The Koreans are Already Here So What The Fraught Exchange between Chinese International Undergraduate Students and the American University Jiyeon Kang and Nancy Abelmann 2 The Number of Chinese Students in the United States ID: 278962
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Slide1
The Chinese are Coming! The Koreans are Already Here, So What
The Fraught Exchange between
Chinese International Undergraduate Students
and the American
University
Jiyeon Kang and Nancy AbelmannSlide2
2Slide3
The Number of Chinese Students in the United States
2008/2009
2009/2010
2010/2011
Chinese UG
26,228
39,948
57,036
Chinese total98,235127,628157,558Korean UG52,09536,23437,922Korean total75,06572,15373,351Indian UG15,60014,02515,210Indian total103,260104,897103,895
3Slide4
QuestionsHow to understand the American media’s quite particular attention to Chinese students? How is the Chinese Student in America viewed by the media – and by American university administrators, Chinese students, American students and their parents, and Chinese parents?4Slide5
American Media Discourse onChinese Undergraduate StudentsAmerican Imagination of China: A Fabled Market and “Yellow Peril”South Korea, an Unthreatening Mini-Me
Three Imaginations of Chinese Undergraduate Students
an
ever-expanding
market
a
fair exchange between
excellent
American higher education and exemplary Chinese youtha fraught exchange with questions about the real value of both 5Slide6
November 2010 November 20116Slide7
China BoomChina Conundrum
Exponential growth of middle class
+
One
child policy
+
Desire for education
American universities’ drive to expand their international appeal +Chinese “frenzy” for an American university education +Aggressive admissions-agent industry 7Slide8
Historical Imaginations of ChinaFascination with the Chinese Market“Fabled
market
”
“
T
he
El Dorado of commerce
”
“A billion bellies out there” Inassimilable Other and the “Yellow Peril”“The Chinese Invasion”“Last Days of the Republic”Red Menace and the Lost Market During the Cold War“Dangerous foe, a brutal master, and an efficient tyranny”anxiety over a lost market 8Slide9
Imaginations of Chinese Students:Inevitable Client of and a Threat to American Liberal Education“Native would be missionaries” and “directing elites” who would reform the primitive consciousness of China (1870-80)
“
I’m not sure that it is good policy to educate representatives of the warlike Chinese people, whose number is four hundred or five hundred million”
(Senator
Gallinger
, 1912)
“Future
democratic forces” that would “exert a profound influence on the future course of their
country” (1950s) 9Slide10
South Korea, an Unthreatening Mini-MeI was having lunch with the President of South Korea. I was interested in education policy -- they've grown enormously over the last 40 years. And I asked him, what are the biggest challenges in your education policy? He said, the biggest challenge that I have is that my parents are too demanding. He said, even if somebody is dirt poor, they are insisting that their kids are getting the best
education….That
was the biggest education challenge that he had, was an insistence, a demand from
parents for
excellence in the schools
.
- Barack Obama,
“
Remarks by the President on the ’Education To Innovate’ Campaign” 2009 10Slide11
How do they do it? Their formula is relatively simple. They take South Korea's top-scoring middle school students, put those who aspire to an American university in English-language classes, taught by Korean and highly paid American and other foreign teachers, emphasize composition and other skills crucial to success on the SATs and college admissions essays, and urge them on to unceasing study. NYT 2008But it tailors its academic courses to American expectations, said Executive Director Don Shim, with creative teaching techniques and different types of classes. This summer, the academy is offering a debate class to bolster students' communication skills. "Many students know the answer, but they don't know how to explain it," Shim said. Washington Post
2009
11Slide12
Imagination of China 1: The Ever Expanding Market The growth of the nation’s economy – and the surge in Shanghai real-estate prices – has helped create 700,000 new millionaires and a middle class of more than 300 million.San Jose Mercury News 2011
The great number of Chinese families with disposable income, two working parents, and only one child, and a determination to invest their money to make sure that child receives the best education possible
New York Times
2010
Ninety
percent of Chinese High school students want to study overseas…. About 10 million young people take China’s college entrance exam each year and only 1 million pass
it
.
Portland Press Herald 2011If we build it, they will come.- The Clover Herald 200712Slide13
The Liberal American University’s Gift to the Chinese Antipodal OtherI heard that America was a more-free country…I didn’t want to study for a number on a test. I wanted to study for the fun of learning.San Jose Mercury News 2011
The University of Virginia really
encouraged
me to
think as an independent person and not be afraid to speak my
mind.
Washington Post
2009
In the U.S. they focus on creative-thinking skills, while in China they only focus on theory… so what university students learn here [in China] doesn’t prepare them for the real world.The experience has given her a deep appreciation for the West’s values of transparency and access to information…. In China, I’m used to secrecy, so being 18 and able to touch history with my bare fingers really impressed me. New York Times 2010Imagination 2: A Fair Exchange 13Slide14
The Exemplary Chinese Student Enlightening and Internationalizing the American ClassmateWell, youth of America, you better look back because they are gaining on you. Here come the Chinese and Indian youths who are serious about making their country No. 1 in this new global economy… If our schools continue on the present course of not challenging students and continue to move them along
[regardless],
then our students will become the customer service telephone answering people in the future, replacing those now operating in foreign countries
.
San
Antonio Express
2006
It’s ‘the next best thing’ for their children, after studying abroad.- USA Today 2009What a wonderful resource for Clinton County students to be able to mingle with people of a different culture and a different perspective on global markets The Press-Republican (NY) 200914Slide15
American Educational Exceptionalism? Chinese Students as Cash CowsAmerican universities are also shopping for partners that will polish their reputations…. Some schools want to cash in on an enormous market for education in the most populous nation on the planet
.
The
News & Observer
(NC) 2006
Isomorphic Global universities
But over the next decade, the number of Chinese students applying to UVA may drop off as more Chinese students decide to attend college within their own country’s borders. In 1999, China launched a multi-billion dollar, 20-year effort to increase the quality of its higher education system.
- The Clover Herald
2007Imagination 3: A Faltering Exchange 15Slide16
The Exemplary Chinese Student?[Admission officers] spend their time on Chinese applications trying to parse the essays – paying particular attention, as they might with an American candidate, to whether they detect the authentic voice and sensibility New York Times 2011Within a couple of weeks, all but three of the non-Chinese students had dropped the course. Why did the American students flee? ''They said the class was very quiet,'' recalls Dr. St. Pierre…. During quizzes, Dr. St. Pierre now requires everyone to leave their books at the front of the classroom to prevent cheating.
New York Times
2011
Chinese
graduates go to American universities to attain respected degrees, but retain the expectation that their nation will soon retake its rightful place as a great power.
Washington Times
2010
16Slide17
The quality of both American higher education and the Chinese student are called into question Idealistic notions of internationalization or international exchange are called into questionThe exchange between American higher education and the Chinese student is risky, uncertain at best and deceptive at worst. Conclusion
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