Ambitious and Anxious: How Chinese College Students Succeed and Struggle in American Higher Education

Yingyi Ma

Published by Columbia University Press 2020

Ambitious and Anxious

How Chinese College Students Succeed and Struggle in American Higher Education

Yingyi Ma

https://doi.org/10.7312/ma--18458

Overview
Contents

About this book

Yingyi Ma offers a multifaceted analysis of the wave of Chinese students across American higher-education based on research in both Chinese high schools and U.S. institutions. Ma argues that their experiences embody the duality of ambition and anxiety that arises from transformative social changes in China.

Author information

Yingyi Ma is an associate professor of sociology and senior research associate in the Center for Policy Research at Syracuse University’s Maxwell School of Citizenship and Public Affairs, where she is also director of the Asian/Asian American Studies Program. She is a fellow of the Public Intellectuals Program of the National Committee on United States-China Relations.

Reviews

Syed Ali, Long Island University-Brooklyn:
The number of Chinese undergraduates in American universities has grown dramatically over the past two decades, but we know little about them. If you’re interested in how these students make their way in what can often be a chilly American educational and social environment, you should really read this book.

Min Zhou, University of California, Los Angeles:
Ambitious and Anxious is a compelling account of international students from China attending American colleges and universities at the turn of the 21st century. Through thoughtful and sensitive analysis of multiple sources of data, Ma reveals the stressful and paradoxical educational experience of Chinese undergraduates as they navigate through simultaneously familiar and strange terrains in China and America. The book contributes significantly to the deeper understanding of complex sociocultural issues related to international education.

Brian Powell, Indiana University:
Despite their increasing presence in American colleges and universities, the experiences of Chinese students have been disappointingly ignored by the scholarly community. Ambitious and Anxious offers a much-needed corrective to this neglect by comprehensively and compassionately depicting the challenges faced by and accomplishments of these students. This impeccably documented and engagingly written book should compel its readers to reassess their assumptions regarding international students and higher education.

Emily Hannum, University of Pennsylvania:
This highly engaging book illuminates the diverse experiences of Chinese students from various backgrounds in American higher education. Sociologists of education will appreciate the connection of cultural perspectives in the field to a timely topic. Higher education professionals will welcome the thoughtful discussion of concerns expressed by international students from China, along with the closing insights about how to support meaningful connections on campus.

Vanessa Fong, Amherst College:
This is an engaging, richly informative, and beautifully written book that reveals many new and important insights about the motivations and experiences of Chinese students who attended college in the United States in the 2010s. Scholars, students, and educators will have much to learn from its nuanced analyses of many different kinds of data, ranging from national-level statistics from China and the United States to responses to an online survey to interviews with prospective students and their educators in China as well as with Chinese students currently attending a variety of different colleges in the United States.

Evan Osnos, author of Age of Ambition: Chasing Fortune, Truth, and Faith in the New China:
From the first word to the last, Ambitious and Anxious is eye-opening, provocative, and replete with original details. Yingyi Ma has produced a trove of valuable interviews and survey results that challenge unexamined narratives about Chinese students in America and illustrate their daily lived experience in ways that will shape our understanding for years to come.

Topics

Frontmatter Publicly Available Download PDF	i
Contents Publicly Available Download PDF	vii
Acknowledgments Publicly Available Download PDF	ix
1. Ambitious and Anxious: Chinese Undergraduates in the United States Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	1
2. A Love for Separation: Study Abroad as the New Education Gospel in Urban China Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	26
3. “From Hello to Harvard”: The Pathways to American Higher Education Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	53
4. Navigating and Comparing Chinese and American Education Systems Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	78
5. Protective Segregation: Chinese Students Hanging Out Among Themselves Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	109
6. College Major Choices, Rationales, and Dilemmas Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	135
7. Think Before Speak: A Real Conundrum for Classroom Participation? Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	160
8. Changes and Reflections Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	183
9. Stay versus Return: That Is the Question Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	204
10. What American Higher Education Needs to Know about Chinese Undergraduates Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	229
Appendix on Methodology: Data Collection Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	245
Notes Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	249
References Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	259
Index Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	281

Language: English
Publisher: Columbia University Press
Audience: Professional and scholarly;
Illustrations
- Other: 50 b&w figures

eBook

Published: May 5, 2020
ISBN: 9780231545563