According to the Ministry of Education of China, the total number of Chinese students studying abroad in 2018 reached 662,100, of which nearly 56% were studying in the Unites States. This figure represents an 8.83% increase from 2017, a trend which suggests that the number will not decrease even under the current crisis in 2020. Under the pressure of racism, travel ban, and some unfriendly school policies, Chinese overseas students clearly reveal persistence and positivity, and sincerely hope that they can receive help and understanding from governments, schools, and citizens.
2020 has been a tough year especially for Chinese students studying abroad. Following the emergence of COVID-19 in China, anti-Asian xenophobia and racist attacks have become increasingly widespread (???can’t think of a better work yet) around the U.S. From President Trump referring to COVID-19 as the “Chinese virus” and more recently the “kung flu” to instances of common citizens relating COVID-19 to every Chinese people in daily life, racist aggression never stop harassing every Chinese person no matter age nor gender. According to STOP AAPI HATE, an incident-reporting center founded by the Asian Pacific Policy and Planning Council, 1,800 reports of pandemic-fueled harassment or violence in 45 states and Washington, D.C have been reported to them since mid-March. ()Even wearing a face mask as protection has been reported as a cause of racist attack and suspicion toward Chinese. For most victims of racism, they might avoid future aggression by avoiding those that have perpetuated abuse toward them. However, Chinese overseas students, and particularly students who attend boarding school must interact with students and staff during and even after school for the rest of their school life. Therefore, with the acceleration of COVID-19 also came the heavy burden for any student with a Chinese identity who oftentimes became the object of uninformed conjecture and willful discrimination. According to a student studying in a private Christian high school in Texas, students in their school never stop joking around about COVID-19 when thousands of people were dying every day in China at the beginning of 2020. Some of the students also referred to Chinese students in the school as “virus carriers” since many of them believed that the Chinese government spread the virus intentionally and hid the vaccine from the world. Even in my own school, a private boarding high school in Virginia, whenever a Chinese student is missing from class, people naturally relate their absence to Coronavirus followed with rumors about who infected them and whether they might have infected anybody in the school. Besides, when a Chinese student coughs or may otherwise be suffering from minor illness, overwhelming cares followed up closely and some extra attention on Chinese students really discomfort them. However, COVID-19 is never a national pandemic but a global one that every country in the world has the responsibility to solve and protect its citizens from. Chinese shouldn’t suffer under accusation and strange eyes especially when students are still developing their world view and growing to be mature, and schools should forbid any racist actions and words of all kinds to ensure a safe and happy growing environment.
Racism is not the only thing that bothers the Chinese students, but when most boarding schools changed to virtual learning after spring break the true challenge came. As schools closed down and local students went back home to do virtual learning, many students become “homeless” and they only had two choices: flying back home or finding a local friend/host family. However, a lot of students don’t have anyone that could host them in the U.S., so flying back home was the only choice, but home to them seems unreachable. According to a college student studying in Boston, the flight ticket from Boston to Beijing back and forth was normally about twelve thousand RMB for economy class, but when he purchased the ticket at least two weeks before the flight and it was already twenty three thousand RMB one-way. () When I purchased the ticket at the beginning of March, there were only stopover flights and transfer flights, and the only affordable tickets were all at the end of March. Tickets back then were gone almost immediately after posting, and some of the tickets even reached sixty thousand RMB one-way. Initially, I wanted to purchase the flight on March 23rd and when I looked at it, there were still about 3 tickets left but when I was just about to purchase it, I had some technical difficulties. After I fixed the issue for about a minute, all 3 tickets were gone. Therefore, I had to keep on looking for a ticket and finally purchased one on March 28th which was the last flight from D.C. to Beijing. All my friends’ flight tickets after the date I flew away were canceled, so they had to look for other ways to get back home. One of my friends bought 10 tickets for different routes, but 9 of them got canceled continuously. Finally, he transferred the flight two times and got back home. However, all I have mentioned are the lucky ones, but there are still about 1.4 million Chinese overseas students trapped in their host country desperately wanting to come back home. () Some are already infected but can only stay in their host family and wait to recover themselves alone. Although the Chinese government did send flights to pick up overseas students, the number of overseas students and the number of flights seriously mismatch, so there is just a little possibility to get picked. Besides, the government sent flights only to depart from a few cities in which traveling between cities also become a big problem since a lot of students are still under 18, and the flight tickets are still not cheap but many people still choose to afford it. Overall, to many overseas students and their families under this situation, the price of flight tickets and travel fees seems less important compare to one’s safety, so hopefully, the Chinese government can offer some additional help to save trapped students and have their family reunion by sending more flights and hope the flight lines between China and U.S. can get back to normal soon.
For the students who were able to find a way to return to China, the date when school begins gradually gets closer and some students now face the difficulty of getting back to school. Currently, the United States has the most cases of COVID-19 with more than 1,000 deaths per day, and the trend of people infected every day does not show any sign of decreasing. () Therefore, whether students should go back to the U.S for school is a question facing a lot of families right now. If one decides to go back, he has to first decide a third country for quarantine since the U.S. does not currently accept direct travel from China. Once arriving in the U.S, the student must again quarantine for another 14 days for a total of 28 days in two separate countries. When one returns back to school, he has be careful of getting infected in school since a lot of people still do not wear masks, and if he lives with a host family, he has to be careful whether his host family gets infected or not since they live together. However, if one chooses not to go back to school, he has to first know whether his school offers virtual classes. For juniors and seniors, the importance of completing activities, standardized tests, recommendations, and even GPA becomes a question. Under COVID-19, a lot of seniors do not even have an SAT score, and going back to the U.S. to take it is their only choice. In addition, although the Trump administration eventually rescinded “the temporary exemptions for non-immigrant students taking online courses during fall 2020 semester” that was published on July 6th, this policy really made Chinese overseas students felt worried about their future academic life and whether they are able to come back home if a similar policy is again published. However, universities like Harvard and MIT showed absolute support for their international students by sueing the Trump administration, () and a lot of high schools also offer supports to international students by offering virtual classes and full understanding. Hopefully, flights and polices between countries can get back to normal soon, so Chinese overseas students do not need to live in fear anymore.
In conclusion, this sudden global pandemic set countless obstacles on the journey of Chinese overseas students, but Chinese overseas students show full understanding by following the policies in both China and the United States, and amazing characteristics by adjusting themselves to whatever situation they are in and overcoming any difficulties with full courage. Overall, COVID-19 clearly revealed Chinese students’ persistence and positivity as they are going through this special period of time.
Works Cited:
- http://www.moe.gov.cn/jyb_xwfb/gzdt_gzdt/s5987/201903/t20190327_375704.html
- https://time.com/5858649/racism-coronavirus/
- https://www.traveldaily.cn/article/136591
- https://baijiahao.baidu.com/s?id=1662946580010205587&wfr=spider&for=pc
- https://www.ice.gov/news/releases/sevp-modifies-temporary-exemptions-nonimmigrant-students-taking-online-courses-during
- https://edition.cnn.com/2020/07/08/politics/harvard-mit-lawsuit-ice-foreign-students/index.html