Among international students, the most frequently asked question is “have you experienced any discrimination against you in the U.S.?” When I was recently asked this question, I hesitated for a second. While I just about to say no after thinking over my wonderful first year at Roycemore, a vivid conversation jumped into my head. 

When I was doing volunteer work with a lady in her forties, she asked what school I go to. I answered that I am an international student and study remotely in America during this special year. 

She suddenly changed her facial expression and looked at me with doubt. “I heard international students don't tend to find a good job and have a decent salary these years. And that’s because with more and more students studying internationally, people don’t value students studying abroad as much as before.” 

I immediately froze: “What?” And then I answered: “Well, studying in another country can actually broaden our knowledge, and I can accumulate more special experiences.” 

She replied, “But it is really expensive. In terms of learning, knowledge is knowledge. Studying it in English and in another place doesn’t make the course itself more valuable. It doesn’t seem like a good investment.” 

“Well, at least for me it is necessary to invest in international study.” I answered with a sigh.

We dropped the topic and walked on silently. On our way back to the volunteer station, I rethought my decision to study in America. I wanted to learn the highest level of technology there and immerse myself in its atmosphere of freedom and liberty. But what did I really learn? Some simple maths, some science concepts, and a few sports? Whatever. Are those experiences really worthy of  investment? I am not sure, and I started to question my decision.

A month later, I talked about this conversation with one of my friends studying in an international school in Guangzhou. She said that she had a similar experience: when a teacher in the public school department leading her class down the hall walked by my friend’s class, she pointed to the classroom and yelled: “if you don’t study hard, you will end up in that class.” She was pointing to a room filled with students getting ready to study abroad. 

 I was really surprised and angry. It is humiliating to hear words like this. Choosing a different path of education from most students in China doesn’t mean international students are not qualified to study in the examination-oriented education system. But deep in my heart, I know one of the reasons that pushes me to study abroad is that I want to escape from the College Entrance Examination. Isn’t this the true reason and that I was a fraud to say I study in America for a better education? I was lost in the middle of a mist of darkness and the unknown. The light guiding me through all the difficult times suddenly disappeared. Am I really too cowardly to face the exams in China?

It is weird that none of the Americans said that we international students are useless or hopeless, but Chinese do. Those who travel across the Pacific Ocean to study in a completely different environment wish to become people of ability and devote their working lives to their country. Unfortunately, Chinese people criticize them as “too silly to get into colleges” and waste money. I wanted to ignore her, but I couldn’t. 

Given my own doubts and uncertainties, I did some research about international education. The most influential news website in China explains: 

The significance of studying abroad lies in itself. There is both perceptual intuition and rational thinking contributing to this important decision. Intuition tells us to go abroad and appreciate the world, while rationality tells us that an international academic background will make it easier for international students to win in the workplace. (“Why do we want to study abroad?”)

Reading this reminded me of my original initiative to study abroad: I wanted to see the world, studying in a different education system and living a new lifestyle. I want to expand my vision and appreciate different cultures, immersing myself in what Chinese would call “a shower” of academic and social democracy.

In 1827, Rong Hong who graduated from Yale University proposed to the government that it was necessary to send students to America to study western culture and knowledge. The government approved his proposal and sent 120 twelve-year-old teenagers to study in America. Even though only 96 of them came back, they all became people of influence in China, with one appearing in my textbook in primary school. After this first wave of international education, more and more students, either poor or rich, went to Japan, France, America, and other western countries to study. They included Deng Xiaoping, Sun Yat-sen, and Zhou Enlai. Without them and their international education, China would have become a totally different China. 

Despite the fact that Deng Xiaoping didn’t actually get an international education in France due to his poor French and lack of money, his five years of working in France shaped his ideas of internationalization: 

The experience of studying abroad made Deng Xiaoping have an open vision and laid the foundation for him to become a designer of China's Reform And Opening Up. Because Deng Xiaoping studied in France in his early years, he had a perceptual understanding of capitalist countries, and could analyze the civilization, progress and decay of capitalism more objectively than Mao Zedong and others, which was very important for him to become an open leader.  (“Deng Xiaoping: an experience of studying abroad that determines the fate of one's life”)

His revolutionary movement called Reform and Opening-Up changed the futures of millions of Chinese people, including myself and my family. Because of it, my father and his siblings got support from the government to start their own business. Otherwise, they would have remained farmers for the rest of their lives and I would have taken care of cow herds as well. Reform and Opening-Up is mainly about attracting foreign businessmen to invest in coastal cities in China, such as Guangzhou, Shanghai, and Shenzhen and encouraging Chinese people to start their own businesses. Without Deng Xiaoping’s foreign experience, he wouldn’t have been able to make such a significant decision that made the economy of China improve greatly. 

Deng is the first leader to give international students opportunities to make decisions about their future. Leaders before him used to force international students to come back and devote their work life to China. I see this as a big reason more students wanted to study abroad. It is freeing to know that they have options. Furthermore, he also improved the treatment of returning international students, and they could have excellent lives in China as well:

However, he was not willing to force the international students to return home. Instead, he worked with the national leaders of China at that time to formulate the policies of ‘supporting the study abroad, encouraging the return home, coming and going freely’ and ‘encouraging the overseas students to serve the motherland in different ways’. At the same time, he asked China to improve the working and living environment of the returned students. ‘In the past, when it comes to studying abroad and returning home, we often say that we have given up the favorable living conditions abroad,’ said Xiao Zuoxing, an expert in the history of Sino foreign exchanges. ‘The great thing of Deng Xiaoping is that he successfully let Chinese students take off the heavy historical burden of more than 100 years and unified the goal of rejuvenating the motherland and personal development.’” (Deng Xiaoping: the most outstanding returnees in China)

In my daily life, I mainly focus on my academic education, and pay little attention to my country. The importance of my Chinese patriotism has faded as time goes. But in this special moment, I felt so proud of my country and the great decision to promote international education. Tears blurred my vision as I read. In the blurring, I saw all the great international students walking on their paths to help their motherland flourish with confidence and courage, bearing any humiliation and distrust. My heart was warmed. 

Nowadays, more and more students are learning through international education and the number of international students reached 600,000 in 2019. However, with more and more international students emerging, the title of “international student” is not as influential as it was several years ago, and  Chinese companies don’t value international education as much as before. Some of the students in international schools don’t behave well and have terrible academic performances. They come from wealthy families and don’t spend time studying but competing for who is richest. People started to consider it as a way to escape the College Entrance Examination and, to some extent, to buy a degree in a foreign country. 

While this is true of some international students, in fact, international education is still an important factor of development in China. An entrepreneur named Wang Shi who graduated from Harvard and Cambridge became the CEO of Wan Ke, one of the largest real estate developers in China and even in the world. Li Yanhong, who studied in America, later became the CEO of Bai Du, one of the biggest high-tech companies. One of the greatest ping pong players, Deng Yaping, also studied in England before becoming an Olympic champion. 

It reminds me of my own experience as an international student. In my first year, I didn’t have any tough classes, and I always finished my homework before dinner. I first blamed international education for not teaching me anything due to its simplicity. So I also started to take some online lectures about programming, which captured my curiosity immediately. I learned everything from scratch; however, I enjoyed the challenging process of learning. After that, the first thing I did after school was to write code till 10:00 p.m and started to do my homework afterward. In my special first year, I learned Crawler, data analysis, and the grammar of Python, a programming language. Because of the tremendous time that I spent on it, I built two programs that made me proud in the end: a translation window that can also help with storage and emailing the words, and a movie theater information program, which put images, schedules, rates, main characters, names of the current movies showing into a Word document and email it to users. My “easy, useless” first year really opened a brand new door of investigation for me. 

Then, in the beginning of my second year, I took part in MakerSpace, directed by teachers in school. I learned design thinking, how to use a soldering gun, and the functions of different electronic components. In two weeks of coding and putting things together, I designed and built my Rainbow Lamp and LED Jacket. In the exhibition, I was so proud of myself, and introduced my inventions to everyone, and explained to them how they work. I loved turning my ideas into reality, so after Make Space endedI decided I would design my own wearable warming devices, and work in the lab everyday after school. The advent of COVID-19 and closure of school has prevented me from making it come true. 

Covid-19 stormed into the U.S without warning. The world was upside down, and everything was changing quickly. After a few months, my family decided to send me home. I have been back to China since April 2020, and there is a 14 hour difference between my time and America’s central standard time (CST). Every evening, I usually have personal sessions with my teachers due to the fact that I am unable to stay up late at night to attend lectures. I may not learn the material in class as deeply as I did my first year in high school; however, the amount of knowledge I gained never decreased. Even though I missed a lot of wonderful lectures, I had time to build up my Music Club, preparing for competitions, doing volunteer work, and learned a bunch of different skills, like painting, playing the piano, and speaking Cantonese. One of the good parts of international education is that the ones who motivate us to study are not schools, teachers, or parents, but we students. 

There are so many international students either in China or abroad who are being criticized by a group of people who don’t truly understand the meaning of international education. Critics say the students are too stupid to study in China, and that international education is not valuable because of the high cost and risk. Luckily, more and more people, especially who are knowledgeable or young, see the importance of learning abroad and consider international students true warriors who fight against tremendous difficulties and problems. Hopefully, more and more Chinese people can really realize international students deserve as much respect as other students. Chen Baosheng, Minister of education, has encouraged students to study abroad:

The epidemic will eventually pass, but the world cannot go back to the past, and education will not be the same as the original education. Efforts should be made to encourage students to study abroad, improve policies and services for studying in China, and actively introduce high-quality educational resources. (“Minister of Education said publicly: ‘strive to encourage students to study abroad’”)

Furthermore, international students also need to work harder and show those people: we are the future of China. I truly hope that one day I can sincerely say “no” to the question “is there anyone who discriminated against you?” without any hesitation. My journey of international education is long. But I can see my future as an ambitious and mature adult graduating from college, saying” Farewell, farewell, my friends” to my teachers, friends, and host families in America. Then I will return to China to devote my working life to her with gratitude and respect. I will pass on the tradition of international education in my family, and encourage my children to study abroad, just like my father encouraged me.

SOURCES 

“Deng Xiaoping: an experience of studying abroad that determines the fate of 

one's life.” Sina, edu.sina.com.cn/a/2009-07-31/1301175332.shtml, 2009.

“The Minister of Education said publicly: ‘strive to encourage students to study abroad.” 

Sohu, www.sohu.com/a/437409379_99908145, 2020.

“Why do we want to study abroad?” People, edu.people.com.cn/n

/2014/1209/, 2014.

“Deng Xiaoping: the most outstanding returnees in China.” China Embassy,        

www.china-embassy.org/chn/xw/t150989.htm, 2018.