Summary
This book explores the increasing flood of Chinese international undergraduate students in American higher education. Research shows that from 2005 to 2015, undergraduate enrollment from China rose from under 10,000 to over 135,000. This group of individuals must learn to navigate challenges, causing complications and confusion while bridging two of the world's most powerful countries. These students and their families have the ambition to navigate two very different educational systems and societies. The book told the stories of Chinese students' experience here while answering questions about why they chose to pursue higher education in America, how the experience affected them, and what American higher education can do to attract more international students. It has also explored the differences in educational systems between China and the United States.
Yingyi Ma is an Associate Professor of Sociology and Director of Asian/ Asian American studies at Syracuse University, where she is a Provost Faculty Fellow on internationalization. She was elected as a Public Intellectual Fellow at the National Committee on US-China Relations. Professor Ma has published extensively on international mobility and higher education in China. She gave insights into Chinese students' mindsets that are studying in higher education institutions in America, arguing that they enter university full of ambition. As they navigate through the intuition, they are met with loads of pressure generating a great deal of anxiety. Her new book, Ambitious and Anxious: How Chinese Undergraduates Succeed and Struggle in American Higher Education, based on research in Chinese high schools and American higher education institutions, this book examines Chinese students’ experiences spanning three key stages: before they arrived in the United States, their lived experiences during their study in America, to their looking ahead and thinking about their futures.
“ Ambition and Anxiety”
“Cultural Capital”- social assets of a person (education, values, behavior, etc.) that promote social mobility in a stratified society
“Socioeconomic status”- the social standing or class of an individual or group often measured by a combination of education, income, and occupation.
"Fixed vs. Growth Mindset"
"Protective Segregation"
“Individualism vs. Collectivism”
“Peking University and Tsinghua University are fiercely competitive: less than 0.1% of test-takers in regions outside of Beijing get in… although residents from Beijing have higher admissions rate--- which is still less than 1%.” (Ma 30)
“While the American system is based on the belief that each student is an individual with unique abilities and interests, the Chinese education system subscribes to the belief that students should be taught at a given grade as a given age group.” (Ma 79)
“Misinformed and prejudiced comments American students make about China alienate the Chinese students, leading to a growing identification with their own home country.” (Ma 117)
Value
This book has been a great source of information as it provides interviews, graphs, and statistical examples that answered some of my research questions. This book has provided me with multiple reasons and answers to the questions that I had. It has given me a more in-depth view of the difference in Western and Eastern cultures' teaching and learning styles. The book had allowed me to look at American universities through Chinese students' eyes from before, during, and after they have experienced education in the United States.
This is a great book. I have learned so much from Yingyi Ma's work. And you do a good job presenting it.
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