Abstract
Since 1978, a large number of Chinese university students have gone to Western countries, especially to North America. This paper argues that this widespread phenomenon of going abroad provided an important alternative for aggrieved university students, and that the increased difficulty for Chinese university students to go abroad in the late eighties was one of the major grievances of Chinese students on the eve of the 1989 Chinese Student Movement.
Similar content being viewed by others
References
Adams, W. (ed.) (1968).The Brain Drain. New York: Macmillan Company.
Agarwal, V.B. and Winkler, D.R. (1985). ‘Foreign demand for United States higher education: A study of developing countries in the eastern hemisphere’,Economic Development and Cultural Change 33, 623–644.
Altbach, P.G. (1968). ‘Student politics and higher education in India’, in Altbach, P.G. (ed.),Turmoil and Transition: Higher Education and Student Politics in India. New York: Basic Books, pp. 17–73.
Altbach, P.G. (ed.) (1981).Student Politics: Perspectives for the Eighties. Metuchen, NJ.: Scarecrow Press.
Altbach, P.G. (1989).Student Political Activism: An International Reference Handbook. New York: Greenwood Press.
Altbach, P.G. (1991). ‘Impact and adjustment: foreign students in comparative perspective’,Higher Education 21, 305–323.
Altbach, P.G. and Wang, J. (1989).Foreign Students and International Study: Bibliography and Analysis, 1984–1989. Washington, D.C.: University Press of America.
Bai, N. (1987). 'Young people's attitudes: Will they welcome reforms?In Reynolds, B.L. (ed.),Reform in China: Challenges and Choices. New York: Sharpe, pp. 161–87.
Broaded, M.C. (1993). ‘China's response to the brain drain’,Comparative Education Review 37, 277–300.
Cheng, C. (1990).Behind the Tiananmen Massacre. Boulder: Westview Press.
China International Examinations Coordination Bureau. (1990).TOEFL, TSE, GRE, MAT, MELAB: Kaosheng Xuzhi [Examiners' Handbook]. (Internal circulation only).
China Statistical Yearbook (1990). New York: Praeger.
Chow, T. (1960).The May Fourth Movement: Intellectual Revolution in Modern China. Stanford: Stanford University Press.
Collins, R. (1979).The Credential Society. New York: Academic Press.
Das, M.S. (1972).Brain Drain Controversy and International Students. Lucknow: Lucknow Publishing House.
Dong, L. (1990). ‘Zhongguo jiaoyu beiwanglu’ [A memorandum on China's education].Shuguang [Daybreak], no.1, 125–132.
Educational Statistics Yearbook of China. (1989). Beijing: Renmin Chubanshe.
Feigon, L. (1990).China Rising: The Meaning of Tiananmen. Chicago: Ivan R. Dee.
Gabaccia, D.R. (1988).Militants and Migrants: Rural Sicilians Become American Workers. New Brunswick: Rutgers University Press.
Gamson, W.A. and Modigliani A. (1989). ‘Media discourse and public opinion on nuclear power: A constructionist approach’,American Journal of Sociology 95, 1–37.
Gitlin, T. (1980).The Whole World Is Watching: Mass Media in the Marking and Unmaking of the New Left. Berkeley: University of California Press.
Goodwin, C. and Nacht, M. (1986).Decline and Renewal: Causes and Cures of Decay Among Foreign Trained Intellectuals and Professionals in the Third World. New York: Institute of International Education.
Hayhoe, R. (1988). ‘China's intellectuals in the world community’,Higher Education 17, 121–138.
Hayhoe, R. (1989).China's Universities and the Open Door. Armonk: Sharpe.
Hayhoe, R. (1990). ‘China's returned scholars and the democracy movement’,China Quarterly No. 122, 293–302.
Henze, J. (1992). ‘The formal education system and modernization: An analysis of developments since 1978’, in Hayhoe, R. (ed.),Education and Modernization: The Chinese Experience. Oxford: Pergamon Press, pp. 103–139.
Howland, H. (1967).Brain Drain: How It Affects the Philippines. Washington, D.C.: Foreign Service Institute, U.S. Department of State.
Hua, Y. and Cao, S. (1988). ‘Over three hundred people apply for jobs with the Hilton hotel’,Chinese Economic Studies 21, 26–28.
Jin, D. (1993). ‘Tan chuguochao - Dangdai zhong xuesheng’ [On the tide of going abroad - Contemporary middle school students],Zhongguo Qingnian Yanjiu [Chinese Youth Research], no. 1, 24–29.
Li, T. (1990). ‘Guanyu woguo jiaoyu gongzuo ruogan wenti de huibao (zaiyao)’ [A report on several educational issues in our country (abstract)],People's Daily (overseas edition), Jan. 3.
Li, W. (1988). ‘“Zhuhong xianxiang” de huhuan’ [A cry for the “Zhuhong phenomenon”],Liaowang [Outlook Weekly], no. 8, 9, 40–41.
Lipset, S.M. (ed.) (1967). ‘University students and politics in underdeveloped countries’, inStudent Politics. New York: Basic Book, pp. 3–53.
Lipset, S.M. (1972).Rebellion in the University. Boston: Little Brown.
Liu, X. (1989). ‘Disanci Langchao: Wenpingre’ [The Third Wave: The Diploma Fever], in Xiao, Q. (ed.),Wuci Langchao [Five Waves]. Beijing: Zhongguo Renmin Daxue Chubanshe, pp. 98–137.
MacDonald, J.S. (1963). ‘Agricultural organization, migration and labor militancy in rural Italy’,Economic Review, 2nd Series 16, 61–75.
McAdam, D. (1982).Political Process and the Development of Black Insurgency, 1930–1970. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
Min, W. (1991). ‘Higher education finance in China: Current constraints and strategies for the 1990s’,Higher Education 21, 151–161.
Molotch, H. (1979). ‘Media and movements’, in Zald, M.N. and McCarthy, J.D. (eds.),The Dynamics of Social Movements. Cambridge, Mass.: Winthrop, pp. 71–93.
National Center for Education Statistics, Digest of Education Statistics. (1989), (1993). U.S. Department of Education. Office of Educational Research and Improvement, NCES 93- 292.
Orleans, L.A. (1988).Chinese Students in America: Policies, Issues, and Numbers. Washington, D.C.: National Academy Press.
Pepper, S. (1990).China's Education Reform in the 1980s. Berkeley: University of California Press.
Rao, L.G. (1979).Brain Drain and Foreign Students. New York: St. Martin's Press.
Ringer, F.K. (1979).Education and Society in Modern Europe. Bloomington: Indiana University Press.
Rosen, S. (1990). ‘The impact of reform politics on youth attitudes’, in Davis, D. and Vogel, E. F. (eds.),Chinese Society on the Eve of Tiananmen. Cambridge: Harvard University Press, pp. 283–305.
Rosen, S. (1991a). ‘Political education and student response: Some background factors behind the 1989 Beijing demonstrations’, in Epstein, I. (ed.),Chinese Education: Problems, Policies, and Prospects. New York: Garland Publishing, Inc., pp. 416–448.
Rosen, S. (1991b) ‘The role of Chinese students at home and abroad as a factor in Sino-American relations’, in Two, William T. (ed.), Building Sino-American Relations. New York: Paragon House, pp. 162–202.
Shen, T. (1990).Almost a Revolution. New York: Harper Perennial.
Shils, E. (1968). ‘Introduction: Students, politics, and universities in India’, in Altbach, P.G. (ed.),Turmoil and Transition. New York: Basic Books, pp. 1–13.
Tarrow, S. (1994).Power in Movement. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Todaro, M.P. (1985).Economic Development in the Third World. New York: Longman.
Vaughan, M. and Archer, M.S. (1971).Social Conflict and Educational Change in England and France, 1789–1848. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Wickham-Crowley, T.P. (1992).Guerrillas and Revolution in Latin America. Princeton: Princeton University Press.
Xiao, Q. (ed.) (1989).Wuci Langchao [Five Waves]. Beijing: Zhongguo Renmin Daxue Chubanshe.
Xuanchuan Tongxun [Propaganda Information] (Shanghai) (1988). ‘Zuohao shenqing furi jiudusheng gongzou’ [To deal with care of the applicants for Japan's language school], (Internal circulation only), no. 24, 19–20.
Xuanchuan Tongxun [Propaganda Information] (Shanghai) (1989). ‘Guanyu zuohao fuao jiudusheng gongzou de xuanchuan tigong’ [A propaganda outline in dealing with the applicants for the study in Australia], (Internal circulation only), no. 23, 39–30.
Yeh, W. (1990).The Alienated Academy: Culture and Politics in Republican China, 1919–1937. Cambridge: Harvard University Press.
Zhao, D. (1995a).Reform and Discontent: The Causes of the 1989 Chinese Student Movement. Ph.D. thesis, Department of Sociology, McGill University, Montreal, Canada.
Zhao, D. (1995b). “Ecology and social movements: Impact of campus ecology on the rise and patterns of the 1989 Chinese Student Movement.” Paper presented at the 1995 annual meeting of the American Sociological Association, Washington.
Zhao, X. and Xie, Y. (1992). ‘Western influence on (People's Republic of China) Chinese students in the United States’,Comparative Education Review 36, 509–529.
‘Zhongguo renmin daxue guanyu chuguo liuxue de zhanxing guiding’ [The temporary regulations on students studying broad in People's University]. (1988).Renmin Daxue [People's University].
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Additional information
This is a part of my study on the causes and dynamics of the 1989 Chinese Student Movement. I would like to thank Maurice Pinard, Steven Rytina, Marcia Beaulieu, Muriel Mellow and editors and reviewers for their advice and comments on this paper.
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Zhao, D. Foreign study as a safety-valve: The experience of China's university students going abroad in the eighties. High Educ 31, 145–163 (1996). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF02390442
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF02390442