Paradise Redefined : Transnational Chinese Students and the Quest for Flexible Citizenship in the Developed World

Paradise redefined : transnational Chinese students and the quest for flexible citizenship in the developed world / Vanessa L. Fong. pages cm Includes bibliographical references and index. isbn 978-0-8047-7266-2 (cloth : alk. paper)isbn 978-0-8047-7267-9 (pbk. : alk. paper) 1. Chinese students-Foreign countries. 2. Foreign study-China. 3. Transnationalism. . Chinaemigration and immigration. I. Title. lb2376.6.c6f66 2011 370.116-dc22 2011005567 Typeset by Classic Typography in 10/12.5 Palatino. Contents acknowledgments vii acknowledgments I thank nicole newendorp, nancy abelmann, sung won Kim, Qin In 2004, Vanessa Fong offered a groundbreaking ethnographic exploration of the social, economic, and psychological development of children born since China's one-child policy was introduced in 1979. Her book Only Hope left readers with a picture of stressed, ambitious adolescents for whom elite status was the ultimate goal, though relatively few were in a position to achieve it. In Paradise Redefined, Fong tracks the experiences of many in her initial cohort of Chinese only-children--now college-age--as they study abroad in Australia, Europe, Japan, New Zealand, North America, and Singapore. While earning a prestigious college education in China is the main path to elite status, study abroad provides an alternative channel by offering a particularly flexible "developed world" citizenship. This flexible citizenship promises the potential for greater happiness and freedom afforded by transnational mobility, but also brings with it unexpected suffering, ambivalence, and disappointment. Paradise Redefined offers insights into China's globalization by examining the expectations and experiences that affect how various Chinese students make decisions about studying abroad, staying abroad, immigration, and returning home The author continues to track the experiences of many of the initial cohort of Chinese only-children (now college-age) that were part of her 2004 groundbreaking ethnographic exploration of the social, economic, and psychological development of children born since China's one-child policy was introduced in 1979. Here she tracks their experiences as they study abroad in Australia, Europe, Japan, New Zealand, North America, and Singapore. While earning a prestigious college education in China is the main path to elite status, study abroad provides an alternative channel by offering a particularly flexible "developed world" citizenship. This flexible citizenship promises the potential for greater happiness and freedom afforded by transnational mobility, but also brings with it unexpected suffering, ambivalence, and disappointment. Paradise Redefined offers insights into China's globalization by examining the expectations and experiences that affect how various Chinese students make decisions about studying abroad, staying abroad, immigration, and returning home This book picks up where author Vanessa Fong left off in Only Hope: Coming of Age under China's One-Child Policy (Stanford, 2004), and continues by telling the stories of the Chinese youth who left China in their teens and 20s to study in Australia, Europe, Japan, New Zealand, North America, or Singapore. Fong examines the expectations and experiences of Chinese students who go abroad in search of opportunity, and the factors that cause some to return to China and others to stay abroad.