*This article is the content of the 7th issue of "Half Moon Talk Internal Edition" in 2023
At present, the trend of studying abroad in the mainland is obvious. Although more and more international students choose to return to China for employment and entrepreneurship, among the returnee group, some international students have strong "reverse cultural shocks" and find it difficult to adapt to life back home. Many international students go abroad at a young age, and the formation period of their national identity, cultural belonging, and value orientation is abroad, which is easy to affect their initiative and adaptability to return to China, and is not conducive to playing the role of serving the motherland.
Why study abroad at a young age
According to the 2018 White Paper on Studying in China released by New Oriental, 56% of the 5,000 families intend to let their children study abroad in primary and secondary school. When New Oriental first released its study abroad white paper in 2014, the figure was only 23%. Monitoring data from the American Education Association also shows that the number of Chinese students attending K12 (preschool to high school) education in the United States is growing rapidly: over the past 10 years, the number of Chinese students attending high school in the United States has increased by 98.6 times, far exceeding 1.6 times that of graduate education and 14 times that of undergraduates.
The main reasons for more parents and children to choose to study abroad at a young age are:
-- Burdened by examination-oriented education and avoiding competition for the college entrance examination. After the general job diversion of the middle school entrance examination, some children and parents who do not want to be shunted to vocational high schools, as long as they have economic conditions, will choose to study in international high schools to prepare for studying abroad.
Recently, the International Education Exhibition held in Guangzhou attracted a large number of junior high school students and parents. Ms. Shi, a parent of a second-year junior high school student, said that her daughter's grades are middle and upper, and it is not a problem to enter an ordinary high school, but to enter a key high school and squeeze into the top 1%, it may not take a lot of effort to reach it. She feels that at present, the pressure of domestic education competition is greater, the input-output ratio of children's education is low, and choosing to study abroad may be a relatively easy path.
Image source: Visual China
- Believe that foreign education is of higher quality and more suitable for children. Industry insiders believe that most children who choose to take the international route may not be so well-behaved, or have specialties in a certain aspect and uneven subject development. Parents mostly believe that the domestic entrance examination can not be partial to subjects, but more focus on knowledge and memory, while foreign education pays attention to personality cultivation, can give play to children's personality and interests, more operational practice, and more adapt to the needs of future society.
Xiong Bingqi, president of the 21st Century Education Research Institute, said that it must be objectively admitted that there is a problem of "only grades" and advocating knowledge education in basic education on the mainland, with students' academic burdens being heavier, and parents anxious about their children's education. Basic education in developed countries in Europe and the United States pays more attention to the cultivation of students' personality, interests, imagination and curiosity, so it attracts some students and parents who pay attention to the development of personality and interests.
——Parents with overseas backgrounds or immigration plans plan their children's journey abroad very early. A middle school student has already taken the international high school in the second year of junior high school this year and was evacuated from the public school in advance, and his parents want him to go to the United States to study high school as soon as possible, and is currently preparing for the TOEFL test.
Identity issues are skewed
According to the Ministry of Education, from 2016 to 2019, the number of Chinese students studying abroad reached 2.518 million, of which 2.013 million returned to China, accounting for 80% (79.9%) of the total. Since the global pandemic, the number of people going abroad in 2020 has decreased slightly year-on-year, but the overall upward trend in the past two years has not changed.
In the wave of international students returning to China for employment, some young people who have studied abroad at a young age have problems such as value recognition. The "Returnee Waste Recycling Mutual Aid Association" community on the Internet social platform Douban has gathered more than 50,000 people. The IP is displayed as Guangdong, and the screen name "Aung Yang Up" said in the community: "I am 30 years old, the United States and Macao, and I went to school abroad when my outlook on life was formed..."
After returning to China, these young international students do not adapt to the domestic environment due to deviations in national identity, cultural identity, value identity, personal belonging identity, etc. Wang Yao, a doctor of Jilin University, believes that the lack of ideological and political education in the education system for studying abroad, the emergency management mechanism for studying abroad has not yet been formed, the bad inducement of negative public opinion abroad and the multicultural conflict brought about by racism have caused some Chinese students studying abroad to have problems such as controversial patriotic words and deeds, floating cultural identity, relatively indifferent political attitudes, lonely and disorderly psychological state, and weak legal literacy.
Image source: Visual China
-- A weakening of national identity and belonging. Tang Lei, deputy director of the Law Teaching and Research Department of the Party School of the Zhuzhou Municipal Committee of the Communist Party of China (Zhuzhou Administration College) in Hunan Province, believes that on the one hand, young students studying abroad have been absent from the nine-year compulsory education in the mainland for a long time, wandering outside China's social environment and cultural atmosphere, and gradually becoming unfamiliar with the mainland language, history and culture; On the other hand, living in other countries for a long time, learning and understanding the history and culture of other countries at the basic education stage, and accepting the value guidance of other countries, the sense of identity and belonging to China tends to weaken.
——Low cultural identity leads to strong "reverse cultural shocks" and poor adaptability to returning to China. Hu Xiaomeng, a lecturer in the Department of Psychology at Chinese Minmin University, analyzed that reverse cultural shock refers to the process of re-adapting, re-cultivating and reintegrating into their native culture after living in a different culture for a long time. Numerous studies have shown that the longer you stay abroad and the lower your cultural identity with your home country, the more difficult it is to adapt to life back home.
-- Poor ability to distinguish international public opinion, prone to value deviations. Western media often report biased or even false reports on China, which adversely affects the national identity of young Chinese students. Xiao Liu, who has studied in Melbourne for many years, said that if children go abroad at this age when their outlook on life and value system are built, they will agree with or identify with the local environment in speech and ideology, and over time their thinking will gradually become westernized, and it is difficult to establish a more rational and solid dialectical thinking or judgment system to compare some differences between China and the West.
Encourage "local internationalization",
Values education is implemented in stages and levels
Xiong Bingqi said that for young students to study abroad, it can be divided into young study abroad in the compulsory education stage, and young study abroad at the high school stage after completing compulsory education. Relatively speaking, the majority of young students studying abroad at the high school stage, and the young students studying abroad at the compulsory education stage are only a minority. Discouragement and discouragement of studying abroad at a young age is not equivalent to prohibition, and it is difficult to ban it across the board. In general, education is compulsory for all school-age students in accordance with national regulations.
Xiong Bingqi suggested that the enrollment of international schools and international classes at the high school level in mainland China can be encouraged and expanded, so that students who do not choose to study abroad directly can study in advanced international schools and international classes and receive "local internationalization" education. At the same time, we should further improve the quality of basic education in the mainland, reverse the theory of fractional education in basic education, attach importance to the development of students' personality and interests, and advocate individuality education and diversified education.
For the three educational fields before going abroad, studying abroad and before returning to China, Wang Yao suggested that the value education of young study abroad groups should be implemented in stages and levels.
At the level of the main body of education, strengthen the construction of the ideological and political education team of international students. Before studying abroad, teachers of ideological and political courses should cooperate with teachers of professional courses as the main body, and strengthen the education and training of moral cultivation before departure; In studying abroad, embassy staff lead public teachers as the main body to strengthen the dynamic attention of international students' thoughts; Before returning to China, the academic qualification certification personnel docking with the student federation organization as the main body, and promoting the resocialization of international students with career planning.
At the level of educational content and education methods, "reverse introspection" is carried out through empirical education that international students are willing to receive before studying abroad; In studying abroad, we use overseas service collaborative education to promote the transformation of educational methods, and build an ideological and political education relationship based on mutual trust to transition from service function to educational function; Before returning to China, the empathetic guidance education method is used to effectively stimulate the enthusiasm of international students to serve the country, give play to the peer group effect and role model, and guide international students to return to China after completing their studies; After returning to China, we will effectively implement a series of policies for returned talents such as household registration, housing, subsidies, and financing, so as to attract and ensure the peace of mind of international students in China.
Source: Half Moon Talks