Students caught in cultural identity crisis

By Raffi Williams (China Daily)
Updated: 2009-10-29 10:40

Ma Zhihan (left), a student of Princeton University, and her parents relax on campus. [Xinhua]

Many young Beijingers struggle settling into American college life and when they eventually find their place on campus, they discover it is equally challenging returning to their old Chinese life.

Lionel Hong and Constance Zhang (both insist on using their English names) return home to Beijing once a year to see their parents and old Chinese friends.

The three-month summer holiday is a great chance to reconnect with their native country yet they feel they must act differently when they return home.

"What is expected culturally of college aged kids, in the States and China is drastically different," said Zhang, 19, a sophomore at University of Chicago. "These differences lead me to have two different personalities; my Chinese one and my American one."

The flight from China to US is a time for Hong to alter his personality. He is a member of two very different societies and he must accept many significant social changes when transitioning between the two.

Hong, 20, is now entering his second year at Gettysburg College, in Central Pennsylvania, and now feels part of American society. He is studying economics and international relations and is one of the growing number of Chinese students doing their undergraduate studies in the States.

Hong wound up studying in the US after a group of American high school students visited his high school, Beijing No 4.

"The students described their high school campus, saying that it had a lake, a golf course and was over 500 acres I was like, oh man that's where I want to be," Hong said.

The students were from Hotchkiss School, located in the mountains of northwest Connecticut and the school invited Beijing students to study. Hong met some teachers in Beijing, applied and was successful. He began his studies in the States, as a high school junior, after he graduated from Beijing No 4.

"I was lucky," said Hong. "Hotchkiss found me a sponsor for high school, so I didn't have to pay for school."

Tuition for boarding school or college in the States ranges from $30,000 to $50,000 per year.

"My father is a taxi driver and my mother is an accountant. There is no way they could've afforded this."

But Hong must pay for his own college fees and was able to find work to cover costs. "The schools that I have attended have been very generous and helpful in finding ways for me to afford school at Gettysburg I only have to pay $2,500 every year because of financial aid."

Students caught in cultural identity crisis

Hong works on campus as an office assistant at Gettysburg as way to pay his through school. But tuition is not the only difference between US and Chinese education systems.

Traditional Chinese society expects students to be very focused on schoolwork, leaving very little time for leisure. However in the US, college students are encouraged to explore and given a large amount of leisure time.

Zhang described the results of these different systems.

"Most of my American friends drink alcohol pretty regularly, even during the school year, while my Chinese friends rarely drink, even during the summer holiday," she said.

Zhang is unique because she never attended high school in China. Instead she went to Thacher School, an American boarding school near Los Angeles.

The lack of Chinese high schooling means that her American personality is very developed.

The difference between her Chinese and American personalities is best demonstrated when she brings together her Chinese friends from primary school, with her US high school or college friends. "They can't communicate with each other, and also have very different interests," Zhang said.

Zhang chose Thacher because of its location and she also had extended family in California so she felt more comfortable going there.

Luckily for the young Beijinger, her businesswoman aunty, who works all over the world, paid for her school fees. Her aunt believed an American education provided more opportunities for a young Chinese person.

Zhang is unsure of her future career but does plan to utilize her expansive knowledge of China and the US.

Hong wants to work in international business, hopefully in the US, but his primary concern, like many Chinese students and unlike almost all American students, is financially helping his parents as soon as possible.

This yearning to help his family is a very Chinese characteristic not often seen among US students and shows how Hong's two personalities overlap.

Another overlap is how he spends most of his free time in both countries working out in the gym and playing basketball. Lifting weights and playing sports is a conscious decision Hong makes in order to create similarities between his two lives.

But even though Hong tries to make his two personalities as similar as possible, it is still impossible for them to ever be the same. Hong's true identity, he believes, is a combination of the two and this always poses challenges.

However, the two young Beijingers do not regret going to America to study and both are grateful for the opportunity to intimately know two societies.