IN 1978 DENG XIAOPING GAVE THE GO-AHEAD FOR CHINESE students to study in the United States for the first time since the People’s Republic of China was established, in 1949. His move reopened an exchange begun when Yung Wing enrolled in Yale about 150 years ago and became China’s first American-university graduate. Yung recognized that learning about American culture and technology was critical to China’s own development. Deng, too, reached this conclusion. Re-establishing educational links with the United States was one of his bravest decisions.
At first, only prominent scholars were selected by the government to travel to the States. Most were engineers, physicists or chemists. Later, as China’s door opened wider, students were permitted to apply on their own and to study business, medicine and even political science. I got my chance in 1989, when, after working as a reporter for the People’s Daily in Beijing, I came to the United States and entered the journalism program at the University of Michigan.
Since Deng made his move, a quarter-million Chinese have studied in America. Some have come home to ministerial posts; others hold important jobs in academia, finance and business. I am not sure whether or not they will be the country’s next leaders,but their influence could profoundly change China. While most returnees don’t see America as an absolute model for our country, our experiences made us see that there are alternative ways for China to develop and for us to lead our personal lives. Being in the United States made us realize that things in China can be different.
Living in America is a mind-opening experience. My generation grew up viewing America as China’s ideological rival. We were taught socialism’s superiority, and didn’t understand how people could live under capitalism. Confronting the reality of the United States was a shock, both culturally and ideologically. Some lessons were political: those of us who grew up during the Cultural Revolution, for instance, learned that political struggles and mass movements are normal. Some lessons were economic. Students and intellectuals here never worry about food or housing; the government provides them. In the United States, most Chinese students face real financial pressures. They sometimes arrive with only $100 in their pocket. They take jobs on campus or in Chinese restaurants, earning low wages. While in the States I often worried about whether I could pay my bills. Such austerity teaches Chinese students the importance of supporting oneself, and that China has to be strong financially to be respected by others.
Ordinary Chinese think the United States is a weird country. To them, relationships between men and women seem too casual, for example, and many don’t understand homosexuality, not to mention bisexuality. But living in America, you become accustomed to such things. Others, you never get used to. Before I went abroad, I never understood why so many Americans allow drugs to destroy their lives. Living in the United States is easy, I thought. Just work hard and you will have a comfortable life. But once you see the way people live in places like Detroit or the Bronx, you sense their hopelessness. Many people have no future, particularly African-Americans in the inner city; it’s like the movie ““Boyz N the Hood.’’ It’s depressing.
Graduates face a tough decision: stay overseas or return to China. On the one hand, they believe they must do something for their country. But in America they enjoy comfortable lives, better career prospects and more freedom than they would back home. In addition, they’ve become accustomed to surviving by themselves. All this changes them inside. In the end, about two thirds of those who study in the United States don’t come back to China. (This figure is somewhat misleading; students who return with green cards aren’t counted.)
The government has a realistic attitude about the return rate. Students aren’t pressured to come back; they are free to stay abroad but welcome to come home. In some ways, it doesn’t matter. China is integrating with the global economy. One can do the same job while living in Beijing or New York. And as China develops, it will be able to offer jobs with better salaries, higher living standards and good housing. Students will return to share in the prosperity.
One of the things they will bring back to China is a new image of the United States–not an ideological concept anymore, but a real country with real people. Just as Deng planned when he first sent them to America.
