Chinese college students in the U.S., with Yingyi Ma
Sinica Podcast
Kaiser Kuo
4.7 • 710 Ratings
🗓️ 3 June 2021
⏱️ 88 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
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.
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Transcript
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| 0:45.7 | That's audible.com slash Wondery UK. Welcome to the cynical podcast, the weekly discussion of current affairs in China, produced in partnership with SUPChina. |
| 1:04.3 | Subscribe to SUPChina's daily access newsletter to keep on top of all the latest news from China from hundreds of different news sources, |
| 1:15.2 | or check out all the original writing on our site at suprChina.com, |
| 1:18.9 | including reported stories, editorials, and regular columns, |
| 1:23.1 | as well as a growing library of videos and, of course, podcasts. |
| 1:28.0 | We cover everything from China's fraught foreign relations to its ingenious entrepreneurs, |
| 1:32.8 | from the ongoing repression of Uyghurs and other Muslim people in China's Xinjiang region, |
| 1:35.4 | to China's ambitious efforts to eliminate poverty. |
| 1:41.2 | It's a feast of business, political, and cultural news about a nation that is reshaping the world. |
| 1:44.8 | I'm Kaiser Guo coming to today from Chapel Hill, North Carolina. |
| 1:50.2 | Today on Cineca, I am delighted to be joined by Yiny Ma, who is Associate Professor of Sociology and Senior Research Associated Center for Policy Research at Syracuse University's Maxwell School |
| 1:56.1 | of Citizenship and Public Affairs, where she's also director of the Asian-Slas Asian-American |
... |
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