CHANGE AGENTS Advantages That a Chinese Ed- Chinese Stu- Dents Come Ucation Will Not

CH INA !" #$%% 2008, there were 42 students from China in Boston University’s freshman class. In 2013, there were 410. Nationwide, the number of Chinese students in American colleges and universities has increased almost sixfold in the last five years. Chinese students are coming because they believe an Ameri- can education will give them CHANGE AGENTS advantages that a Chinese ed- Chinese students come ucation will not. And they are coming now because to the United States to get China’s economic growth has enabled their parents to the world’s best education, and pay for what they believe is the best higher education they return home to build available for their only children. The movement is not what will soon be the just educating young Chinese. It’s changing higher world’s great- est economy education across the United States, and it’s energiz- ing Chinese business practices in ways that will ripple through economies around the world. In the following stories, Bostonia examines the phenomenon from three perspectives: accepted Chinese students at home, Chinese students making their way on the Charles River Campus, and alums who have returned to China. BOSTONIA Winter–Spring 2014 24 WEB EXTRA Read these stories in Chinese at bu.edu/bostonia. 要阅读这些故事的中文版本，请前往: bu.edu/bostonia 224-53_BostoniaWinterSpring2014.indd4-53_BostoniaWinterSpring2014.indd 2424 11/30/14/30/14 112:562:56 PPMM Winter–Spring 2014 BOSTONIA !" 224-53_BostoniaWinterSpring2014.indd4-53_BostoniaWinterSpring2014.indd 2525 11/30/14/30/14 112:562:56 PPMM CH INA Deﬁ ned by being only children and empowered by a roaring economy, Chinese students are seizing the best college education in the world FORTUNATE ONES ROBIN MAS 224-53_BostoniaWinterSpring2014.indd4-53_BostoniaWinterSpring2014.indd 2626 11/30/14/30/14 112:582:58 PPMM Freshman Lily Lingxiu Ge (facing page) in Nanjing, China, days before flying to Boston. Ge (right) working on a chemistry lab assignment in the BU Metcalf Sci- ence Center. CYDNEY SCOTT By Sara Rimer In August 2013, a sweltering Nanjing was living up to its reputation as one of the Three Furnaces of China. Visiting businessmen hole up in luxury sky- scraper hotels downtown. At the Starbucks café at the Westin mall, twenty- somethings wearing hip, chunky black glasses sip iced green tea lattes. Lily Lingxiu Ge, an incoming freshman at Boston University’s College of Engineering, is in her bedroom at her family’s modern, air-conditioned apartment, sorting through her new winter clothes. WEB EXTRA Watch videos of Chinese students at home as they prepared to leave for BU last fall at bu.edu/bostonia. 224-53_BostoniaWinterSpring2014.indd4-53_BostoniaWinterSpring2014.indd 2727 11/30/14/30/14 112:582:58 PPMM CH INA At BU there are 1,229 students from China out of 16,460 undergraduates. Lily Lingxiu Ge is one of 10 freshmen from Nanjing. “I heard Boston will be very cold,” is worried it will be hard for me, that I’ll in fall 2008, 42 of 4,131 freshmen were says Ge (ENG’17), who’s wearing the be lonely.” from China. In fall 2013, the numbers black-and-white panda slippers she’d The outgoing, self-assured Ge de- were 410 of 3,807 freshmen. exchanged for her pink Converse sneak- clares that she is not at all worried. “I Ge is one of 10 BU freshmen from ers at the front door. “I heard it snows up want to be like my father,” she says. “He’s Nanjing alone. There are 1,229 stu- to your knees.” brave, he challenges everything. I don’t dents from China out of a total of 16,460 She hugs her dog, an exuberant white want to be a traditional Chinese girl.” BU undergraduates. The demographic Samoyed named Rice, and goes to the It is August 20, three days before her change has been even greater at other dining room to help her mother, Helen 18th birthday. In seven days she will get campuses across the country. In the Xu, make tea. Her father, Alan Ge, is due on a plane in Shanghai with her back- 2012–2013 academic year, the number home soon from the high-tech company pack and two suitcases and travel half- of undergraduates from China in the he started on a shoestring when Lily was way around the world to a country her United States rose to 109,604, up from a little girl. She plans to major in com- father has visited once, 14 years ago, and 79,989. With undergraduate and gradu- puter engineering so she can help run that her mother has never been to. ate students combined, students from the company—or who knows, she might “BU,” Ge says, “is the dream school.” China numbered 243,623 in 2012–2013, end up working in the United States. To get an idea of the demographic an increase from 202,051 in 2011–2012, “I heard not many Chinese girls shift that has taken place at BU in the according to the nonprofit Institute of study engineering,” Ge says. “My mother past few years, consider a few numbers: International Education. ANDREW TIANYANG NICK HAISU YUAN JENNIFER SHITAO LUCY XI JIN (COM’15) WIND YIJING LU ZHONG (CAS’17) (CAS’14, COM’14), LI (COM’15) OF OF BEIJING (SHA’15, SMG’15) OF NANJING A SIX-FOOT-TWO- SHENZHEN “My mom said she OF SHANGHAI “I wanted to be a guy INCH SENIOR FROM “Each kid in my named me Lucy “Wind has very with perseverance. I CHONGQING elementary school because it sounded strong power— went to Michigan for “English names gets an English name like my Chinese tsunami, typhoon, an exchange student are picked quite in the first few days name. And also it storm, tornado— program and learned randomly. I picked of their first semes- will be easier for my those are all about that Andrew is Jesus’ Nick because people ter. My name was grandparents, who wind. It says if you first disciple. He is who are called Nick written on a sign don’t speak English, don’t treat wind, a tough and strong are usually tall.” on my desk. I’m to remember. I like and the world, well, man. So I decided to happy with my my name. It is easy to they’ll pay you back. keep this name.” name because it remember. Everyone Respect the wind, makes me think loves Lucy (I’d never respect the world. Chinese students explain how about an outgoing heard of the show Respect me.” SR they chose, or were given, American girl. I until I came to the their American nicknames think it suits me.” States). I did once want to change it to something more WHAT’S IN A NAME? special, but I didn’t because I think I should keep the name my parents gave me.” MAS ROBIN BY OF LU PHOTOGRAPH SCOTT; CYDNEY LI, AND JIN BY OF ZHONG, YUAN, PHOTOGRAPHS !" BOSTONIA Winter–Spring 2014 224-53_BostoniaWinterSpring2014.indd4-53_BostoniaWinterSpring2014.indd 2828 11/30/14/30/14 112:582:58 PPMM They are part of the largest and youngest wave of college students from China in this country and around the world. Ever. Along with other international students, they bring new perspectives, cultural experiences, and knowledge that are transforming colleges and universities across the country, including BU, into Ge, at home vibrant global campuses. And with her parents and colleges are adapting to meet grandmother, their needs. To help Mandarin- attended the speaking students from China Nanjing For- integrate into campus life, many eign Lan- colleges are revamping dining guage High School, where hall menus, adding writing tutors, some 280 of and creating videos that explain 400 seniors American college culture. enrolled in At BU, the cross-cultural expe- colleges rience of globalization—language abroad. barriers and breakthroughs, mis- understandings, connections, and ROBIN MAS learning—plays out day by day, in residence halls, classrooms, at the George Sherman Union. Global campuses benefit everyone, 280 have enrolled in colleges abroad, time they are deeply, proudly Chinese. education experts say. “The careers of primarily in the United States. She is In one breath, Ge quotes Steve Jobs: all our students will be global ones,” one of several students from her high “Stay hungry, stay foolish.” In the next, says Allan E. Goodman, president of the school who are BU freshmen this year. she channels Confucius: “‘It’s all about Institute of International Education. “Our principal teaches us to be open being kind and generous—not to be self- “They will need to understand the cul- to the whole world,” Ge says, “but we ish.’ ‘If you study, don’t just read some- tural differences and historical experi- should always keep our Chinese spirit.” thing once. Read over many times.’” ences that divide us, as well as the com- Students from China, a country with Wind Yijing Lu is the vice president mon values and humanity that unite us.” 1.3 billion people, are as diverse as any of the BU Chinese Students and Schol- Ge and the other students from Chi- of their classmates from the United ars Association (BUCSSA). “It’s Wind, as na are the only sons and daughters of States, or for that matter, from India, in Gone with the Wind,” she introduces their country’s rising middle class and Europe, or Africa. They are bright, herself to Americans. “I’m a Shanghai its more than three decades of econom- ambitious, hardworking, curious, and girl—a modern Shanghai girl.” ic growth and open-door and one-child paradoxical.

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