. The percentage of Asian teenage students. Compared to Caucasian, Indian, and African groups in Fairmont School, not including other ethnic groups for comparison. Source: Data collected from the 2013 and 2014 Report Cards of Fairmont private school.

48 Compared to students from China, Japan, Korea, Vietnam, whose official languages are not English, students from the country of India were regarded as English-speakers as English is India’s official language.

The School’s Instructional Programs

The language coordinator, who is responsible for the new teens’ progress, creates a curriculum targeting the Chinese teens’ English proficiency, starting at the six-grade level. Actually, the English vocabulary of a sixth-grader in a regular American elementary school usually surpasses that of a high schooler in China. To better prepare the teens’ studying other subjects, English-teaching not only arms the international students with English grammar and structure, but also the words and terms that the teens need in other subjects, such as in math, history, and geography.

An individualized practice was carried on in terms of letting advanced students complete high school level coursework while still at the junior high level.49 Their hands- on curriculum constantly changes to meet new needs. Each campus has math and language coordinators to facilitate individual students’ learning, especially in English.

The myth of Asian students having exceptional math talent is unclear, and yet, the individualized math package helps the talented, even the newcomers, move one or more grade levels ahead.

To prepare for a smooth transition from China to the United States, two professionals are always there for individual students. One is the junior high counselor.

The junior high counselor guides the students with their school plans and personal goals, making the students more confident in their academic success while comforting the transition from junior to high school. The other is the school psychologist. The psychologist is certified to meet with students and their parents in need. Any issues can

49 “Instructional Programs Overview,” Fairmont Schools, accessed July 19, 2015, http://www.fairmontschools.com/instructional-programs-overview.html.

61 openly be discussed with the psychologist. “I was nervous when I, for the first time ever, talked about my feelings for a boy in my class. And yet, I felt relaxed when I saw the teacher’s smile, not even mention her words.”50 Interesting enough, as soon as these

Chinese teens enroll in this school, they seem to not be afraid of seeking psychological help, and other groups do not stigmatize them, either. By providing psychological help on a daily basis, students and their parents feel at ease.

International Curriculum: A Separate-and-Combine Approach

The educators of International Foundation Center are there to consult with and assist international students individually. The other three campuses have similar international programs but implement them in slightly different ways. At the Historic

Anaheim campus, international classrooms are in a single building, where the teens start with lower level courses, then work their way up. Upon their successful completion of the higher lever courses, the students would be merged into the domestic classrooms.

With this curriculum, the Chinese teens enjoy learning here. They exchange ideas with their peers, talk with the teachers, and excitedly raise their hands to ask questions and have questions answered. The author did three observations in three different classrooms. In every classroom, the Chinese teenagers actively participated. To encourage international students’ oral communication “make sure you speak loud enough to let your group members hear,” said teacher Robert Esquerre when the students were doing a group activity.51 As the school’s curricula is tailored to the needs of the

50 Jennifer L., interview by author, May 6, 2015. Fairmont Anaheim campus. Anaheim, California.

51 Robert Esquerre, in a classroom observation by author, October 30, 2014.

62 international students at all levels, students benefit from their unique design and individual support. If the Chinese teens were the agents of cultural exchanges, so were their teachers.

Figure 7. Robert Esquerre facilitates the students’ learning.

Educational Technique: How the Newly Arrived Chinese Teens Learned

Chinese teenagers learn English even in history class. For students whose native language is not English, the ESL teacher, the English Literacy teacher, and even the history teacher co-operate to improve their English in different ways. The ESL teachers lead them to the door, the English Literacy teachers give them a voice, structure, and writing skills, and, the history teacher, works hard to increase their vocabulary. If

63 learning English is one of the Chinese students’ major goals, they have found the right place to be able to accomplish it.

Chinese teenagers use multiple methods to learn. They read aloud. They draw pictures. They sing songs. They role-play. The learning experience to them become fun and interesting, as opposed to Chinese classrooms, where students tend to sit still but teachers roam the classroom. When asking one of the Chinese teenagers whether she likes school here, she said, “Of course. Here, I feel I’m alive!”52

The Chinese teenagers move forward, one step at a time, earning the required units along the way. They often finish one unit in between two and three weeks and take the chapter test. They construct a writing project with a chopped up graphic organizer of objects to write about, piece and poke 300-word stories together in a rousing grammar and writing exercise.

The Chinese teens also learn science through creative activities. They make collages, make charts, and they brainstorm methods for solving problems. With the small class size and the highly student-centered approach, students easily have their voice heard and get involved in-group activities. Each day the teacher adds something new besides the book’s contents, for example, the definitions of new words. “If you want to know how to work with math, you should first know the vocabulary of math,” their curriculum coordinator Laura Michaels said.53

52 Li X. R, interview by author, April 30, 2015. Fairmont Anaheim campus. Anaheim, California.

53 Laura Michaels, interview by author, March 21, 2015. Anaheim, California.

Individualized Teaching Approach: How Their Language Program Functioned

The Fairmont schools adopt a language program called “Thesys,” designed for

ESL learners. It utilizes themes not only to teach English, but also social studies, science, and literature.54 Teachers here apply different approaches to scaffold students’ learning, such as content-based communication, history topic, practical math, etc. It is intended for all levels of English mastery in high school, from the basic to the advanced.

Vocabulary is practiced in the classroom and throughout the school, not only in

English class. International students thus have a complete English environment to communicate and practice. For the Chinese teens, and Asian students in general, the classroom and school were usually their primary places for practicing English, so the teachers make good use of their time by centering them in the classroom, giving every individual the priority to speak, and publishing their writing and audio recordings.

The teens are excited to see how much they improved. In a group of them that came in 2012, about 60% of the students’ math was below proficiency, and yet, after one year’s stay in this school, their math and English skills improved dramatically. In April

2014, their ESL tests and math test scores jumped about 20% in eight months, Laura

Michaels said.55

The three classes function as connected stairs to transform the teenagers from mute and deaf to active humans that are full of life and energy. They start in the two lower lever classes. When they accomplish all projects and requirements, they move up

54 “English as a Second Language Program,” accessed October 1, 2014, http://www.thesysintl.com/elloquence-overview.html,

55 Laura Michaels, interview by author, March 21, 2015. Anaheim, California.

65 to the higher-level class, where they take the same classes with the American students.

After one year’s training, the majority of them speak freely in class and school, are confident enough to explore other subjects and get vigorously involved in school activities and after-school activities. It is amazing to see such a great change in such a short time. It is even more amazing to see them enjoy learning.

How the School’s Other International Programs Work

While all the international programs at the four campuses target the development of non-native English speakers, Fairmont School creates two other programs for further promoting their international students’ education and success. The Joint Diploma

Program and the Immersion Program are the representatives, with the former allowing international students to earn their credits outside the U.S. and to continue studying in the

U.S., the latter emphasizing language and cultural nurturing by providing a short-term course for after school and during breaks.

The Joint Diploma Program (JDP)56

Fairmont School collaborates with schools worldwide to offer a joint instructive program—The JDP program—for international students who want to get an American high school diploma. It allows schools outside the United States to supplement their curriculum with Fairmont School’s coursework. Upon successful completion, students can earn academic credits even before they come to study in the United States.

56 “Fairmont International Education partners with schools around the world,” accessed October 20, 2015, http://www.fairmontintl.com/leadershipDetails.aspx?Featured=3&ID=20

The JDP program prepares international students for studying in the U.S., in one way or another, which is very much similar to the programs in international schools in China. It exposes students to American curriculum, English language, and American teaching methodologies. It targets the non-English-speaking students’ fear of the unknown: the difficulty of English language, the American school curricula, and the American-style education system. By getting involved in the JDP program, international students have a sense of familiarity with American education, in terms of English, getting into AP classes, earning credits, and performing better in America schools. According to

Fairmont School’s Report Card, the passing percentage of international students who took the AP exams was 79.5% in 2013, and 81.9% in 2014, respectively.

The Immersion Program57

This is created to help international students move one-step forward when other students were taking breaks. Its short-term courses are designed to offer international students learning experiences during summer and winter breaks, and before and after school. International students come intermingle with Fairmont students, through dialogues and interactions, to learn English and American culture in a more natural setting—“where everybody speaks English, the individual student would have no choice but trying to speak English,” according to Director Calabria.58 While some students

57 Fairmont Preparatory Academy, “Short-Term Immersion Program,” accessed October 21, 2015, http://www.fairmontprepacademy.com/page/international-program-short-term-immersion-program

58 Matt Calabria, interview by author, March 25, 2015. Anaheim, California.

67 participate in English language programs, such as camps and tours, others earn credit by actually taking courses.

The number of international students coming to the Fairmont School for this

Immersion Program has ballooned since the 2010s. In the year 2014, more than 250 international students came to visit the Fairmont School.59 The majority of them came from international schools in the People’s Republic of China and stayed in the Immersion

Program for some time in 2013 and 2014.

Table 3-1. International Schools and Students Visited Fairmont Schools 2013-2014

School Names Locations Years to Visit

Beijing 21st Century Beijing, PRC 2013 and 2014 International School

Fusion Elementary School Shanghai, PRC 2013

Global EDU Incheon, Korea 2013 and 2014

Ningbo Middle School Ningbo, PRC 2013

Pine Bilingual School Shanghai, PRC 2013

The Affiliated High School of Hangzhou, PRC 2013 and 2014 Hangzhou Normal University

The Affiliated Middle School of Guiyang, PRC 2013 and 2014 Guizhou Normal University

Yinchuan No. 2 High School Yinchuan, PRC 2013 and 2014

Chengdu Shishi High School Chengdu, PRC 2014

Shanghai Mingyuan Bilingual Shanghai, PRC 2014 School Source: Annual Report Cards of Fairmont School in 2013 and 2014.

59 Annual Report Card of 2014 of Fairmont School.

The JDP program and the Immersion program greatly bridge the international schools in China and Fairmont Schools. The Chinese teens earn their credits before they even set foot here, and become familiar with the American way of learning before they enroll. By so doing, according to Fairmont School’s annual report of 2014, while in 2013,

78% of the JDP students were accepted to a top 100 college or university, in 2014, the percentage rose to 99%.60 These achievements result from their efforts in advanced

Reading and Math beginning in the eighth grade.

Advanced Reading and Math Performance in Eighth Grade in 100% 2013 and 2014 80% 60% 40% 20% 0% Reading in 2013 Math in 2013 Reading in 2014 Math in 2014

Public Private Fairmont

Figure 8. Advanced reading and math performance in Fairmont Schools. Source: 1) California Department of Education Analysis, Measurement, and Accountability Reporting Division 10/11/2012. 2) U.S. Department of Education of, Institute of Education Science, National Center for Education Statistics, National Assessment of Education Progress (NAEP), various years, 1992-2011 Reading Assessments. 3) Fairmont School Annual Report Card.

In order to better understand the teenage Chinese experiences at Fairmont

Schools, the author of this paper decided to interview their curriculum coordinator and directors in 2015. With the help of Dr. Laichen Sun, the writer got the chance to arrange

60 Annual Report Card of 2014 of Fairmont School.

69 times and places for conducting these interviews. These interviews were conducted on

March 16, 2015, March 25, 2015, and March 21, 2015, in three directors’ offices and at the curriculum coordinator’s office, at Fairmont schools. They are director Matt Calabria, director Sherry Lin, and director Rebecca Lugo, and coordinator Laura Michaels.

Director Matt Calabria is especially familiar with the developing of international students from day one, as he traces the students’ growth by keeping an eye on their course achievements. Director Sherry Lin is an expert who knows well the students’ needs and the parents’ desires, as she builds a close relationship with the students and parents.

Director Rebecca Lugo not only pays attention to students’ academic achievements but also their psychological health. As the curriculum coordinator, Laura Michaels has worked in Fairmont Schools for 16 years. She is the one who knows well what, how, and why a curriculum works. They are the representatives of the educators of Fairmont

Schools. Following are the highlights of the interviews of these three directors.

The Interviews

Three directors of the Fairmont Schools the author interviewed in 2015 were from two campuses. Their words reflected the changes in the ease of the visa process to come to the United States especially from China, in the school’s newly adopted educational approaches, and in the students themselves.61 These changes started three years ago, and yet, they never stop. They cannot stop because of more international students—the majority being Chinese—come each year.

61 Matt Calabria, Sherry Lin, and Rebecca Lugo, interview by author, March 16 and March 25, 2015. Anaheim, California. The highlights are selected from the transcripts of recordings on these two occasions.

Author: Tell me about your international program.

Director Calabria: The international program of our school is aimed to

bring our students from a lower level to a higher level especially in

English proficiency. Based on students’ test scores and interviews, we

arrange the students with lower level English proficiency in the two

lower level classes, after their English has been improved, we move

them to the higher-level class.

Director Lugo: The International program at the Historic Anaheim campus

is designed for Fifth to Eighth graders. We allocate them into two

different levels based on their English proficiency and math scores.

After they complete all the courses, from lower level to higher level,

they move on, merge into the domestic classes,

and continue their learning.

Author: What are some benefits of this program?

Director Lin: One of the obvious benefits is its easy processing and

tracking. The students know what they are doing. So they can progress

faster. It is also easy for the school to track regularly. So we can see

how students are doing and accordingly, how we can provide the help

they need.

Director Calabria: The benefits include easy processing, easy tracking,

with a lot of individual support.

Author: What percentage of your international students are from mainland

China?

Director Calabria: Three years ago, about 95%. But the total number was

not big. Now, more and more Vietnamese and Korean teenagers come.

The percentage of the Chinese student is about 75%, and the total

number is a lot bigger.

Author: How many Chinese teenagers in your campus?

Director Calabria: About 200 in my campus.

Author: How do you feel about the Chinese teenagers in general?

Director Lugo: When they first came to this school, they were shy, quiet,

and they didn’t look me in the eyes. After two semesters, they became

thriving, happy, helpful, independent, and confident. Their

personalities started to shine. The total transformation of these Chinese

students is great to watch.

Author: What do you think might surprise and/or shock the Chinese

students when they came to the United States?

Director Calabria: Foods, culture, and how they address their problems to

their teachers. They would have to improve their English speaking if

they found nobody to speak to in Chinese.

Director Lugo: Maybe the weather. The weather here is beautiful.

Author: How well are the Chinese students doing in your school

academically and socially?

Director Lugo: They are doing very well academically. They have huge

gains in English proficiency. Socially they are also doing well. They

have a good time with their friends.

Director Calabria: Academically speaking, they are focused and hard

working. They do want to get better in English. The teachers and their

students have a common goal, which is, to make progress, quick and

big. At some point, they bond together.

Author: What are your impressions of Chinese students’ parents?

Director Calabria: They are supportive, hardworking, kind, but have high

expectations. They do not get involved in the school’s activities so

often because the majority of them cannot speak English fluently. If

they could improve their English, or, if somebody who does speak

English came with them, they would come.

Director Lugo: However, at least two of the international parents regularly

come and volunteer in our Parents Association at the Anaheim

campus.

Author: What do you think are the reasons for the increase in enrollment

in your school this year?

Director Lugo: I think that more Chinese students come by reference.

Director Calabria: Maybe the visa process became easier. It is easier to

visit here now and I heard parents are allowed to work. Maybe they are

interested in the opportunities Americans have. Because more students

these two years live with their parents or at least one parent. The

homestay percentage decreases in junior high level, from about 60% to

20% now.

Author: What else would you like to share with me about your Chinese

students?

Director Lugo: They are very similar to other teenagers. They are very

brave.

Director Calabria: They are very truthful, in another word, raw. I have

never met a student more truthful than a Chinese teenager when I was

at the Anaheim campus.

The Fairmont Prep School is just one of the high schools in Southern California that accept foreign students. However, the number of Chinese teenagers in this school, from 2013 to 2014, rose more than ten times in just two short years. Ten times! The students who hold the I-20 visa grew to 24% of the total school population in 2014.62

These I-20 visa holders are teens living alone with strange families and have the guts to stay and study here. As more Chinese students arrived at the age of 14 or some even younger, the international classes at their four campuses expand.

In addition, as the economies of Vietnam and Korea have grown rapidly since the late 1980s, the number of teenagers from these two countries has dramatically risen as well. Global capitalism and its connectedness have greatly transformed Vietnam from a nation that devastatingly suffered decades of wars to an economy that is open and dynamic in many aspects. Natural resources help Vietnam’s amazing growth, according to historian Jeffry A. Frieden, the Vietnamese economy “tripled in size in fifteen years,” and, “by 2000 Vietnam was exporting a billion dollars’ worth of shrimp, a billion of rice,

62 Sources from the 2013 and 2014 Annual Report Cards of Fairmont School.

and five billion of manufactured goods.”63 Korea, one of the Four Tigers, impacted by

Japan and the United States’ capital investments, has been provided a global market by these two “sugar daddies” thus caught the wave of explosive growth in part because

Japan was challenging American dominance.64 The rising numbers of teen students from

Vietnam and Korea confirm my argument that economic power functions as the most significant driving force of the new, westbound exodus. In the big picture, this exodus is not just occurring from within China but is beginning to emanate from other Pan-Asian countries as well.

If the Fairmont faculty interviews highlight how American schools respond to the wave of the teenage Chinese students who come after 2010, the survey conducted in the

United States in 2014 interpreted this historical phenomenon of this wave through the lens of the Chinese teens themselves. These teens, like their peers in China, frankly share their thoughts, their personal goals, and their life experiences. By looking at their survey answers, we see the changes in China and out of China, the differences between the old and the young generations, and the deep, broad influence of global capitalism. One can better comprehend this transnational movement by looking at both sides, from ultra- pacific to cis-pacific.

63 Frieden, 423.

64 Appleby, 354.

CHAPTER 4

THE SURVEY IN THE U.S.

This chapter focuses on those teens who physically lived in the United States in the year of 2014. The idea for this survey was to discover the teenage Chinese motivations and goals, what might be the differences between those that were still in

China and the ones that already lived in the United States, and the differences between the old generation and the new one. The author also sought to comprehend the journey of the Chinese teens by looking at their school and personal life experiences in the United

States.

The survey was anonymous and conducted in the United States with the support of four high schools in four cities in southern California, including Anaheim, Walnut,

Rowland Heights, and Newport Beach. With the help of four high schools’ directors, teachers, and students’ parents, the author carried out this survey with 52 samples. The schools were chosen through personal contacts. Since state and federal laws and their schools stringently protect minors, there was no way to conduct the survey among them if there was no personal contact.

The teenagers in the four cities took the survey voluntarily and did it in a place they felt comfortable. No teachers, parents or any other adult gave them guidelines or suggestions. The author went to their schools, randomly talked to those teens’ parents, and to the teens based on parental permission. No compensation or benefit was provided

76 to the participants. Even after they finished their survey questions, the author let them know they could take their questionnaire back at any time. The 24-question survey conducted in the US took an average of 30 minutes.

The U.S. survey is not about all Chinese teenagers studying in the US. It only focused on those that I randomly chose, who studied in four Southern California Junior

High and High schools in 2014. I collected the statistical data. Moreover, I only examine the teens whose ages were between 13 and 17 in 2014. I will not cover all Chinese high school students in these schools; rather, I limit my research to those Chinese teens who were born in mainland China. One feature of the questionnaire was that it is not allowed to ask information about the teenagers’ family background, based on the legal protections for minors.

The Characteristics and Profiles of the Sample show as below:

1. Dates of surveys conducted: US: 2014

2. Total number of survey-takers: US: 52

3. Sex of the survey-takers: In US: Male 34, Female: 18

4. Age of the survey respondents: 13-17 years old

5. For those who lived in the U.S. in 2013 and 2014, they were born and raised

in China before coming to the U.S.

The Survey Results from the Teenagers in the U.S.

That was a long trip. Many of the teenagers who took the 24-question survey agreed that it was a long trip from China to the United States. The majority of them came to the US between 2013 and 2014. Before they came, they watched Hollywood movies, often drank Coca-Cola, occasionally went to KFC and McDonald's, and wore Nike or

Under Armour clothes or shoes. Many of them had heard of the United States from their parents and friends. None of them had set foot on American soil before they came to study here in junior high and high school. In order to make comparisons, the first question was about their plans before they even left China.

Question 1: “Before You Left China to Come to the United States, Did You Plan to Stay, or, Return to China After Finishing Your Studies/ Getting Your Degrees?”

Table 4-1. Decisions Made Prior to Leaving China for the U.S.

Percentage of the Male Female Total total

a. Definitely return 1 0 1 to China

b.Will return if I have no job in 4 2 6 the United States

c.Plan to stay a while and decide 16 6 22 42% later

d.Plan to stay in 13 8 21 40% the United States

No idea 0 1 1

Left blank 0 1 1

Total 52

Before they left China, most had decided. They were bound to stay or at least stay a while in the United States. Only one out of 52 samples had initially planned to return to

China. The percentage of those who chose answers c and d is 82%. Looking at the data, it would be safe to say, over 80% of the Chinese teenagers planned (or their parents had planned) to stay in the U.S. before they took the journey.

Their plan before their coming to the U.S. signaled a major milestone in their lives. The global connection of China, especially in the 21st century provides the younger

Chinese students more opportunities to visit the outside world and accrete their interests in understanding the world. Coming to and staying in the United States initially might not be the plan of the teenage Chinese, however, parental influence can be phenomenal in terms of blueprinting these teenagers’ future. The desire of the teenagers’ parents, a generation that received their educations during the 1980s, essentially pre-determined their kids’ ocean-crossing journey. What made the United States so attractive to the youngsters? What are their motivations? The second question followed. For this question, more than one answers could be chosen.

Question 2: “What motivated you to study in the US?”

Table 4-2. Motivations to Study in the U.S.

Male Female Total

Parents 7 10 17

English education 11 8 19

Better life 13 4 17

Freedom of speech 4 3 7

1 1 (Better education in US) 1 (I want to find a 1 (Good teachers Other job here when I 6 and classmates) grow up.) 1 (I like school and hockey here) 1 (for money)

This data revealed the effects of globalization and Westernization on the Chinese people. An “English Education” was first and foremost the essential motivator to pull the young high schoolers out of China and into the United States. This also reflected that

China is speeding up its Westernization process, as a result, the Chinese teens felt the need to master the English language. Their parents’ push was the second factor. Same as hope for a “Better life.”

For those young intellectuals who entered colleges in the 1980s, as Ruth

Cherrington, a professor of Veliko Turnovo University pointed out, poor housing and research facilities, unsatisfying jobs and few opportunities to use their skills became the impetus that drove many out of China.65 The Deng generation further suffered from

China’s seniority system (lun zi pai bei 論資排輩 the Chinese seniority system in job applications and career promotions). As a result, those who found the means went abroad.

The term “chu guo chao (出國潮 the wave of getting out of China)” was popular in the late 1980s in Chinese media. It referred to the increasing number of young men and women involved in acquiring foreign educations. China’s public viewed the direct result of the “chu guo chao (出國潮),” as a major “educational crisis.”66

For those who did not make it out of China in the 1980s, their children became their hope. They waited until their families’ economic condition improved enough after

Deng Xiaoping’s reforms, and they waited until the Americans simplified their visa application process for the Chinese. “And every day, the lines for American visas were always so long. We had to wait in lines for three days,” a mother said.67 Their life experience in China became their motivation to send their children out of China.

65 Ruth Cherrington, Deng’s Generation: Young Intellectuals in 1980s China (New York: St. Martin’s Press, Inc., 1997), 104.

66 Cherrington, 102-103.

67 Lai X. R., interview by author, November 10, 2014.

In addition, the one-child-only government rule, proposed by Deng in the late

1970s, has created colossal anxiety in Chinese parents. When there was no other choice, who would not take it seriously? Thus, the only child not only carried parents’ hopes, but also their burden. The parents wanted their child, ideally, to be the best, to be competitive in society, and to be global, if not completely westernized. Being educated in the U.S. thus paved the way to worldwide employment viability even though the parents had to pay a fortune, ubi mel, ibi apes (from nothing, nothing can come). When asked for their purposes in the United States, the respondents answered as follows.

Question 3: “What are your purposes in the United States?”

To reside in the US permanently was typically chosen as their purpose.

Surprisingly, 26.9% of the students plan to reside permanently in the United States, while

23% of the young students plan to get a Master’s degree or Doctorate degree. The teenage Chinese knew clearly that they must be successful academically while living in the U.S.

Table 4-3. The Purposes in the U.S.

Male Female Total Remarks

Get a B.A./B.S. degree 6 1 7

Get a M.A./M.S. degree 2 3 5

Get a Ph.D. or other 5 7 12 23% Doctorate degree

To reside in US 10 4 14 26.9% permanently

Other 1 (I want to study in US.) 1 (I am here 1 (I like high because I do not school here.) have any 1 (I like degree.) studying here in 1 (I like 9 US.) basketball and 1 (For better hockey here.) education in the 1 (decide later) United States) 1 (kill Obama) 1 (to experience and learn)

No idea 3 0 3

Left blank 2 2

The teenagers’ purposes in the United States reveal more of their self-interests than anything related to allegiance. As a generation that was born at the turn of the 21st century, loyalty to their homeland didn’t seem so appealing since they didn’t experience the fight that created their nation in the 1940s, they weren’t involved in the buildup of their nation in the 1950s and 1960s, or, in the 1ate 1970s, contribute to the nation’s great course of the “Four-Modernizations” put forward by Deng.68 Nor had they been involved

68 A national propaganda campaign first proposed in the 1950s by the first People’s Conference, which goal was to modernize the whole of China by developing modern industry, agriculture, national safety, and technology. Deng Xiaoping in December 1979, when meeting with Japanese Prime Minister Ōhira Masayoshi (大平正芳), measured the goal with a GDP number they hoped to reach of 1000 US dollars per person by the end of the 20th century.

82 in the economic activities since the 1980s. What they heard from their parents and grandparents might be the Tiananmen Square incident of 1989, the return of Hong Kong and Macau in the late 1990s, and China’s rapid GDP growth rate in the early 21st century.

To reside in the US permanently had everything to do with personal gain but nothing to do with China. Among these teens, with very few exceptions, they knew that they came for living and learning. Their purposes did not change before, or after, they came to the United States. The answer to question one of this survey reveals the fact that, even before they left China, 82% of them had made up their minds to stay. On one hand, they had plans and goals when they came. On the other hand, they enjoyed their schools here, as most of the “Other” answers are directly related to the schools and their positive experiences in them.

However, how did they get into school here in the U.S.? What type of American visa allowed them to come? What are the requirements for them to apply for a visa to enter the U.S.? Could they travel to the U.S. alone? Did the school help in the visa application process? The answers to survey Question 4 were surprising.

Question 4: “What visa do you hold?”

Table 4-4. Visas the Chinese Teens Hold

Male Female Total Remarks

F-1 (Student) The status had been changed from I-20 to F-1 5 2 7 after continuous staying in the U.S. for two years

B (tourist, visitor) 2 3 5

I-20 16 9 25 48%

Family Business Visa 1

Permanent resident of 7 4 11 21% the US

Other 1 (US citizen) 1

No idea 1 1

Left blank 1 1

First, roughly about 50% of the kids were holding an I-20 visa to enter the US (25 out of 52 students). I-20 is the application for foreign high school students who wish come to study in American schools after they are accepted by a U. S. school and allows them to enter the U.S. without their parents. They must also pay the SEVIS fee as well.

The visa must be renewed every year. Not only does it require a bank statement of the student’s family, which must contain more than 35,000 US dollars, but also the complete arrangements for legal custody in the U.S. The legal custody in the U.S. can be a homestay family or their own relatives.

Second, becoming a Permanent Resident of the U.S. i.e., holding a Green Card, has its own set of rules that must be followed. The aspirant must show a substantial amount of evidence to support their application for legal residency. U.S investments of over 500,000 dollars and purchasing houses are definite, obvious evidence. The visa

84 prerequisites and evaluation processes of permanent residency allow the rich Chinese to make the investments in the U.S., in exchange, they receive their Green Cards in less than two years.

Third, surprisingly, five out of the 52 samples were holding tourist visas. Usually, a tourist visa is only valid for staying six months at a time. How is it possible for the teenagers to continue their schooling here in the U.S. and not leave the States and have to re-apply for their visa? Or, could the phenomenon be interpreted as that some teenagers came to the U.S. as tourists, with or without their parents or guardians, and decided to overstay? In one way or the other, these teenagers continued to stay and study in the U.S. on tourist visas, which is the kind of visa that almost everybody can get from the

American embassy in a very short period.

The simplification of the visa application and lower degree requirement sped the wave of Chinese students from East to West. The flow of the Chinese students who visited and studied in the U.S. increased dramatically in the last decade, and now, the ten- year visa is granted to many Chinese citizens, if not an ex post facto policy, really bridged the Pacific. The mutually beneficial relationship between China and the U.S. apparently reflected in the westward wave, as these two nations had been commensals for at least forty years since Nixon’s visit to China. Like the game of ping-pong, one side influenced the other, easily and quickly. The easy-to-acquire visa in recent years opened wide the gates of the United States for the Chinese teens.

In order to know the younger Chinese financial background, Question 5 asked the

Chinese teenagers whether they had the means to study in the U.S. The data showed that their parents supported about 77% of them.

Question 5: “Are you supported financially by your parents or relatives in the

US?”

Table 4-5. Financial Support

Male Female Total Remarks

By parents 25 15 40 76.9%

By relatives 4 2 6

1 (Homestay) By other people 1 (guardian) 3 1 (President)

Left Blank 2 2

The majority of the teenagers belonged to the rich few. Schooling in the U.S. was only possible for those who were financially secure, especially for those who came to study in private schools. The table shows, 40 out of 52 students, as high as 76.9%, are financially supported by their parents, meaning that their families were wealthy enough before they sent their children to the U.S. Their families belonged to the financial elite class in China. For a better future for their children—a future that had everything to do with Westernization—the parents made a huge investment in their children, not considering whether the cost would reach an extravagant degree when compared to the average income of ordinary Chinese.

On the other hand, being rich does not necessarily mean that a person can climb up the social ladder so easily since the intellectual class might simply just roll their eyes while giving him a condescending sideways glance. Since the 1980s, after Deng’s economic reforms, under the slogan “Let a few get rich first,” indeed, “a few” got their business going and started to enjoy enormous economic benefits such as the ability to

86 move into the city from countryside, to buy their children’s seats in elite schools, and some even paid corrupt government officials to expand their businesses. Yet, China’s reality sometimes can be cold and rude as many of the successful businessmen were called “bao fa hu (暴发户),” those that got rich in a short time because of good blessings, not because of a good brain.

Such was the social milieu set for the rich parents. In the early 21st century, as the parents gradually accumulated their RMB (ren min bi 人民币), their desire also accreted.

It was time for them to move. By supporting their only child to study in the U.S., the parents hoped to transform the child, academically, socially and psychologically. “It’s worth it if he could find a job here in the U.S. and support himself someday,” one father said.69 To him, it was OK to spend a huge trunk of money on the only child; it was not

OK if the child did not work hard enough to be able to transform himself for his own future.

One important idea for the only child’s transformation was to have the child stay in the United States. Among all the parents I had contact with, the majority of them believed staying in the U.S. would benefit the child, especially in learning English. The answer to the next question confirmed their parents’ plans and thoughts.

Question 6: “Does your family want you to stay in the United States?”

69 Chen Wansong, interview by author, August 10, 2015.

Table 4-6. Family Desire for Staying in the U.S.

Male Female Total Percentage

Yes, strongly want 18 9 27 51.9%

No 1 1 2

Somewhat supportive 8 4 12 23%

Somewhat opposed

Not supportive or 5 4 9 opposed

No idea 1 1

Left blank 1 1

If some of the older generation adults chose to remain in the United States after they finished studies, the younger ones’ families want them to stay. The data showed

51.9% of the teenagers’ families intensely wanted them to stay in the US. Another 23% of them are somewhat supported by their families. Putting the two choices together, approximately 75% of them were either “strongly wanted” or somewhat wanted by their families to stay in the US.

The percentage of the wanting-to-stay appeared similar to the percentage of the financial support in Question 5. Families that supported their children’s journey to the

U.S. were the ones that wanted them to stay. The parents supported the child not because they wanted the child to get an American education and then to go back to serve China.

The parents supported the child because they wanted the child to stay in the U.S. by being educated on American soil and in American ways, and by being molded into a being that could fit in American society. In short, transforming oneself for one’s own good.

In order to increase the possibility of the child’s remaining in the U.S., the

Chinese families had no hesitation in terms of supporting their children’s schooling. In

88 the late 20th century, a sort of a reality type show appeared. News segments, highlighting an “Eagle Dad” or a “Tiger Mom” were aired as a way to show parents methods to raise their kids to give them their best chance of success as they got older. This evolved into both regular TV shows and movies. The parents portrayed were always different, as they were actually real parents. The Eagle Dad and Tiger Mom were the consequence of the perplexity of the college entrance examination and the fierceness of the competition in job markets. The Chinese college entrance examinations, imposed by Deng since the late

1970s, are exceedingly long, complex and difficult. The competitiveness in the Chinese jobs markets, on the other hand, supported the explosion of new privatized colleges and universities that were created by, and as a direct consequence of, the educational reforms in China at the end of the 20th century. More young colleges; less qualified graduates. It was not difficult to understand, the Chinese parents not only needed to move their child to the U.S. but also support their studying here, as shown in the answers for question seven.

Question 7: “Is your family supportive of your studies in the United States?”

Table 4-7. Family Support for Studies in the U.S.

Male Female Total Percentage

Yes, strongly support 24 14 38 73%

Somewhat supportive 5 4 9 17.3%

Somewhat opposed 1 2 3

Not supportive or 1 1 opposed

Left blank 1 1

The numbers indicate that the teenagers’ families were supportive of their studies in this country. The table shows 73% of the young students’ families are helpful, another

17.3% of their families are somewhat supportive in their studies. If added up, over 90% of their families were supportive of their study here in the US. Was this caused by a

Chinese cultural element based on Confucian doctrines? Are the Chinese parents of the

21st century still guided by Confucius’ “yang bu jiao, fu zhi guo 养不教，父之过 (It is a father’s fault if he sires a child but does not educate him)?” In the early 2010s, as many of the parents, especially the fathers held much wealth, they felt the need to exercise their paternal responsibility in their only child’s education. One group were college-educated and had the ability to nurture their children. Another group was simply rich by luck but not well educated. Both groups had witnessed the market development in China and noticed the demand for Western education for their children. Since they believed either they needed to have the Western environment, or the ability to educate their children, they decided to send their children out of China to be educated by the Westerners. The teenagers not only had to work hard to be able to stay but also had to work hard to satisfy their parents’ demands, which would never be attenuated by the crossing of borders or the change of environments.

The family’s support of their children’s studies reflected their study-for-stay mentality. The teenagers knew their mission even before they set foot on this new land.

Parents stuck to their one and only goal: transforming the child to be an American. This seemed like a domino effect. Without a good education, the child could not find a good job. Without a good job, the child could not support himself. Without the ability to support himself, the child could not stay and live in the United States. All the parents’

90 cards were played to make the child win in the end. All the parents’ efforts were taken to renovate the teenagers—to be assiduous and aspirant. Thus, once the children were put on the field to play, they would “play to win.”70 The influence of the Chinese parents was not just reflected in their support of their teenagers’ education, as shown in table 4-8, but in other aspects of their daily life.

Question 8: “Do your parents’ views still influence your day-to-day decisions?”

Table 4-8. Parental Influences

Male Female Total

a.The biggest influence 10 4 14

b.A certain degree of 12 5 17 influence

c.Very little influence 7 5 12

d.No influence at all 2 3 5

e.Left blank 2 2

f.No idea 1 1 2

It was surprising that the teenage Chinese, even after they have moved to the

United Stated for education, were still obeying some old Chinese traditions. Listening to their parents was definitely an important discipline. The discipline is applied to guarantee that the child is capable of remaining in the United States. The parents’ influence level of a + b reaches 59.6%. The power of the parents was obvious and seemed powerful.

70 Huang Quanyu, The Hybrid Tiger: Secrets of the Extraordinary Success of Asian-American Kids (New York: Prometheus Books, 2014), 7 and 83.

The commanding influence, without a doubt, made sure that the kids’ mission stayed on the right track. Among all the student samples, every one of them had after- school programs and activities. Only one of them, who was 17 years old, was allowed by the parents to have a date. To succeed academically meant to stay, permanently. As the parent’s motivations became well known to the child, they gradually turned into the child’s motivations and goals. As shown in table 4-9, the teenage Chinese knew very well that their parents would like them to not return to China.

Question 9: “If you choose NOT to return to China after you finish your studies here in the US, would your family support your decision?”

The economic growth of China definitely created a centripetal force for the overseas Chinese, especially the Chinese businessmen and women. Yet, for these teens, after years of living and studying in the United States, would they choose the Stars and

Stripes or the Gold Stars when it is time for them to graduate?

Table 4-9. Family Support for Post-Graduate Decisions

Male Female Total Percentage

Yes, absolutely 24 12 36 69%

No, not at all. 2 2 4

I have no idea about what my family 8 3 11 members want me to do.

1 (Parents would Other support if only I 1 visited regularly)

The teenagers’ families overwhelmingly supported not-to-return. The data showed 69% of their families would definitely support their decision if they chose not to

92 return to China. However, why? Maybe their parents knew the reasons better. Maybe the majority of the students simply believed that returning would be a bad idea. Maybe, after having stayed in the U.S. for a year or two had already changed the teenagers’ minds and souls.

Not only did the majority of teenagers choose not to return to China after they finished their studies in the U.S., but also not to do business with/in China. As shown in table 4-10, saying no to doing business with/in China was the most chosen option in the survey.

Question 10: “Are you planning to do business with/in China after you finish your studies? What business would you like to do with/in China?”

Table 4-10. Business with China after Graduation

Male Female Total

3 (I want to be a lawyer, a doctor, a 11 fashion designer.) Yes 1 (to be a designer) 20 3 (engineering, 1 (to be a lawyer) education, trade) 1 (design)

7 No 18 26 (50%) 1(I will stay in US.)

No idea 1 2 3

Left blank 1 1 2

1 (maybe) Other 2 1 (don’t know yet)

The number of the students who are Not willing to do business with/in Remarks China is higher than the number of students that want to do business with/in China.

Shockingly, the majority of the Chinese teenagers neither plan to return to China, nor do they want to do business with or in China, after they finish their studies here in the

U.S. It would be flippant if one said that the motivations and the goals of the younger

Chinese studying in the United States would be for China. It is ironic when so many foreigners and foreign companies have been doing business with/in China since the late

1980s, while their youngsters are unwilling to do business with the country they come from.

The not-to-return-to and the not-to-do-business-with China undeniably provide the evidence to support the self-gain hypothesis. The teenage Chinese willingness to actively transform the self, is to acclimate said self on U.S. soil. The goal would be living in the United States, and not returning to China.

In fact, living in the U.S. with parents was not a mirage at all. As shown in table

4-11, 32.7% of the students’ families own a single-family home here in the US.

Question 11: “Describe your living arrangements in the United States.”

Table 4-11. Living Arrangements in the U.S.

Male Female Total Percentage Own a single-family 12 5 17 32.7% home Own a condominium 0 3 3 5.7% Rent an apartment 4 0 4 Rent a room 5 1 6 Live with my relatives 1 4 5 13 (One student owns a single- Live with my family family home 9 4 25% members AND live with his family members.) Other 3 (Homestay) 1 (Homestay) 4 7.7% Left blank 1 1

However, only 25% (not 32.7%) of the students surveyed live with family members in the US, meaning some of the Chinese teenagers lived alone in the U.S. On the one hand, about 40% of the teenagers’ families can afford a house in the United

States. The economic growth in China greatly benefits the Chinese people. The Chinese aggrandized themselves by exploiting the relatively peaceful internal environment in

China and the demanding situation in global markets.

On the other hand, the environment of a host American family cannot be ignored for a student’s growth. Among all the teenagers who took the survey, 7.7% of them live with a Homestay American family. This one thing was similar to the experiences of the first 120 Chinese teenagers. History has repeated itself at some point. A homestay family of the 21st century can be very different from that in the late 19th century, when one of the 120 teenagers, Yen Fu-lee, first met with his homestay family:

It was my good fortune to be placed into the hands of a most motherly lady in Springfield. She came after us in a hack. As I was pointed out to her, she put her arms around me and kissed me.71

The 7.7% of the teenage Chinese lives, without a doubt, could be influenced by the treatment of the host family, where they lived and learned.

The satisfaction of their living environment in the U.S. can be used as an important measure to foretell whether they would go back to China. Table 4-12 provides a glimpse of the teenagers’ comparison in China and in the United States in terms of housing conditions.

71 Yi-Chi Mei et al.,eds., A Survey of Chinese Students in American Universities and Colleges in the Past One Hundred Years (New York: China Institute in America, 1954), 13.

Question 12: “How would you compare your housing here to your housing in

China?”

Table 4-12. Housing Comparison

Male Female Total

a.Much better 8 5 13

b.A little better 11 4 15

c.Same 7 6 13

d.A little worse 3 3 6

e.Much worse 4 0 4

Left blank 1 0 1

If a + b, 53.8% of them believe their housing here in the United States is better than their housing in China. It was unlikely that the younger Chinese students would choose to return to China if they had better housing here, not to mention if they found a job here in the U.S. after they finished school.

The better housing in the United States seems odd to some Chinese as many of them live in bad housing but have to pay a lot for it. Not just a few Chinese complained they had no way to purchase a house even in a small city as the housing prices skyrocketed in the late 20th century due to inflation. The statistics showed housing here in the U.S. is definitely attractive to Chinese families. For the 40% that had purchased houses in the U.S., as shown in table 4-11, it would be naïve to believe they would go back to China. To the rest of the 60% who either rent a house or a room or live in homestay, it would be illogical to think they won’t try their best to settle down in the

U.S.—just for the potential of living in or purchasing a better house in the future.

However, some more important factors could strongly persuade the teenage

Chinese and their families to stay in the United States. As shown in table 4-13, when asked what would be the three most important things about the U.S. that appeared attractive to the teenagers, a better environment was the top choice.

Question 13: “Please choose three positive things about the United States, and rank them with numbers 1, 2, 3, with “1” as the highest ranking, “3” as the least).”

Table 4-13. Three Positive Things about the U.S.

Not label #1, #2, or #3 #3 (the Total (the #1 (the #2 (the number (the number of number number of number Male/ of Male/ of Male/ Male/ of Male/ Percentage of the Female) Female) Female) Female) Female) total samples Political freedom 1/0 7/3 2/3 2/4 12/10 22 out of 52, 42.3% Better 1/0 7/6 4/2 8/4 20/12 32 out of 52, 61.5% environment Job mobility 1/0 1/1 3/1 5/2 More job choices 2/0 1/1 1/2 3/1 7/4 Good working 1/0 2/1 4/5 1/0 8/6 14 out of 52, 26.9% condition Higher living 1/2 3/1 4/0 8/3 standard Better for my personal 1/0 3/1 2/0 5/1 11/2 13 out of 52, 25% development I like my school 2/0 3/4 8/3 4/2 17/9 26 out of 52, 50% here in US Economic gain 2/0 0/1 3/3 2/0 7/4 Better foods 0/2 2/1 4/2 6/5 Safe foods 3/0 3/1 4/2 5/1 15/4 19 out of 52, 36.5% Better future for 1/0 1/1 1/0 3/1 6/2 my children 1/0 1/0 (better (Fresh Other education 2/0 air in system US) here.) Left blank 1/0 61.5% of the Chinese students take “Better environment” as the most positive/ beautiful thing in the US. Interestingly, 50% of the students affirm they “like their Remarks schools here.” “Political freedom” is regarded as the 3rd positive thing in the United States (42.3%).

It was surprising to see that 32 out of 52, or 61.5% of the Chinese students chose

“better environment” as the most positive/ beautiful thing in the US. Interestingly, 50%

(26 out of 52), of the students affirmed they “like their schools here.” The data also showed that “political freedom” was regarded as the third most positive thing in the

United States (42.3%). Zweig and Chen argued the political factor was the single most important force to push the Chinese students out of China to the U.S in the 1990s, after the Tiananmen incident. The data from this survey showed that “better environment” in the United States appeared as the most attractive pulling power.

The teenagers’ liking of their school, in addition, further confirmed their desire to stay in the United States. Their liking of their school resulted from the friendly environment there such as pleasant relations between teacher and student, opening discussions in and out of the classroom, and the respectful interaction with other people in their experiences. The liking of their school made their learning easier, which in turn, helped them to rapidly transform their minds.

When looking at the other side of the coin, the difficulties of adapting to a completely new environment was very challenging. As adolescents between 13 and 17 years of age, the Chinese youth encountered loneliness and helplessness in the new land, as shown in table 4-14, missing friends or family, the need to learn English and to adapt to a new environment gave them austere pressure.

Question 14: “Please choose three negative things about the United States, and rank them with numbers 1, 2, 3, with “1” as the highest ranking, “3” as the least).”

Table 4-14. Three Negative Things about the U.S.

Not label #1, #2, or #3 (the #1 (the #2 (the #3 (the Total number number number number (number Percentage of Male/ of Male/ of Male/ of Male/ of Male/ of the total Female) Female) Female) Female) Female) sample Remarks

Pressure and 15 out of speed of life 2/0 2/4 3/0 3/1 10/5 52, 28.8% is too fast

Crime or The 3rd 20 out of personal 5/2 4/3 5/1 14/6 negative 52, 38.5% insecurity factor

Job 0/1 2/0 3/2 5/3 insecurity

Poor living 2/0 1/0 3/0 2/3 8/3 condition

15 out of Racism 2/1 3/2 6/1 11/4 52, 28.8%

Poor inter- 16 out of personal 1/0 0/2 1/6 5/1 7/9 The 4th 52, 30.8% relations

Missing 29 out of friends or 2/0 7/5 5/4 4/2 18/11 52, 55.8% family

I need to 27 out of learn English 8/0 9/1 4/5 21/6 49, 51.9% well

I don’t like my school 0/1 4/1 4/2 here in the US

I need to adapt to a 20 out of 3/1 4/2 7/3 14/6 The 3rd new 52, 38.5% environment

0/1 (I don’t like 1/0 American Other (different 1/1 Chinese culture) food here.)

Left blank 1/0

100

The data showed that the younger Chinese students either missed their friends in

China, or family if they did not live with their parents in the U.S. “Missing friends or family” was taken as the most negative thing the teenagers experienced in the United

States (55.8%). English learning was regarded as the second most negative factor by the majority of the Chinese students when they studied in the US. The third most negative factor was the need to adapt to a new environment (38.5%).

However, “racism” to them was not a big issue in terms of negative factors of the

U.S when they took the survey. As newcomers in American society in the early 21st century, where diversity can be seen in every corner in ethnicity, food, fashion, and tradition, the teenaged Chinese did not see much racism or take racism as a serious negative element in American society.

The three negative things the Chinese teenagers experienced when staying in the

U.S. were all related to their internal struggle in the process of adaptation, not to the external trouble either in racial differentiation or in social stratification. As one of the teenagers stated, “If I worked hard enough, I can do better.”72 While they liked their schooling here, there was no reason to believe they would not be successful academically. To succeed academically would be their first step toward proving their ability to live in the United States.

On the other hand, when the teenager lived with their own family here in the U.S., the number one negative factor would be eased thus the intention of returning to China lessened and the plan to stay gained more probability. However, the author wondered,

72 Emily Zhang, interview by author, November 18, 2015. Rowland Heights, California.

101 what could be the reasons to make them want to return to China? Would the reasons be strong enough to overcome their parents’ motivations and their goals? Taking a close look at the data in Table 4-15 could give a clear clue.

Question 15: “If you plan to return to China after finishing your studies, what are the #1, #2, and #3 reasons? (#1 is the most important reason).”

102

Table 4-15. The Top Three Reasons to Return

#1 (M/F) #2 (M/F) #3 (M/F) Total Percentage of the (M/F) total samples a.Patriotism 17 out of 52, 5/1 1/0 6/4 12/5 32.7% b.Loyalty 1/0 3/1 1/1 5/2 c.Family tie in 26 out of 52 China students chose “Family tie in China” as their #1 important reason for returning to 18/8 3/3 1/1 22/12 China after they finish their study in the United States. This reason is chosen by 65.4% of the total students. d.Higher social 2/4 2/0 0/2 4/6 status in China e.More economic gain 0/2 4/3 4/5 in China f.Better job opportunity in 2/1 1/1 3/5 6/7 25% China g.Want to 4/1 4/2 3/1 11/4 28.8% change China h.New opportunities 0/2 3/0 3/1 6/3 in China i.Better education for 1/0 2/2 3/2 your children in China j.Cultural 17 out of 52, comfort in 3/1 5/2 3/3 11/6 32.7% China k.Make more money in 1/0 0/1 1/1 2/2 China than in the US Total Percentage of the #1 (M/F) #2 (M/F) #3 (M/F) (M/F) total samples l.Other 3/0 (I’m not going 1/0 (I plan 1/0 (friends in back to China.) to go back China), 0/1 (I plan to go because my 1/0 (I’ll go back

back because of girlfriend is to Korea because Chinese foods in China.) my girlfriend is there.) there.) Left Blank 2/2 Note: M=Male; F=Female

103

One striking fact in the data was that 26 out of 52 (50%) of students chose “family tie in China” as their #1 most important reason for returning to China after they finish their studies in the United States. In other words, if their families moved to the United

States, their “family tie” also moved.

Compared to “family tie,” the number of students who chose “patriotism” as their reason for returning to China appeared far less. In sharp contrast to the older generations’

“saving China” sentiment, only 32.7% of the teenage samples took “patriotism” as their possible reason.

When looking at the other side of the coin, the pushing factors of China can be seen in table 4-16, in which the Chinese teenagers pinpointed the poor environment in

China and two political issues.

Question 16: “If you plan NOT to return to China after finishing your studies, what are the #1, #2, and #3 reasons? (#1 is the most important reason).”

104

Table 4-16. The Top Three Reasons Not to Return

#2 #3 Not label #1, #2, #1 (M/F) (M/F) (M/F) or #3 (M/F) Total 13/5 Note: 18 out of 52 students (34.6%) a. Lack of take “Lack of political political freedom 6/1 3/1 4/3 freedom in in China” as their China important reason for Not returning to China.

b. Lack of 5/2 political/social 3/0 2/2 Note: 13.5% stability 12/3 Note: 15 out of 52 c. Don’t trust students (28.8%) the 3/1 3/2 4/0 2/0 “Don’t trust the government government” in China. d. Government policies 3/3 1/1 1/0 1/2 change Note: 11.5% frequently e. Too many 4/3 2/0 1/3 1/0 movements Note: 13.5% f. Lack of opportunity 4/2 2/0 1/1 7/3 for personal development g. Lower living 1/2 3/1 2/1 6/4 standard h. Lower economic gain 2/0 2/1 1/2 1/0 6/3 in China 8/5 i. Family here Note: 13 out of 52 doesn’t want students (25%) 1/4 3/1 3/0 1/0 to return to state their families China here do not want to return to China. j. Returnees are looked down 1/1 0/1 1/2 as failure k. Lack of 0/2 2/0 3/1 1/0 6/3 suitable jobs l. Fear of not being able to 1/1 3/0 1/2 5/3 get out of China again Note: M=Male; F=Female

105

Table 4-16. The Top Three Reasons Not to Return, cont.

#2 #3 Not label #1, #2,

#1 (M/F) (M/F) (M/F) or #3 (M/F) Total m. Poor working 1/1 1/0 1/1 3/2 condition in China 12/9 Note: 21 out of 52 students (40.4%) n. Poor take “Poor environment 1/3 8/5 3/1 environment in in China China” as their most important reason for Not returning to China. 9/5 Note: 14 out of 52 students (26.9%) affirm that one o. Poor quality/ 1/1 4/2 4/2 important reason unsafe foods for Not returning to China is “Poor quality/ unsafe foods” in China. p. Poor inter- personal 1/1 1/1 2/2 relations in China 1/0 (Lots of bad people in China), 1/0 (Too much homework in China), q. Other 0/1 (I am happy here in the United States.) 1/0 (I am going back to China.) r. Left Blank 3/4 Note: M=Male; F=Female

The first, second, and the third most popular reasons for not returning to China were “poor environment in China,” “lack of political freedom in China,” and “don’t trust the government” in China. The poor environment in China became the single most important factor to keep the younger Chinese out of China—21 out of 52 students

(40.4%) hated it. The second and the third reasons were all about China’s politics. If

106 combined, these two political factors together, 33 out of 52 students (63.4%) would choose not to return to China due to the political climate.

Compared to the data in Table 4-13, the data collector would assume, if the political factors in China did not drive the younger Chinese out, they surely would keep them from coming back. Keeping the three reasons in mind, would it be logical for the younger Chinese to go study in the United States in order to come back to China? Would it be rational for the 63.4% of the Chinese youth to return to and serve China, if they felt the lack of political freedom there and they did not trust the government at all?

Political issues, however, are never discussed in depth in terms of cause and effect in the historical writings in Chinese. The Cultural Revolution was one of them. The author considered as time went by, people would forget. It was shocking to see, as shown in table 4-17, some of the younger Chinese of the 21st century knew about the

Revolution, even though they did not experience it.

Question 17: “Did your family suffer in the Cultural Revolution or other movements?”

Table 4-17. Historical Family Suffering

Percentage of the Male Female Total total samples

Yes 10 5 15 28.8%

No 21 11 32 61.5%

No idea 3 1 4 7.7%

Left blank 1 1

From the numbers collected, 28.8% of the students’ families suffered in the

Cultural Revolution or other movements in China. If traveling back in time, it could be

107 that it was their grandparents, not even their parents, who experienced that political movement. For those families that suffered in all Chinese movements, were their grandparents influential in their decision-making? Or, were their parents persuasive by passing on the teachings of their grandparents on to the younger ones?

The negative impact of the Cultural Revolution on generations would be hard to fathom. Yet, when looked at table 4-18, the statistics appeared dreadful.

Question 18: “How important is this knowledge to your decision whether to return to China?”

Table 4-18. The Importance of Family Suffering History

Percentage of the Male Female Total total

Very important 17 3 20 38.5%

Somewhat important 7 4 11 21.1%

Not very important 2 3 5

A little important 1 2 3

Not important at all 4 5 9

Left Blank 3 1 4

The Cultural Revolution and other political movements have not yet disappeared from Chinese life. 31 out of 52 Chinese teenagers (59.6%) stated that their families’ suffered in these political movements in China and were “very important” or “somewhat important” for them to decide as to whether or not to return to China. It is easy to explain the 59.6% compared to the 28.8% that actually suffered in the Cultural Revolution and other movements. Fear. Just by acknowledging these creates fear. And fear can prominently influence decision-making. For these youngsters, who were born between

108 the end of the 20th century and the first decade of the 21st century, the various political movements still had a psychological impact on their lives according to the data collected.

While political movements played an important role channeling people in or out of China, table 4-19 showed another important factor that also had enormous power to shift the flow of people, their motivations, and their goals.

Question 19: “How do economic factors affect your decision whether or not to return to China?”

Table 4-19. Economic Effects

Percentage of the Male Female Total total sample

Very important 5 6 11 21%

Somewhat important 7 14 21 40.4%

Not very important 7 2 9

A little important 1 2 3

Not important at all 5 0 5

No idea 1 1

Never thought about it 1 1

Left blank 1 1

Sixty-one% of the students affirmed that economic factors are “Very important” or “Somewhat important” as to whether they return or not return to China. Would they return when the economic environment in China got better, as some Chinese historians, such as Tian Tao and Liu Xiaoqin claimed?

As both a push and pull factor, the economic factor was a major concern of these teens in their decision of whether to return or not return. Their coming study in the

United States did not change the function of the factor, but only changed their ability to

109 deal with the factor. While over 60% of the teenage Chinese took the economic factor as an important aspect to consider, over 50% of them, as shown in table 4-20, regarded the political factor as another important issue that needed to be considered.

Question 20: “How do political factors affect your decision whether or not to return to China?”

Table 4-20. Political Effects

Percentage of the Male Female Total total samples

Very important 10 3 13 25%

Somewhat important 6 8 14 26.9%

Not very important 7 2 9

A little important 4 1 5 9.6%

Not important at all 5 4 9

No idea 1 1

Left blank 1 1

Compared to the results from Question 19, while both economic and political factors were taken as two important reasons for their deliberation whether to return or not return, the economic factor surpassed the political one by 10% in the decision of whether they planned to return. To what degree would they want to return? Suffice it to say, it only broached the topic for discussion.

Interestingly, a gender difference was shown in the teenagers’ answers. While more male students believe the political factors are “Very important,” more female students take “political factors” as “Somewhat important” for their decisions.

The whether or not questions only served to distinguish the importance of the two factors, not determine when, or if, the younger Chinese would return. Partially, the

110 questions revealed many possible reasons for the kids to consider when they are deciding whether to go back. However, as 75% of the teenage Chinese families wanted them to stay in the U.S.as shown in Table 4-6, and 69% of their families supported their not returning to China in Table 4-9, plus the majority of the teenage Chinese didn’t even want to do business with/in China, how big is the possibility they would consider returning?

The teenagers’ consideration of returning or not- returning can also be seen in table 4-21. Among all their dreams, the most-chosen eight choices had nothing to do with

China. On the contrary, six out of the eight most chosen were about education and life in the United States. Thus, it will not be difficult to understand why the teenage Chinese were willing to take the ocean-crossing voyage and transform themselves by actively learning and adapting in a new land.

Question 21: “What are some of your dreams?”

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Table 4-21. The Teens’ Dreams

Male Female Total Percentage

To be rich 19 12 31 59.6%

To be famous 9 5 14 26.9%

To reside permanently in the 2 2 4 United States

To contribute to China’s development in the coming 4 2 6 future

To return to China as soon as I 6 2 8 finish my study in the US

To return to China so that I can 7 1 8 live with my parents

To return to China so that I can take care of my family 8 1 9 members in China

To continue my education here 13 1 14 26.9% in the US

To make some friends here in 13 9 22 42.3% the United States

To find a job here in order to 11 11 22 42.3% support myself

To set up a family here in US 9 5 14 26.9%

To live with my parents here 11 4 15 28.8% in US

To take care of my family 9 3 12 23% members here in US

Left blank 1 1

1 (to show my family 1 (being happy is what I can do), somewhat more 1 (music) important.) 1 (to play in NHL and 1 (to be rich and Other 7 NBA). give my parents 1 (destroy the world) money. Be 1 (To have own together with the company) boy I like.)

Almost 60% of the younger Chinese students dreamt of being rich. Over 40% of the teenagers dreamt of either making some friends or finding a job in the United States.

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These were the top two dreams. Their dreams revealed their motivations and goals in coming to the U.S. Again, the two top dreams had nothing to do with China.

Their dreams also reflected their desire to fit in. If the self is socially constructed, a good school environment and an inclusive atmosphere in the society can help these teenagers develop. A teenager’s mind can be very simple. The cultural shocks and other surprises could help in the process of their becoming global citizens by opening their eyes and minds.

In responding to the questions of cultural shocks, they frankly shared what they saw and how they perceived the U.S. The answers for Question 22 and Question 23 were the original words written by the Chinese teens.

Question 22: “What surprised you about the US?”

Responses:

1). Male students answered this question as follows:

“Americans have good education, and people here are very kind.” “People here are really nice.” “The roads are very clean, and rules are fair.” “The class is more interesting than that in China.” “Americans are very nice to us. Most people like us. People can have freedom here.” “Food, education, future.” “I stay US. I can eat rice every day.” “The environment is quite clean.” “Nothing!” The air, not traffic jam.” “Freeway every day.” “Foods.” “The US is really big!” “You can have guns.” “The environment, education, and policy.” “Here are too many Chinese people in California.” “Many people are rich. They don’t have friends.”

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2). Female students answered this question, at some point, differently:

“The US seldom have buildings!” “People in U. S. are so kind!” “I have a lot of friends here!” “The US education is very different, but study need more hard.” “Nothing surprises me!” “I think here has good air.” “There is good air!” “Teachers and classmates are very friendly. I love the education here.”

Without a doubt, the Chinese teens experienced culture shock when they landed in 2013 and 2014, with food differences, freeways and traffic, and guns. Most American people were kind and nice as the Chinese teens mentioned this in their answers. Around

45% of them appreciated the clean environment here. They like their schools here, too.

Approximately 40% of them mentioned this in their answers.

Question 23: “What shocked you about the US?”

Responses:

1). Male students answered with:

“People are nice to each other.” “It’s really dangerous at night in downtown.” “You must follow all the rules, or you’ll get in troubles.” “We need to spend a lot of money.” “It is hard to live without my family. I can’t find people who have the same culture and it’s hard to join American culture. Now, I feel much better.” “Environment, political freedom.” “I can’t go out alone.” “Maybe the society isn’t very safe.” “Nothing!” “Guns, culture.” “Education.” “I can’t speak English well.” “I was shocked to see some people in US don’t like Asian people.” “Why here in the United States have many Chinese people?” “Hockey is very good.” “Some people don’t have home.” “Relationship between girl and boy.”

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“Racism. Crimes.” “Nothing!”

2). Female students replied:

“The US environment is so good!” “Nothing.” “A lot of American people know how to speak Chinese.” “I cannot see my parents every day because I live with American family.” “I dislike American foods, including lettuce.” “Some families go to supermarket just once a week, they can buy all their foods for one week just in one time.” “I was shocked about the fact that the Americans are very kind.” “I have to be independent here, and sometimes I will feel lonely.”

Americans’ kindness impressed the majority of the Chinese teens, over 80% of them pointed this out. This is significant to understand Chinese society after the turn of the 21st century, as wealth is accumulated upward, the morals and kindness seem to decrease in their home country. This also explains why many of the teens and their parents want to stay in the United States. Approximately 11% of the teens took safety in the U. S. as a big concern. Two of the survey-takers wrote down racism as something that shocked them.

The teenage Chinese’s honesty and frankness were also shocking. Through the answers, one can see how American life surprised them and changed their perceptions, even though all the survey students had only stayed in the U.S. for one or two years.

For comparing to the older generations, the author wanted to know where they were originally from. The answer to Question 24, as shown in Table 4-24, reflected the changes of social and economic environment in China.

Question 24: “Where are you from geographically?”

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Table 4-24. The Teens’ Hometown Geographical Locations

Male Female Total Note

Beijing, or near Beijing 3 2 5

1st place. More girls come from Shanghai than other areas. More students Shanghai, or near 7 5 12 come from Shanghai Shanghai or close to Shanghai than other regions of China.

Guangdong, or near 5 1 6 Guangdong

Eastern coastal area 2 1 3

Southern coastal area 2 1 3

Northeast China 4 3 7 2nd place.

Southwest China 4 2 6

Northwest China 1 1 (Xin Jiang) 2

1 (Not identified) 1 (Zhengzhou) Four of the 1(Kaohsiung), teenagers came 1 (Hong Kong) Other areas 1 (Ho Chi Ming 6 to the United

city), States en route 1 (South Korea). China.

Left blank 1 1 2

The original areas that the Chinese teenagers come from have changed in a new historical context. In early 21st century, Shanghai replaced Guangdong as the most economically influential place. Unlike the older generations, who came to the U.S. from

Guangdong or areas near Guangdong, fewer teenagers who took the survey in 2014 were from Guangdong. In addition, while more teenagers come to the U.S. from Shanghai or

116 near Shanghai than any other area, a larger percentage of girls come from Shanghai than anywhere else in China.

New Findings from the Survey in the U.S.

The survey in the United States tells another story when looking at this other side.

Compared to the teens who were still in China in 2014, the majority of the high school teens in the United States have the same desire to stay in the US and their parents support their desire, and they feel the two best parts of American life are having political freedom and a good environment.

However, there are some new findings from the data collected from the American survey. Among them are two distinct results. One is that, while the teenagers in China emphasize “patriotism,” the teenagers in the U.S. emphasize “family ties in China.” It can be construed that, if these teenagers’ families move to the U.S., those who have been living here for the last two years will not see that as an important reason for going back to

China, at all. Another is that the teenage Chinese, who have come to the United States for just a year or two, show no enthusiasm to return to their motherland and build a new

China with their bare hands. The trend shows, in the data, poignantly, while the majority of the teenagers in China still want to do business with/in China, the majority of those who have come in the U.S. choose not to.

Studying in the United States is not an easy expedition. It needs daring, knowledge, and hard work. While it is understandable that trying a new school, a new educational system, and a new environment might seem an adventure for the young ones, it still takes non-stop hard work to earn the degree. While I could not say home for these

117 teens is Sweet-Home-China, when coming to study in the U.S., they should prepare for a

Trans-Pacific Spice-a-Topia.

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CHAPTER 5

TEENAGE CHINESE EXPERIENCES IN THE U.S.: CASE STUDIES

While the parents’ motivation is to build a better future for their children by sending them overseas, not all the teens are willing to go along with their parents’ plan.

Among them, some come because they heard of American freedoms and have the desire to live it. Some come because they take the so-called “studying abroad” as a vacation. A pragmatic parent would make a rational decision after objectively analyzing who the teen really is and what they actually and potentially can do. For the purpose of case studies, this chapter presents some of the Chinese teens’ personal experiences after they set foot on this soil.

The presence of the increasing number of the Chinese teens in the United States in the early 2010s is shocking to some and amazing to others. How the Chinese nouveau riche pay the high cost of their teens studying in this country remains a mystery, since

China is still a “developing country.” In the U.S., self-financed Chinese teenagers pay five times as much as local students in some Catholic Schools, a tuition fee of $ 47,500 annually, as Kyle Spencer reported.73 As the Chinese teens land in the new land, they start to encounter many difficulties. The American-style food could be the most tasteless, as revealed in my interview with Director Calabria. Some of the teenagers become “Mute

73 Kyle Spencer, “Catholic Schools Court Chinese, and Their Cash,” New York Times, April 7, 2014, Late Edition (East Coast), sec. A.

119 and deaf” for some months as it is difficult to adapt to a new environment full of English- speakers. Others isolate themselves from the native speakers and even from their host family members if they live in a homestay. In some high schools, I see a phalanx of the

Chinese newcomers who make friends only within their circle. Quite a few might even suffer a sense of loss of family life when one of their parents stays in China. The social and psychological issues the teenage Chinese run into can be enormous especially when their parents do not accompany them. The behaviors of a teen that lives in a homestay seem more unusual than the one who lives with one parent. However, when the parents send out their child, they also send out their hopes. That teen at Baiyun airport at the beginning of this paper was one of them. Although the teenage Chinese students travel the same direction as the first 120 teens and get to the same destination, their motivations and outcomes appear strikingly different. Did they follow the divining rod? Did they find the water or minerals they wanted? What were their pains and pleasures? A poem, written by Walt Whitman in 1855, proclaimed the courage and hope of human progression:

Shoulder your duds, and I will mine, and let us hasten forth; Wonderful cities and free nations we shall fetch as we go.74

In order to see the teens’ real-life experiences, for a six-month period in 2014, the author first made friends with these teens’ parents, visited their homes, and then, created a friendly relationship with the teens. The author struggles to learn their true stories in a very natural setting. The episodes that occur in the teens’ real lives are not intended to gloss over the studying abroad phenomena. As these thespians take their positions, the

74 Walt Whitman, Leaves of Grass (New York: The Eakins Press, 1855), 52.

120 play begins. (The names of all people interviewed here have been changed to protect their identities.)

One Family: A Mother and a Son

This mother and son family is just like many of the Chinese families that move to the U.S. after the 2010s. Her husband is a successful businessperson, so they could afford to purchase a house in the city of Walnut, here in California. As his business is still in

China, he can only stay in the U.S. for short periods. The son Steve becomes a Satellite kid and the family becomes an Astronaut family, in Yuying Tsong’s terms, since the father returns to his country of origin to support the family while the mother stays with the child.75 The mother Shan becomes much stressed and faces many difficulties in the new country, like the language barrier, a feeling of helplessness, and a sense of being shut off in a different culture. In addition, it seems her son does not obey her like traditional

Chinese children, anymore.

The conflicts were always there in 2013. Mother Shan was adamant. Steve was unbending. The disagreements could be over anything. When mother Shan asked to visit

Steve’s school, he said “No” and claimed, “No other parent would go to school.” When

Shan suggested she get involved in his school’s activities, Steve said “No” and explained,

“Why do you want to get involved when you don’t speak English?” When Shan recommended that Steve get involved in after-school programs, he refused and said: “I’d rather go shoot baskets.” “But you need to show you’re well-rounded in high-school so

75 YuYing Tsong and YuLi Liu, “Parachute Kids and Astronaut Families,” in Asian American Psychology: Current Perspectives, ed. Nita Tewari and Alvin N. Alvarez (New York: Psychology Press, 2009), 378.

121 you can get into college then you can find a good job here in the future,” Shan told him.

The son replied, “I know what I’m doing.”

Nine months after they moved to the United States, both Shan and Steve began to get more comfortable in their new surroundings. Steve had visited the school psychologist and had learned better ways of communicating with his mother. They learned to compromise. On the weekends, the mother would take Steve to tutoring programs like the SAT courses the church offered and picked him up afterward. She allowed him to learn at his own pace. The son began to show more respect to his mother.

They discussed everything openly without getting upset so easily.

Steve’s accomplishments were noticeable. By the end of the fall semester, 2014, his GPA rose to 3.2 from 2.6 and his English writing skills rapidly improved. In his spare time, he read American novels, went to Sunday school, and played basketball. He made great mind-movies with the help of American writers through their classic novels. These, in turn, provided him with interesting topics to talk about with his classmates. In Sunday school, he showed an interest in the Spanish language and enjoyed finding people to practice. Playing basketball created many opportunities for him to socialize and make new friends, so he no longer felt left out! Together with his peers, he also volunteered with a charity organization and a community church. “I just do things like many

Americans,” he said. When I asked, “Would you like to go back to China someday after you earned your degree?” He made the broadest smile, “I’m happy to live here. China to

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me is far away. All I want is to be American.”76 It was such a surprise to see his transformation, rapidly and steadily, one step at a time.

Two Girls: The Degraded vs. the Decent

Some of the teenagers pay a high price for their willing metamorphosis. The pain is there as the result of cultural difference, the strange food, a very different form of communication, and the psychological effects especially as a parachute kid (YuYing

Tsong’s term for a child dropped, unaccompanied, to a school). The story of two teenage girls who came here in fall 2012 might provide some revelations. Coming alone to

America and living with an American host family are no easy adaptation.

Both girls were 17 years old in 2012 when they came to the United States, short, skinny, simple. One girl, Nancy, from the South of China, another one, Emily, from the

North.77 Nancy was born into a business family and Emily was from a working family.

With her school’s assistance, Nancy lived with a homestay family in Orange County.

Emily, however, lived with a homestay family in Los Angeles County with the help of relatives.

Nancy makes her own decision to come to the United States. Leaving her home and parents was immensely painful to a 17-year-old, so she found some friends through the internet as soon as she landed. She often chatted online after midnight, ignoring her homework repeatedly. The homestay family has never taken her anywhere. Not to any local museums, libraries, or public beaches, except to take her to the cinema a couple of

76 Steve L., interview by author, March 3, 2015. Walnut, California.

77 To protect their identities, these names are not their real names.

123 times of one year. Living without a warm, caring support system are great risk factors for developing behavioral problems.78 Being separated from her parents for a long time caused the parent-child relationship to become detached, while, the lack of her parents’ presence caused misunderstandings and frequent arguments. She turned to her “so- called” friends. She went out with them from school, enjoying the nightlife, and staying with them without telling her homestay family. She became a creature that was tacky and tasteless. She did whatever she wanted and dressed up gaudily. Her GPA dropped dramatically to under 2.0 in fall 2013 but she did not care. When asked what she might have done better if she looked back, she said, “Be more respectful to my parents.”79

When asked why she chose to come to the United States, she claimed she was pursuing her freedom.

Emily comes here under her maternal pressure. Her mother, she said, was a typical “Tiger Mom” that put high expectations on her. She had less spending money than her peers did, as her family was relatively poor. However, being an educated youth in the 70s, her mother had to act like a lemming going with the flow laboring in a

Chinese countryside for six years. The mother knows what her life was like and she does not want her only child to follow in her footsteps and become a factory worker. Thus she keeps pushing. They have rules before Emily comes here and the rules carried on after.

Under these rules, Emily is never late to school and finishes her homework earlier every day. As she has made progress with her English since spring 2013, she likes her school

78 YuYing Tsong and YuLi Liu, 372.

79 Nancy, interview by author, March 26, 2015. Rowland Height, California.

124 even more. The mother learns English in order to communicate with her teachers. And so she does. Emily is pushed hard and she does not complain, as she tells me she understands “coming to the United States is for her bright future.”80 She also tells me she likes her teachers here because they are patient and kind enough in helping her. She planned to stay. She received straight A’s in all her courses and she applied to a university on the East coast.

Three Stories: The Good, the Bad, and the Hobbledehoyish

The Story of John

John, a seventeen-year-old senior when I talked with him in 2014, was from

Guangzhou, Canton province in Southern China. He had been a good student at home, especially in math. John’s mother first became aware of the idea of foreign education when many of her coworkers began sending their children overseas to study. She visited a few international schools in Guangzhou and spoke to many parents that had sent out their teens to understand their reasoning behind their decisions. Then, after discussing it with John, she hired two American tutors to help him begin his studies in English. During his studies with his tutors, John began to savor the idea of coming to America to finish high school and asked his mother to send him to the U.S. On the recommendation of one of her friends, John’s mother signed him into a Christian School in the city of Garden

Grove, California.

To ensure John’s safety, his mother accompanied him to California and stayed for the first month with the homestay family John would be living with. The family John had

80 Emily, interview by author, April 4, 2015. Los Angeles, California.

125 been placed with were a Taiwanese couple with an American-born husband. They had two young children of their own. John’s mother was pleased knowing her son would be safe and well-fed with good Chinese food.

John’s mother went back home to China before the school year began. John was very excited about getting started in his new school. His euphoria at finally starting school quickly faded. He had never seen so many different colored people. He felt like he was in some strange human zoo. There were Germans, French, Koreans, Vietnamese,

Russians, Slovenians, Americans and of course, a couple of Chinese. And they all spoke

English much better than he did. He quickly began to isolate himself. After school, he would spend time shooting baskets by himself. Sometimes, he would just sit under a tree, reading his books. Occasionally, he would make solo visits to the science lab.

The school principal saw John beginning to isolate himself from the other students and he began reaching out to him. He advised John to get involved more in school activities and after school programs as well. He told him the more involved he got the less time he would have to be sad.

Within a couple of months, he was finished. He wanted to go home. He called his mother asking her to come and get him. He told her he had no friend, no one respected him, and he had no one to talk to. He wanted to come back to his friends in China.

Instead, she reminded him of his excitement when he first wanted to go to the United

States and the freedom a good quality education would give him. She told him that no one will simply give him respect, he must earn it. She told him he must reach out to people to make friends, he must show that he will be a good friend to have.

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After thinking about what his mother had said, John decided to use his strong points to try and make friends and maybe help people along the way. He created a series of posters that turned particularly difficult algebraic concepts into games that students who were having trouble with algebra could easily understand, then met with those students after school and helped embed those concepts in their minds. This was met with great enthusiasm from the students and suddenly, for the first time, John was popular! “I feel happy that I can help,” he smiled, with his eyes flashing in the sunlight.81 So began the transformation of John’s school career.

John’s success with his math club led several of the teens in it to help him with his English, which improved quickly. He joined the basketball team and began playing with the ping-pong team, quickly beating the best Korean player. His popularity skyrocketed as well as his confidence! He added several more sports to his resume and branched out into volunteering with the staff at the American Red Cross, helping the residents of Orange County when they faced natural disasters. He also got involved in a fund-raising event for women with breast cancer in the city of Los Angeles.

Never one to cheat he worked hard to achieve good grades. As the only child in his family, he was sent to the Christian School because, it was said that in this institution, the rules were strict, the teachers took their responsibilities very seriously, and the students would really learn if they tried hard. And try he did. He lucubrated late at night in order to finish his homework and to plan after-school activities, for his science and math labs.

81 John C., interview by author, February 25, 2015. Garden Grove, California.

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He is also seen in all kinds of in-school and off-campus activities. In school, in order to encourage involvement in after-school programs, he would visit other classrooms talking to and inviting students personally to each day’s event, and he was good at finding translators for those who just arrived from overseas. If John were there, everything would be fine. He was becoming looked up to. He organized pie-eating contests and photography contests in school as well as competitions in sports like basketball, volleyball, tennis, table tennis, and golf.

The in-school and off-campus activities cultivated the aggregate of qualities that constituted his character and nurtured his courage and excellence. A felicitous person who minds what he does and expresses, he is lucky enough to be endowed with the acuity of envisioning his future. He was accepted to the University of California, San Diego with a full scholarship. He surprised me when I interviewed him, as he was well-spoken, open-minded, and a prodigy who outsmarts other teens his age. Born into a high school principal’s family, I would say that the culture of his family creates a nurturing atmosphere for his development, in terms of social skills, leadership practice, and character. Strikingly contrasted to Yo Yo, a Chinese high schooler who came to the U.S. in the same year, John was the polar opposite of his coeval Chinese teen.

The Story of Yo Yo

Yo Yo arrived the U.S. in the fall of 2012 from Xian, Shanxi province in mid-

West China. Before she physically arrived in California, her parents had chosen the H. family as the place for her to live. It is called “homestay.” The main responsibilities of the homestay family included sending her to and picking her up from school, taking care of her meals, providing help if needed, guiding and fostering her mind as her temporary

128 family, etc. Yo Yo’s responsibilities were to study hard in her host country, take care of herself, learn English as fast as possible, be self-disciplined in her daily life, make progress academically, etc. Her father signed a contract with the H. family and the latter started to act on its responsibilities as soon as she entered the family’s door. However, things did not go the way they should have, even though her father tried to do his best for his daughter. What she did here was in contrarium to the wishes of the homestay family and her father. A person who showed no interest in studying or being in school, she did not read her books or do her homework, instead, she was very much attracted to the highest-end luxuries. However, in one way or another, was skillful in legerdemain.

She did not show any signs that she wanted academic success in the U.S. To her, her parents wanted her to study here. In her mind, she deserved everything and her parents’ responsibility was to give it to her. She did not care about consequences, as she believed that she was the center of the universe and everything should revolve around her. In school, she was both late or absent, rarely turned in homework, and lied to her teachers and the principal. Like a bull in a China shop, she broke every rule wherever she went and whenever she could. She showed no respect for authority. She did not value education; in her own words, “因為我有錢 (This was because I have money).” She failed every class she took and yet, she never failed to draw attention to her appearance.

Her appearance was enhanced by high-end luxuries and acquiring them became her main purpose in life. In school, she was famous for brand-name-wearing, BMW- driving, and face plasticizing. For her, Gucci, Chanel, D&G, Armani were her daily wardrobe choices, Versace for makeup, Dior and Marc Jacobs for jewelry, handbags, and shoes. Giant Rolex and Omega watches on one wrist, Cartier and Swarovski bracelets on

129 the other. She scattered her many shoes on the floor of her room, with some jewelry boxes that held her roughly $40,000 worth of bracelets. She also had ten plus backpacks.

Not only did she like to decorate her body, but to show off by driving a BMW. It was a kind of necessity for her. She loved her leisure time so much that she missed class quite often. She was here not to study, but to play. Within a month after she arrived in the U.S., she had found a boyfriend, and left with him without saying anything to the homestay family or the school. One evening, the mother of her host family prepared dinner for everyone and had it on the table ready to eat. Yo Yo came out of her room all dressed up, saw the table set for the evening meal, and bolted out the front door. She peeled out of the driveway at a frightening speed, presumably to go out with the new boyfriend.

In order to improve what she considered defects in her appearance, she went so far as to have her nose bridge heightened and her cheeks thinned—surgically. She also had permanent tattoos done on her eyelids at the base of her eyelashes extending well beyond the edges of her eyes. The results, to her classmates, were comical, but she did not care. Her concept of her personal place in any society needed to be shown not only in the bland names she wore and drove but also in the alterations she could afford to make to her face.

However, the consequences of her actions rarely showed on her poker face. She lied. When the host family insisted on her doing homework, she claimed she had completed it and yet, she had not even cracked her books. She removed the screen on the window in her room and purposely left the window open, in order to be able to get out and in anytime she wanted. She stayed out not only on the weekends, but anytime she felt like it. For her safety, the housemother asked her to pay attention to the time and required

130 her to return home before midnight. “I didn’t go anywhere. Didn’t you hear my music was on all night?” There she was, standing with arms akimbo, “Damned be her who is so foolish with so much nonsense,” she told the boyfriend. To her, the mother was a novercal type who was nothing but crazy. The new boyfriend was a demijohn, short and fat, assuming the host mother would find fault just for the sake of finding fault. A matching set, she and her boyfriend were in close alignment against her housemother. In any conflicts, he would join in right away and battle her. This connection with her boyfriend reinforced her obstinate rebelliousness. Yo Yo and her boyfriend at every step confounded the poor mother, even though she had tried to give the girl some beneficial study and life tips. The girl took the mother’s words as bombastic and trifling. As a hedonist, who took pleasure and self-gratification as her highest ambition, what else was there? In one way or another, she became the bête noire to the host family and to the school. She stayed for but a single semester and was expelled in April 2013.

Studying in America is a burden for a girl like Yo Yo. The motivation is not hers.

Strangely enough, while the wealthy parents can afford everything for them in China, the

“social status” drives these parents to send their frivolous girls to the West. To many

Chinese, wealth does not necessarily mean you are looked up to, while a Western education would almost surely be viewed as good, thus their family’s social status would be elevated. However, sending a teenaged girl like Yo Yo to America was like forcing her to walk on a tightrope. Horace of Rome once declared, “Money is either our master or our slave.” Yo Yo’s father was as rich as Croesus. Yo Yo, his daughter, was called fu er dai (富二代 the second generation of the rich) in China, was as rare as a hen’s tooth. In

131 the wave of Chinese going abroad to study, it was not unusual to find some Bobbsey twins.

The Story of Chaw

Chaw came to the U.S. in the same year, 2012, from Beijing. Having been an always-absent-kind-of student in Beijing, China, his parents tried everything they could to change him. Eventually, he and his parents chose a private school in Florida and his father said that he was determined to get his higher education there. His father claimed that wealth is a matter of transiency, in his words, “富不超三代 fu bu chao san dai

(wealth doesn’t last for three generations).”82 Taking his only son’s Western education as far more important than his own business, he was willing to send him to the U.S. He stopped investment in his business, and accompanied him to several different cities since his son tended to not willingly stay in the same school for more than a single semester.

When I asked, “Why Western education? Why not education in China?” The father replied, “Because, in China, the Western-educated are looked up to.”83 Chaw was his father’s only hope. Chaw came because his family wanted him to.

To continue studying in the U.S., Chaw did nothing but relocate frequently in his first year. To deceive his own father, Chaw claimed he had registered for four classes in his first semester in a private high school in Orlando, Florida. In fact, he skipped all the classes and spent his whole time meandering. He went to Tampa and Miami, enjoying the

82 Chaw Yuanhe, interview by author, February 15, 2015. Fullerton, California.

83 Chaw Yuanhe, interview by author, June 18, 2015. Los Angeles, California.

132 gorgeous bikini girls and stunningly beautiful beaches. Yet, Miami could not compare to

Las Vegas. He relocated himself to Vegas four months later. There, he had fun gambling in almost all the casinos, and, to his father’s surprise and annoyance, he was overly lavish spending his money. In one short stretch, he paid three different prostitutes over three thousand dollars in just two nights.

If having fun with prostitutes was not bad enough, having an affair with a 30- year-old woman who was in the sales business seemed quite odd. Chaw moved in with her in an apartment in a small city there in Nevada after they had only chatted online a few times. Then, he went out on her sales calls with her and one day, the father had to hurry back to the U.S. because, he was notified by police that his son had beaten the woman. The two parties arranged an agreement, which cost the father 10,000 more dollars. Chaw did not show any regret. Instead, he complained that it was all his father’s fault for sending him away to the U.S. and that he preferred China over this country.

So he went back to China and stayed for a while. In China, he went back to the same high school he previously attended in Beijing but found out that he simply could not fit in. An unusual type, he was no comparison to those Chinese teens who were working hard. Thus, the advice from the school principal was plainly gone with the wind.

An itinerant teen, he was at a cul-de-sac staying in China. His parents were forced to make an arbitrary decision to send him to the U.S. He lacked the decorum appropriate for staying in this country alone, except having such panache in blowing cash and dressing up, with bright red shirts and flowery pants with some lopsided designs. After wandering for a bit over a year on two continents, the U. S. embassy refused to issue him a new

133 student visa. That was a simple solution, alpha and omega. Therefore, he ended up in

New Zealand in 2014, far away from China and the United States.

Chinese parents work very hard to send their progeny to the west for a quality education. Their hopes are that their children, after they complete school, will have the best that life has to offer. However, those who behave badly in China behave badly in the

U.S. The quality of the students themselves determines whether they would merely survive or do better in this new environment. No deus ex machina can solve the problem and make everything come out just right. The adventure is an aleatory endeavor that depends on chance and choice.

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CHAPTER 6

CONCLUSION

It has been one century and four decades since the first 120 Chinese teenagers set foot on this new land. Even though China has been through all sorts of hardships and difficulties, the Chinese never stop searching for ways to build themselves up, in one way or another, from the Self-Strengthening movement to learning from Meiji Japan, from the nationalist struggle under the slogan of the “Three Principles of the People” to ideologically turning to the Soviet Big Brother. Learning from the advanced is always

China’s desire. The results of Japan’s Iwakura Tomomi’s visit to the U.S. in 1872—the same year the first group of the Qing teenagers’ were sent to the U.S.—were completely different from Yung Wing’s U.S. stay. The Iwakura mission helped launch Japan’s first attempt at top-level governmental reform, full-scale economic and domestic reforms followed soon after.84 Yung Wing’s educational mission, to educate Chinese youth in the

West in order to save China, was literally undermined through the backstabbing of some high-ranking officials in China’s government, which forced the recall of the 120 teens before they finished their studies.

However, after many conflicts and wars, the Chinese eventually realize, only through the mechanism of self-strengthening by learning the most advanced knowledge,

84 Alistair Swale, “America: the First Stage in the Quest for Enlightenment,” in The Iwakura Mission in America and Europe: A New Assessment, ed. Ian Nish (Richmond, UK: Curzon Press Ltd, 1998), 12.

135 could the Middle Kingdom be saved and progress. The presence of the teenage Chinese students in the United States is both a continuity of the unfinished mission of the first 120 teenagers and a break from the old goals and motivations, with the old generations being sent by the government and determined to save China, the Chinese teens in the 2010s take their own risks and financed themselves for self-gain.

In the process of arming themselves with advanced knowledge and Western language, the Chinese teens willingly and even radically transform themselves. The size and sight of the wave from the west coast of the Pacific to the California shore unceasingly present the historicity of this transcontinental phenomenon. If the goal and motivation of the first 120 youth seemed old school, the young teenage Chinese are definitely coming up with some new ones.

Three New Aspects Stand Out from the Surveys

Three features stand out from the results of the two surveys. First, the Chinese teens and their parents have the freedom to choose what kind of life they want to live in the 2010s. They create the new wave by unintentional individual choices, as the result of economic benefits from an international market, in Milton Friedman’s words, “the residents of China are freer and more prosperous than they were under Mao— freer in every dimension.”85 The majority of students that take the survey on both sides of the pond have as their goal to stay in the U.S. after completing their studies. It is their choice.

They can choose to return or not return. No governmental obligations. No government financing. No governmental control. Similarly, the statistical data from the surveys, both

85 Milton Friedman, Capitalism and Freedom (Chicago: The University of Chicago Press, 2002), Preface ix.

136 in China and in the U.S., speak loudly that their families would like their teens to remain in the United States as well. Global capitalism makes it possible for Chinese teens to cross national boundaries, as they now are the beneficiaries of China’s economic success.

Second, there is a discrepancy between the Chinese teenagers in China and those in the U.S. in terms of doing business with or in China in the future. The two groups clearly oppose each other. While the majority of the teenagers in China would still want to do business with or in China, the majority of those who have been here one or two years, plan not to do business with or in China or, is some cases, not even with another

Chinese person! The explanations for this are assuredly linked with the third major aspect.

Third, Patriotism to the majority of the surveyed seems to be a mechanism of an ancient order. It is understandable that a 15-year-old, who lived with a parent here in the

U.S. or studied here alone for years, do not care much for China. Should he? He does not live in China anymore. He is not being educated in China anymore. He does not socialize in China anymore.

The self is socially constructed. It does not exist there, alone, as a self, apart from his social experience. According to George Herbert Mead, the social process is responsible for the construction and division of the self.86 An orange, ju (橘) that grows on the south side of the Huai River can become very big and delicious; yet, if grown on the north bank, it turns out a zhi (枳) that is tiny and bitter, as in a Chinese idiom, “nan ju

86 George Herbert Mead, “The Self, the I, and the Me,” in Social Theory: The Multicultural and Classic Readings, ed. Charles Lemert (Boulder: Westview Press, 1999), 227.

137 bei zhi (南橘北枳).”87 It does not matter that the leaves and the trunks of the fruit tree look exactly the same. Without living on Chinese soil how to nurture a Chinese seed?

Without China’s social environment how to become a Chinese man?

Thus my opinion is that patriotism to these young teens, does not gain much of a foothold in their lives’ momentum compared to what they consider to be greater future economic advantages for themselves and their families, that the goals and incentives of these Chinese teens is very different than those of the old generation, and that the first and second aspects of the survey results bolstered my argument: in the new millennium, the motivation of the Chinese teens to be educated in the United States is strictly for themselves, not for China.

Parents, Schools, and Teens Work Together

Parents, schools, and teens work together to generate a new wave. The parents’ motivations are to create a better environment for their teens by sending them to the U.S.

The “better environment” for these teens, would be the English language environment, the development of their well-being, the potential of being more competitive, and better prepared for their future. The parents’ motivations result in many Chinese teens enrolling in international schools in China and in private American high schools.

The international schools in China and private high schools in the U.S. serve well the motivation of the Chinese parents and teens. The English-centered and student- friendly programs purposely target the Chinese teens, especially those who have

87 A Chinese idiom that evolved from the story of “Yan Zi Shi Chu (晏子使楚).” During the Warring period in Chinese history, Yan Zi visited the Chu State and dialogued with the Chu emperor. By pointing out the distinct differences between the Ju in the south and the Zhi in the north, he emphasized the phenomenal impact of environment on the development of individuals.

138 difficulties in adapting to new study systems and new environments. Although the new social and school environments in the U.S., for a few, could be anomic, or even anoetic, the will-power to stay in this country and earn a Western college degree is far more motivating for many. The dynamics of the wave and its characteristics appear observably different after the turn of the new century.

Figure 9. A group of Chinese teens just arrived in Fullerton, California. August 2016.

It is amazing to see the teenage Chinese that dare cross the widest ocean, even though the motif of their border crossing in terms of impetus may be different. Have money. Will travel. However, the use of the rhabdomancy requires the knowledge of parents, the skills of the teens. It would be the teens who could define this odyssey and

139 decide whether it is a long, adventurous journey, or a nomadic quest full of frustrations and exhilarations. To those that are determined to go beyond the walls, bless you!

The Teenage Actors and Agents

In the 2010s, the teenage Chinese are creating new history. A history that redefines and reaffirms the national and global phenomena by splitting from the old patterns and starting new contacts, actively connecting China and the rest of the world.

However, by far, the research of the movement of the Chinese teenagers has not been investigated. Yet, they are the younger actors, who bravely cross national boundaries, maneuvering their regional prospects into the larger world drama. This group not only acts as representatives of a rich China benefiting from the external force of global capitalism and the internal drive of economic growth, but also as the archetype of an open

China vigorously transforming itself by energetically learning the advanced knowledge of the world. As agents, I argue, they zealously and voluntarily bridge the two big nations on the East and West coasts of the Pacific. Their actions speed up the interregional and global exchanges between East and West in terms of ideas, thoughts, technology, economics, and culture, which help better understand each other and thus create a better world. The impact of their Western education is sure to cause major changes in a future

China, which in turn will most certainly change the relations between China and the rest of world, forever. The magnitude of the new wave is too big to fathom. This study hopes the research and documenting of the new wave could add a new slice to contemporary

Chinese history, but it only exposes a small part of the wave and notices that it is a much larger phenomenon, which underscores Chinese national history and the hybrid of the history of the East and West and beyond.

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APPENDIX A

THE USE OF HUMAN SUBJECTS APPROVED BY CSUF IRB

This appendix includes documents as follow: The Approval Notice from the Institutional Review Board, California State University Fullerton (“CSUF IRB”), regarding the use of human subjects. Teenage Assent Form (13-17 years old), Parental Letter of Consent for Minor, and Adult Consent Form for Interview that were approved by CSUF IRB on February 9, 2015.

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The Approval Notice from the Institutional Review Board, California State University Fullerton (CSUF IRB), regarding the use of human subjects.

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Teenage Assent Form

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Parental Letter of Consent for Minor

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Adult Consent Form for Interview

145

APPENDIX B

THE SURVEY QUESTIONAIRES

For their best understanding the content of the survey, the questionnaire used by the teenagers in China was written in Chinese. The author of this paper then translated it into English. The questionnaire used in the United States was written in English.

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The survey questionnaire used in China

中学生问卷调查（请打钩或者划圈）

时间(TIME)：年月日地点(PLACE)：------中学年级(GRADE)：性别(SEX)：男（MALE）----- 女(FEMALE)-----

1. 你的家庭背景 (Your family background)： A. 高官 B.中层官员 C.公务员 D.商业商贸者 E.工人 F..农民 2. 家庭收入每年：------元。 3. 如果你可以到美国读书，你打算毕业后回中国或留在美国？回中国-----，留美国------。 4. 如果你可以到美国读书，你的家人会支持你吗？会------，不会------。 5. 如果你可以在美国就业或长期居住，你的家人会支持你吗？会-----，不会-----。 6. 如果你在美国取得学位，你会打算在中国做生意吗？会-----，不会-----。 7. 请列出三个有关美国最好的方面(The Three Positive Elements)，并用“1,2,3”标明，其中“1”为最好。 A. 政治上有自由 B. 环境好些 C. 工作选择多些 D. 生活好些 E. 对个人发展好些 F. 经济收入多些 G. 食物安全些 H. 其他(Other):------8. 请列出三个有关美国最差的方面(The Three Negative Elements), 并用“1,2,3”标明，其中“1”为最差。 A. 生活速度太快 B. 工作不稳定 C. 挂念家人和朋友 D. 种族问题 E. 要学好英语 F. 其他(Other)：------9. 如果你到美国留学，什么原因会令你毕业后回中国？ A. 爱国主义，或想改变中国 B. 对家人的依赖 C. 在中国会有较高的社会地位 D. 在中国会有较高的经济收入 E. 其他(Other Reasons):------10. 如果你到美国留学，什么原因会令你毕业后不回中国？ A. 政治上没自由 B. 国家或政局不稳定 C. 政策经常变 D. 对个人发展不利 F. 在中国没有较高的经济收入 E. 其他(Other Reasons):------11. 你认为什么因素会是你决定回中国或不回中国的最主要因素？ A. 政治因素 B. 经济因素 C. 家庭或家人因素其他(Other Factors)：------

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The survey questionnaire used in the United States

Questionnaire for students who are from mainland China, October, 2014 Junior High School______High School ______(Please circle the answer(s) that best describes you and fill in information) Male Female Age______Grade______Date of Arrival in US______

1. Before you left China to come to the United States, did you plan to stay, or, return to China after finishing your studies/getting your degrees? a. Definitely return to China b. Will return if I have no job in this country c. Plan to stay a while and decide later d. Plan to stay in the United States 2. What motivated you to study in the US? a. Parents b. English education c. Better life d. Freedom of speech e. Other (Please specify) ______3. What are your purposes in the United States? a. Get a B.A. degree b. Get a M.A. degree c. Get a Ph.D. d. To reside in US permanently e. Other (Please specify) ______4. What visa do you hold? a. F-1 (student) b. B (tourist, visitor) c. I-20 d. Family Business Visa e. Permanent resident of the US f. Other (Please specify)______5. Are you supported financially by your parents or relatives in the US? a. By your parents (Please circle) b. By your relatives in US (Please circle) c. By ______6. Does your family want you to stay in the United States? a. Yes, strongly want b. No c. Somewhat supportive d. Somewhat opposed e. Not supportive or opposed 7. Is your family supportive of your studies in the United States? a. Yes, strongly support b. No

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c. Somewhat supportive d. Somewhat opposed e. Not supportive or opposed 8. Do your parents’ views still influence your day-to-day decisions? a. The biggest influence b. A certain degree of influence c. Very little influence d. No influence at all e. Other (Please specify) ______9. If you chose NOT to return to China, would your family support your decision? a. Yes, absolutely b. No, not at all. c. I have no idea about what my family members want me to do. d. Other (Please specify)______10. Are you planning to do business with / in China after you finish your studies? Yes____No____. What business would you like to do with / in China?______11. Describe your living arrangements in the United States: a. Own a single family home b. Own a condominium c. Rent an apartment d. Rent a room e. Live with my relatives f. Live with my family members g. Other (please specify)______12. How would you compare your housing here to your housing in China? a. Much better b. A little better c. Same d. A little worse e. Much worse 13. Please choose three Positive things about the United States, and rank them with numbers 1, 2, 3, with “1” as the highest ranking, “3” as the least): a. Political freedom _____ b. Better environment _____ c. Job mobility _____ d. More job choices _____ e. Good working condition _____ f. Higher living standard _____ g. Better for my personal development _____ h. I like my school here in US _____ i. Economic gain _____ j. Better foods _____ k. Safe foods _____

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l. Better future for my children _____ m. Other (Please specify)______14. Please choose three Negative things about the United States, and rank them with numbers 1, 2, 3, with “1” as the highest ranking, “3” as the least): a. Pressure and speed of life too fast _____ b. Crime or personal insecurity _____ c. Job insecurity _____ d. Poor living condition _____ e. Racism _____ f. Poor inter-personal relations _____ g. Missing friends or family _____ h. I need to learn English well _____ i. I don’t like my school here in US _____ j. I need to adapt to a new environment _____ k. Other (Please specify)______15. If you plan to return to China after finishing your studies, what are the #1, #2, and #3 reasons? (#1 is the most important reason): a. Patriotism _____ b. Loyalty_____ c. Family tie in China _____ d. Higher social status in China _____ e. More economic gain in China _____ f. Better job opportunity in China _____ g. Want to change China _____ h. New opportunities in China _____ i. Better education for your children in China _____ j. Cultural comfort in China _____ k. Make more money in China than in the US _____ l. Other (Please specify)______16. If you plan NOT to return to China after finishing your studies, what are the #1, #2, and #3 reasons? (#1 is the most important reason): a. Lack of political freedom in China _____ b. Lack of political/social stability _____ c. Don’t trust the government _____ d. Government policies change frequently _____ e. Too many movements _____ f. Lack of opportunity for personal development _____ g. Lower living standard _____ h. Lower economic gain in China _____ i. Family here doesn’t want to return to China _____ j. Returnees are looked on as failures _____ k. Lack of suitable jobs _____ l. Fear of not being able to get out of China again _____

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m. Poor working condition in China _____ n. Poor environment in China _____ o. Poor quality/unsafe foods _____ p. Poor inter-personal relations in China _____ q. Other (Please specify)______17. Did your family suffer in the Cultural Revolution or other movements? a. Yes b. No 18. How important is this knowledge to your decision whether to return to China? a. Very important b. Somewhat important c. Not very important d. A little important e. Not important at all 19. How do economic factors affect your decision whether or not to return to China? a. Very important b. Somewhat important c. Not very important d. A little important e. Not important at all 20. How do political factors affect your decision whether or not to return to China? a. Very important b. Somewhat important c. Not very important d. A little important e. Not important at all 21. What are some of your dreams? a. To be rich b. To be famous c. To reside permanently in the United States d. To contribute to China’s development in the coming future e. To return to China as soon as I finish my studies in US f. To return to China so that I can live with my parents g. To return to China so that I can take care of my family members in China h. To continue my education here in the US i. To make some friends here in US j. To find a job here in order to support myself k. To set up a family here in US l. To live with my parents here in US m. To take care of my family members here in US n. Other (Please specify) ______22. What surprised you about the US? ______

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______23. What shocked you about the US? ______

______

24. Where are you from geographically? (Please circle) a. Beijing, or close to Beijing b. Shanghai, or close to Shanghai c. Guangdong, or close to Guangdong d. Eastern coastal area e. Southern coastal area f. Northeast China g. Southwest China h. Other areas (Please specify)______

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