University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign

Family, Food, Nation, and Economy: Attachment to China and the Return (or Not) of Chinese Graduate Students in the Sciences and Engineering

Romero, Jason C.

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https://hdl.handle.net/2142/8715

Description

Title
Family, Food, Nation, and Economy: Attachment to China and the Return (or Not) of Chinese Graduate Students in the Sciences and Engineering
Author(s)
Romero, Jason C.
Contributor(s)
  • Villagrana, Sasha
  • Kim, Sarah
  • Chae, Seun Ju
Issue Date
2008
Keyword(s)
  • graduate students
  • economy
  • pleasure
  • globalization
  • nation
  • China
  • ANTH499 S08
  • food
  • family
  • brain drain
  • engineering
  • science
Abstract
For our project we sought to identify the meanings that male graduate students in the sciences and engineering mobilize when making plans for after they graduate. We conducted eight interviews and found that these students considered aspects such as family, food, nation, and economy when formulating their future plans. In particular, it appears that, now that China's economy is more similar to that of the United States, these students are allowed to reconsider values they have long held but were unable to make their priority. Furthermore, it also appears that there may be two groups among male graduate students in the sciences and engineering, if not graduate students in general -- those who return to China because they are attached to it and those who stay in the United States because they are not.
Series/Report Name or Number
Anth 499, East Asian Youth and Global Futures, Prof. Nancy Abelmann and Prof. Karen Kelsky: East Asian youth have experienced perhaps the world’s most compressed development as well as the world’s most aggressive globalization policies. This course examines how youth in East Asia (China/s, Japan, and the Koreas) are making their way in our globalizing world, focusing in particular on the transformations in work, education, recreation, gender, and sexuality brought about by neoliberal economic restructuring in the region. Topics studied include the insecure job market for young people, consumerism, globalized pop culture phenomena such as Pokemon, the Korean wave, and Internet gaming, emergent LGBT communities, etc. Students are encouraged to focus their research projects on aspects of the U. of I. student life that reflect the experiences of East Asian youth in a global market. The U of I offers a fascinating window on East Asian youth because of the many college (and pre-college) students who make their way here – as well as the movement of “Amercian” youth to East Asia. Through participation in the Ethnography of the University Initiative (EUI), students will conduct local field research that reveals the global processes at issue. The course syllabus is available at: www.eui.uiuc.edu/docs/syllabi/ANTH499S08.doc
Type of Resource
text
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http://hdl.handle.net/2142/8715

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