This week on Sinica, Kaiser chats with Yingyi Ma, an associate professor of sociology at Syracuse University and the author of the book Ambitious and Anxious: How Chinese College Students Succeed and Struggle in American Higher Education. Yingyi’s book, which focuses on the specific experiences of Chinese undergraduates, examines the push-and-pull factors that have made studying abroad — and studying in the U.S. in particular — a “new education gospel” for many parents in China. She discusses why after 2006 Chinese students surged into American colleges and universities, and how despite their eagerness to build “cosmopolitan capital” by studying in the U.S., they’ve faced challenges in navigating American higher education.
6:56: A duality of ambition and anxiety
13:00: “Cosmopolitan capital” and globalization
39:57: The sacrifices made by Chinese families and researchers
43:58: American higher education and Chinese undergraduate students
46:14: With regard to education, the grass is always greener on the other side
Recommendations:
Yingyi: Invisible China: How the Urban-Rural Divide Threatens China’s Rise, by Scott Rozelle and Natalie Hell, and the popular Chinese language podcast Story FM.
Kaiser: The app Weee!, specializing in Asian and Hispanic food delivery.
China’s authoritarian revival, explained by Carl Minzner
Courts & torts: Driving the Chinese legal system
The China Questions, with Jennifer Rudolph and Michael Szonyi
‘Critical’ journalism in China, explained by Maria Repnikova
Kishore Mahbubani on China’s rise and America’s myopia
Gerry Shih on China’s Uyghur Muslims, under pressure at home and abroad
Yukon Huang, the China economy contrarian
Jerry Yang of Yahoo: Why I Believed in Alibaba
Inside China’s AI revolution, with Jessi Hempel
Jiayang Fan on beauty in China
Stephen Roach on the unhealthy economic codependency of China and America
Rana Mitter on studying the Nanjing Massacre
Scott Tong on his surprising family history
Why China needs a #MeToo campaign but won’t allow it: A conversation with Leta Hong Fincher
When American pilots fell out of the Chinese sky
Jane Perlez on Trump’s visit to Beijing
Gary Liu, CEO of the South China Morning Post
Takeaways from China’s 19th Party Congress, with Bill Bishop and Jude Blanchette
The China-Africa relationship, a decade after its blossoming
Authoritarian schooling in Shanghai vs. the American approach
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