ON CAMPUS campusreview. com. au be back in China, it could be here, it could be somewhere else.
On to their experiences in Australia: how have these shaped their attitudes towards those key study points you mentioned, on gender, for example? I’ m only partway through the study, so I can’ t be conclusive, but I do have a few tentative findings. One is that it seems to me and my participants that the Chinese students who are in Australian cities develop an alternative world in relation to sex, gender, morality and relationships, which is different to the way they would’ ve approached these things at home. So the rules that apply in China become different while they’ re here, or a little more relaxed.
One example is that it’ s common while in Australia for people to cohabit without being married – to live with their boyfriends
Local students seem uninterested in pursuing friendships with the students from China.
or partners. Of course, sometimes people do that in China, but it’ s easier to develop these different norms out here because of the lack of close-range surveillance by parents, grandparents, neighbours or just other people in the society who might draw conclusions about a woman’ s morality if she was to do something like that at home.
Then you have the selective sharing of information with people back home about what you’ re doing out here, just to maintain a feminine reputation, I guess. It’ s a very sexist thing, but girls have to worry about this more than boys do. Somehow, geographic distance makes a difference to the way people manage their reputation and intimate lives, so that’ s interesting. Sometimes people ask me if that’ s because these women are picking up on the different sex-gender values system in Australia. When I ask my participants that, they say“ sort of”. They have the impression that people manage relationships here differently than in China, but because many of them don’ t have close friendships with local students or peers, they’ re not necessarily picking up those cues from them. It’ s more the simple fact that being away from home causes people to be able to elaborate different kinds of systems.
The other thing I’ ve noticed is that their ideal age for marriage rises as time elapses. I’ ve known some of these participants from the pilot study in 2012. I’ ve known them as they’ ve progressed through their 20s. At the start, they might say their ideal age for marriage is 26 or 27. As they get to 26 or 27, they say,“ Actually, maybe after 30.”
As they see time getting shorter, and all the things they have yet to achieve before they feel they will be – I don’ t want to say trapped – but constrained, perhaps, by a different kind of identity after marriage, they start thinking that maybe a later marriage is a good idea after all.
In relation to national identity, I ask them throughout the study how they feel about China, to see how their perceptions change. There is a trend for people to say,“ Oh, I love China even more now that I’ m overseas.” But when I probe deeper, the picture becomes more complex.
I ask them in what regard they love China more, and they’ ll respond with cultural and personal aspects like,“ I think the people there are really lovely. My family’ s lovely. I miss the food. I miss the convenience of everyday life. I think Chinese history is so rich and a valuable resource for us.” These kind of soft cultural aspects, rather than a hard nationalism.
Correspondingly, some participants come to appreciate the institutions they encounter abroad, like freedom of the press, freedom of association and the multiparty political system. At the same time, however, they say,“ But I really love China.”
So, their nationalism is complex, and I’ m coming to see popular eruptions of nationalism like we see among Chinese students abroad – for example, on Chinese social media – as a type of public performance. I’ m not saying it’ s not sincere, but it seems like, say, on National Day, or on the day of that military parade a couple of years ago marking the anniversary of the War of Resistance against Japan, suddenly your WeChat feed is covered in Chinese flags, and I’ m beginning to see that the students are sensing that it’ s the right thing to do, the right motions to make on that day, particularly if you feel your country is under attack by people who are not from your country.
Having that kind of response, however, does not mean you uncritically accept or applaud every decision, every stance, every policy of a particular government.
I’ d add to this that I’ ve had many conversations with students where they openly criticise aspects of the regime. And these are the same students who’ ve said they love China.
So, the type of popular youth patriotism that many commentators have remarked on in this generation of Chinese is maybe unfamiliar in an Australian context. We’ ve certainly had eruptions of youth nationalism here on certain occasions. Having said that, I don’ t think this type of patriotism is as sinister as some media reports have painted it. I think it’ s far more complex.
Do the students find meaningful social connections with each other or with other international students? Based on my tiny sample, the general pattern I’ ve found is that 10 – 15 per cent of my group are extremely extroverted and outgoing. They’ re very good at making friends and particularly good at making friends across cultures.
Most of my sample, however, are disappointed insofar as they expected a big part of their experience to involve making local friends and becoming, in their phrase,‘ integrated’ into Australian society – they constantly use that phrase. But when they arrive and try to do those things, they find it much harder than they had expected, and after a month or two they tend to feel a little defeated by how difficult it is to make friends with local peers.
When in class and they sit next to a local student, or they’ re put in a group assignment with some locals, they try to take things further, but the local students seem uninterested in pursuing friendships with the students from China. I’ ve thought about this a lot and I’ ve observed it in the classroom too in my role as a teacher in a university. I can see the class splitting into two groups, and I can see the local students just not being interested, just being vaguely polite but not really caring about making these connections go any further.
I’ ve thought a lot over the years about why this is, and I do think it sometimes has elements of racism and anti-Chinese sentiment, but I also think Australian-born students are just not trained to be very cosmopolitan. They find it difficult and awkward to relate to people from very different cultures and don’ t know how to warmly welcome these people and forge friendships with them. I sometimes wonder whether as educators we could do more to ready our local students for understanding
24