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!" #$%% 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 stu- dents are coming because they believe an Ameri- can education will give them

CHANGE AGENTS advantages that a Chinese ed- Chinese stu- dents 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

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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 PMPM 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 PMPM CH INA At BU there are 1,229 students from China out of 16,460 under- graduates. 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

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224-53_BostoniaWinterSpring2014.indd4-53_BostoniaWinterSpring2014.indd 2828 11/30/14/30/14 112:582:58 PMPM They are part of the largest and youngest wave of college stu- dents from China in this country and around the world. Ever. Along with other international students, they bring new perspec- tives, 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. They embrace American Shanghai girls, with their hip-hop policies. Middle-class parents can afford culture—Starbucks, NBA basketball, style and bold attitudes, could be New not just cars and international travel, The Big Bang Theory—and at the same York girls. “Shanghai girls are indepen- but the commodity most prized by their dent, and they know what they want,” culture, with its Confucian-inspired says Lu (SHA’15, SMG’15), who spent reverence for learning: education. Spe- ABOUT THE NAMES her junior year of high school as an cifically, US higher education. exchange student in Indiana and In China, family names generally precede For many of these young people, who given names, but Chinese people living in wants a high-powered career in hospi- are growing up in a global world, going to the United States often follow the American tality management. college abroad is all but expected these convention of writing their given name first Students from China are interested days. Ge graduated from Nanjing For- and family name second. Because most of in business administration, economics, the students and experts interviewed for eign Language High School, considered these stories are known by this Angli- and math—and literature, language, ed- one of the top high schools in China. Of cized nomenclature, we have applied the ucation, journalism, psychology, music, the 400 seniors in her class, more than convention throughout these articles. and any number of other subjects.

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BUCSSA president Nick Haisu Yuan (CAS’14, COM’14), a double major in "I want to be like my economics and film, wants to be a film- father. He's maker like his hero Martin Scorsese. brave and “I want to make films that tell stories challenges about China—how China really is,” he everything." says. He is passionate about Sichuan —"#"$ "#%&- '#( &) food—he is from Chongqing—and may dabble in food criticism, too. Parents of students from China are lawyers, teachers, government work- ers, entrepreneurs, real estate develop- ers, and small businessmen who have poured all their faith in education into their only children. The expectation is that many of these children will even- tually return home, with their coveted degrees and Western knowledge, to help their families—and build a better China.

BU: A TOP BRAND NAME “Education is the most important thing,” says Jin Li, a professor of human development and education at Brown University, who grew up in China dur- ing the Cultural Revolution and whose recent book, Cultural Foundations of Learning: East and West, explores how differences in Asian and Western beliefs

about learning shape attitudes toward ROBIN MAS education and parenting. “If you have money, you buy educa- tion,” Li says. “You buy the best. They think US higher education is the best.” International students are not eli- GOING GLOBAL gible for need-based financial aid at BU and many other US colleges. Par- BOSTON UNIVERSITY UNDERGRADUATE ents from China invest every possible ENROLLMENT BY CITIZENSHIP working hour and all their savings—and Fall 2008–2013* they are a generation of savers—to send In fall 2008, their children here. They hope that a BU ALL INTER! 42 of 4,131 YEAR TOTAL CHINA degree will provide an edge in the com- BU freshmen NATIONAL petition for jobs in China, or in the came from United States. With Chinese real estate China. In 2008 16,521 1,851 208 values reaching stratospheric levels in fall 2013, the 2009 16,340 1,986 293 numbers were the past decade or so, some parents sell 410 of 3,807. 2010 16,683 2,210 398 apartments they had bought when the market was low in order to pay for BU. 2011 16,648 2,516 613 In China, where brand names carry 2012 16,545 2,799 887 great weight, Boston University is a top brand name. Students from China, 2013 16,460 3,177 1,229 who are almost all the first ones in their families to go to college in the United * Fall 2013 is based on mid-semester enrollment. States, track the U.S. News & World !"#$%&: BU Institutional Research

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Report rankings even more closely than Kelly A. Walter has been building relationships with some of China’s top public high do kids here. schools for the past fi ve years. That was when those schools began opening their Case in point: in September 2013, doors to a handful of US college admissions o! cials. Kelly A. Walter, BU associate vice “This is part of the relationship-building that is absolutely critical in everything we president and executive director of ad- do, but especially so in China,” says Walter, BU associate vice president and execu- missions, was on one of her regular re- tive director of admissions. As an indication of how seriously she takes this outreach, cruitment trips to China. She walked she is studying Mandarin. into Beijing School No. 4 shortly after “As the doors have opened for high school students to enter higher education in the latest U.S. News rankings were the United States,” she says, “public schools in China—called national schools—are announced. The students were abuzz beginning to allow us access to classroom teachers and students.” over BU’s 10-point jump. Walter views it as her job—and the job of other US admissions o! cials—to help “One boy said, ‘Miss Walter, we see school administrators, counselors, students, and parents in China better understand that BU is now 41,”’ Walter says. what is to them the mystifying US college admissions process. Parents expect BU to help their She and a group of admissions o! cers from other top US colleges and universities, children develop habits of mind they including Vanderbilt, Boston College, Tufts, and the University of Michigan, are part associate with US education—critical of a new e" ort to train administrators and other sta" at high schools in China in the thinking, creativity—which they say are complexities of US college admissions. They held their fi rst training session in Sep- not encouraged by China’s system, with tember, in Beijing. Administrators from 80 high schools around the country attended. its emphasis on rote learning, a teach- Walter spoke to the group about BU’s holistic admissions, which take into er’s authority, and grueling high-stakes account a combination of factors: academic performance, including high school exams. It can be challenging, though, grades, standardized test scores, extracurricular activities, essays, and teacher to spend 12 years learning to succeed recommendations. in one system and then to be expected The fi rst stumbling block was the word holistic. “They couldn’t translate it,” she to think in very different ways at BU. says. “It’s a process that is foreign to them. They’ve had to learn about it. Even having Freewheeling class discussions and to write an essay for admission is something they’re not familiar with.” challenging authority may be new for College admissions in China are based on the score of a national high-stakes col- students from China, who, as Li writes lege entrance exam, the demanding nine-hour Gaokao. About nine million high school in her book, come from a culture that seniors took the test last year. prizes humility and listening as impor- Walter emphasizes that students from China are held to the same admissions tant learning virtues. standards as all other applicants to US colleges. “We expect that these students But adapting to BU is part of keep- were strong performers in high school,” she says. “Academic expectations are the ing pace with China’s race into the fu- same regardless of whether students are from Albany, N.Y., London in the UK, or ture. “We’re a new generation,” says Ge. Beijing, China. They are required to take the same standardized tests as any Ameri- “We like American culture. It’s new, it’s can student.” In addition, she says, they must demonstrate English language profi - free.” She pauses, searching for an ex- ciency on the TOEFL (Test of English as a Foreign Language). SR ample of that new freedom: “like criti- cal thinking.” She and the other students from Chi- na were born in the early- to mid-1990s, CYDNEY SCOTT most of them during the second decade of Deng Xiaoping’s innovative economic policies known as Reform and Opening. “To get rich is glorious,” Deng declared. The largest human migration in history was under way, with hundreds of mil- lions of people moving from rural areas Kelly A. to seek factory jobs and other opportu- Walter says nities in cities. students from Ge’s parents migrated to Nanjing, an China are eastern city with more than five million held to the people. Their apartment, in a new, gated same admis- sions stan- complex, is a 15-minute drive from the dards as all skyscrapers of central Nanjing—and a applicants. few minutes’ walk from a restored sec-

Winter–Spring 2014 BOSTONIA !"

224-53_BostoniaWinterSpring2014.indd4-53_BostoniaWinterSpring2014.indd 3131 11/30/14/30/14 112:592:59 PMPM CH INA The students complain about the hours their parents spend on the internet, researching Boston University.

tion of a 14th-century Ming dynasty is focused on the present—his family, nect with family and friends back home. wall. China, land of contrasts. It’s a cli- keeping his large, successful company “Our parents couldn’t have imagined ché, but it’s accurate. competitive, China’s development. going abroad when they were our age,” A group of visitors from BU is wel- If studying abroad was unimagin- Ge says, looking around the table. “Ev- comed in August by Ge and her parents able for Ge’s parents, going to college eryone was poor.” with typical Chinese warmth. They talk in China was almost as far out of reach. Acting as host, she discusses the about their hopes for their daughter’s The national college entrance exam, menu with the group and orders a vari- education over ginger tea—followed by known as the Gaokao, was discontin- ety of dishes to share: salted duck, sug- heaping bowls of dumplings for lunch— ued during the Cultural Revolution and ary taro soup, deep-fried tofu, stir-fried around the table in their light-filled not reinstated until 1977. With little rice cakes, pork dumplings, sautéed dining room. opportunity to prepare, only a tiny vegetables. Socializing over their coun- “In America you have a spirit of percentage of those who took the fa- try’s food is an essential part of their innovation,” says Ge’s father, speaking mously difficult test in those early culture these students will bring with through a translator. “Society encour- years passed. them to BU. ages it.” “My parents both failed the Gao- They have a question: can they have He describes Boston as the Silicon kao,” Ge says. “My mother compares the electric kettles in their dorm rooms, so Valley of the East Coast, with BU an Gaokao to hell.” they can boil water for tea? incubator where Lily can learn and Just taking the test showed remark- “Americans use tea bags,” says grow while sharing her country’s cul- able drive, says Min Ye, a College of Andrew Tianyang Zhong (CAS’17). ture. “I hope she will be a link between Arts & Sciences assistant professor of “That is not tea.” To brew tea the Chi- the United States and China,” he says. international relations, who graduated nese way, the water must be properly “I hope she will bring back new ideas from Beijing University and came to boiled. Microwaves don’t cut it. and technology. the United States as a graduate student There is a brief discussion of life “To us, BU is like a large city,” he says. in the late 1990s, earning a master’s at goals. Money is necessary, the students “It will broaden her view. She can make the University of South Carolina and a agree. But family and happiness matter many friends, not only among students, PhD at Princeton. more. They go on to complain about all but also some professors.” “That first generation was incred- the hours their parents are spending on He talks about how he and his wife ible,” Ye says. the internet, researching BU. started taking Lily abroad when she was Ge’s parents both got jobs at China “Our parents know more about Bos- six, to Australia, Indonesia, France, Eng- Telecom and jumped at the opportu- ton than we do,” Zhong says. land, Germany. It was part of helping nity to be trained in engineering by Bell her develop as a citizen of the world. Labs in China. Bell Labs changed their A DAUGHTER’S DREAM: FOUR YEARS Recalling his business trip to the lives, and part of their affinity for BU is AT BOSTON UNIVERSITY United States, when he visited New that Alexander Graham Bell was once By late August, students in big, modern York, Boston, and San Francisco, he on its faculty. In the early 1990s, Ge’s cities across China, from Dalian to Bei- says, “I have seen some American father left China Telecom to start his jing to Chongqing to Shanghai, are pre- universities. They are fenceless, very first company. In less than 10 years, he paring to leave for BU. South of Nanjing, free. We wanted to let Lily study in took it public. Jennifer Shitao Li (COM’15) is finishing such freedom.” The experience and opportunity gap up an internship at a television station Ge’s parents are both 48. They came between Ge’s generation and their par- in Shenzhen, the Overnight, or Experi- of age during Mao Zedong’s Cultural ents’ is staggering. The younger genera- mental City. Revolution. Universities were shut tion struggles to grasp it. In 1980, Deng declared Shenzhen a down from 1966 to 1976. Intellectuals A couple of afternoons before the Special Economic Zone. Factories, sky- were sent to the countryside to work visit to the Ge home, Ge has lunch with scrapers, and highways rose out of what the land. China was all but closed five other BU freshmen at Dai Pai Dang, had been a sleepy farming and fishing to outsiders. a popular Chinese restaurant in the town. From all over China, people mi- “If we wanted to travel, we couldn’t,” Westin mall that is decorated like a tra- grated to Shenzhen seeking jobs. The Ge’s father says. ditional teahouse, with red lanterns and population exploded from 300,000 to Dreams were put on hold. “It was carved wooden pillars. The students sit nearly 15 million today. not just our one family,” he says. “The around a table in their jeans and Con- Li was four when her parents arrived entire society was like that. What could verse sneakers, carrying cell phones from central Henan province. On a Sun- we do? We could wait, waiting for things loaded with apps for Skype and the Chi- day afternoon 17 years later, just 3 days to change.” nese social media sites—WeChat, Ren- before her flight from Hong Kong to Bos- His voice holds no bitterness. He ren, QQ—they would use at BU to con- ton, she is in a cab on her way to a five-

!" BOSTONIA Winter–Spring 2014

224-53_BostoniaWinterSpring2014_r1.indd4-53_BostoniaWinterSpring2014_r1.indd 3232 22/4/14/4/14 44:25:25 PPMM "Sometimes I feel guilty about my choice because my par ents sacrifice so much."—!"##$%"& '($)*+ ,$ ROBIN MAS

star hotel to interview a Chinese pop star Many evenings, Min Li says, they was a personal statement, anyway? duo. She drives past rows of skyscrapers head from the store to their supply fac- That admissions process is still so and high-rise apartment buildings. tory, often not getting home until after new that most Chinese students are Li is eager to get back to Boston. Chi- 10. Zheng also works full-time as a kin- on their own unless they go to one of a na may be a country with 5,000 years dergarten teacher. handful of high schools like Ge’s. The of history, but she grew up in a city not This is how they support their daugh- Chinese government uses only Gaokao much more than a decade older than she ter’s dream: four years at BU. scores to determine who goes to col- is. “Boston,” she says wistfully, searching They are gratified, they say, by how lege, and where. Nothing else matters. for the words to describe its appeal, “is she has grown at school. “Her thinking Not grades, not extracurricular activi- an ancient city.” has become more active,” Zheng says. ties (what extracurriculars?). So most A few miles away, in a designated “She is full of her own ideas and can ex- schools haven’t felt the need for guid- garment zone in the western part of press her own views on many issues. She ance counselors. Shenzhen, Li’s parents are at their small has become happier.” Middle-class students in the United wholesale women’s clothing store. Be- Jennifer Li worries about all the States have long relied on independent tween the store and their sales on Chi- hours her parents work. “Sometimes I college counselors. Like many students na’s equivalent of eBay, they have built feel guilty about my choice because my in China, Li turned to a private agency up a large base of international custom- parents sacrifice so much,” she says. for help in understanding the process. ers, says Li’s father, Min Li. He and his Li was on her own when it came to Ge was fortunate to have attended wife, Chunli Zheng, talk about their figuring out the confusing US admis- Nanjing Foreign Language High School, business, and BU, between customers. sions process, all of it in English. What which is known for preparing students

Winter–Spring 2014 BOSTONIA !!

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for college abroad and offers Advanced blocks it is from where she lives to the T. Placement courses. Like a growing When she mentions that she went some-

number of students, she opted out of where, we want to know what she’s talk- CYDNEY SCOTT the Gaokao. ing about.” “Nanjing Foreign Language made In exaggerated outrage, Wind bursts me the person I am today,” Ge says. out: “They stalked me.” “Students from my high school are Lu’s advice to new students: get out not shy. Our teachers encourage criti- there and mix with Americans. What is cal thinking.” the point of going to BU if you are just She spent her high school junior going to hang out with other Chinese year in Los Angeles as an exchange kids and speak Mandarin? student. As the competition to get into But not everyone is as outgoing as Lu, US colleges intensifies, more parents or has her fluency in English. And, she are sending their children to the United acknowledges, years of formal language States as exchange students, for sum- classes in China are often not enough for mer enrichment programs, even to students to feel comfortable in the class- boarding schools. room or socially. Senior year, Ge flew to Hong Kong “Person A says, ‘Hello, how are you to take the SAT, which is not offered in today?’” Lu says in a robotic tone, paro- mainland China but is required for ad- dying a typical English class in China. mission to BU. “Person B says, ‘I’m fine, thank you. How While she had never been to Boston, are you?’” Ge already knew a lot about it. “I saw She tossed around conversational Social Network,” she explains. “Our par- openers like that on her first day at ents grew up with siblings. They learned Warren Towers freshman year. “People from their siblings. Our generation laughed at me,” she says. Lu laughed, too. doesn’t have siblings. We learned from “Everyone was just saying, ‘Waddup.’” television and the internet.” In Nanjing, days before her depar- And, of course, from their parents ture, Ge is looking forward to getting to and grandparents. Being only chil- know her two American suitemates, one dren is a defining aspect of Ge’s gen- from California, one from Pennsylvania. eration. It means two parents and two “This is the first time I’ll be living sets of grandparents all focusing their with so many Americans,” she says. “My attention—and all their reverence for mother says it’s important to share and education—on a single child. help other people.” So, what’s it like being an only child? It isn’t easy to send your only child They get asked that a lot at BU. to college more than 7,000 miles away. Considering the question, Nick Haisu “My mother asked me, ‘Can we Skype Yuan sighs. “It’s a lot of pressure.” On every day?’” Ge says. “I told her, ‘We the other hand, he says, “you don’t can Skype, but not every day. I have Senior Nick have to share the love.” my studies.’” Haisu Yuan, In Shanghai last August, over a fam- “We are very happy she has an oppor- who often cooks in ily dinner in a Chinese restaurant, Wind tunity to study at such a great universi- his own Lu’s mother, Deqing Qiu, talks about ty,” her mother says. “But as a mom—she apartment, how she and her husband, Yongfeng Lu, is my only child—I have a terrible time appreciates accompanied Wind to Boston for fresh- letting her go.” BU’s recent man orientation and rode the T all over Ge’s flight leaves Shanghai the eve- efforts to town. They visited again the next year. ning of August 27. She is traveling with expand its Chinese menu. Back in China, after their daughter had four other BU freshmen from Nanjing. moved into an off-campus apartment, With a layover in Los Angeles, they they turned to Google Earth. arrive in Boston around 6:30 a.m. the “We must familiarize ourselves with next day. every corner,” Qiu says with a sheep- From Logan, Ge sends a WeChat to ish smile. “We want to know how many her mother: “We’re here. We’re safe.”

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