Expanding flexible citizenship: Chinese international school students and global mobilities for higher education

Abstract

Purpose

This study aims to interrogate and expand on the flexible citizenship framework by illuminating students' emergent identities and imagined future mobilities in China's expanding international school sector.

Design/methodology/approach

In-depth semistructured interviews were conducted with international school students and their parents in Shenzhen, covering their motivations for overseas higher education, experience with international schooling, self-perceived identities and imagined futures.

Findings

The participants aspired to overseas higher education for both symbolic capital attainment and embodied cultural cultivation to thrive in a globalised world. They expressed confidence that international schooling experiences prepared students for mobility to Western higher education and cultivated globally-oriented identities while not undermining their Chinese roots. They imagined their futures in terms of considerable flexibility, with a rising China viewed as an attractive and feasible option for career development.

Research limitations/implications

This research provides an enriched understanding of a new generation of globally mobile Chinese students. The participants held distinctively different outlooks, aspirations and attitudes than depicted in the flexible citizenship framework, which emphasised a one-dimensional and instrumentalist portrayal of Chinese international students. This study discusses cross-generational changes in the desire for overseas education and a global-national outlook among young people in the context of significant social transformations in urban China.

Originality/value

The originality of this study is in expanding the flexible citizenship framework with reference to the emergent identities and pathways of students in the international schooling sector in China.

Citation

Ma, Y. and Wright, E. (2023), "Expanding flexible citizenship: Chinese international school students and global mobilities for higher education", Social Transformations in Chinese Societies, Vol. 19 No. 2, pp. 101-114. https://doi.org/10.1108/STICS-05-2022-0010

Mainland China (China) is the largest source of globally mobile students worldwide. Approximately one million Chinese students moved abroad for higher education in 2019, representing 17.5% of the total number of internationally mobile students (UNESCO, 2022). Despite the disruption caused by COVID-19, more students in China are preparing for overseas higher education (Zuo, 2021). At the same time, the ambitions and pathways of Chinese international students are changing. More Chinese international students are returning home after graduating, rather than using overseas education as a step towards careers abroad (The Economist, 2021). Against this background, it is crucial to capture the identities of the young generation who are planning for, experiencing and returning from overseas studies, especially by exploring how they may be emblematic of broader social transformations in China.

Flexible citizenship, defined as “cultural logics of capitalist accumulation, travel, and displacement that induce subjects to respond fluidly and opportunistically to changing political-economic conditions” in the era of globalisation (Ong, 1999, p. 6), has been widely applied to understand the identities of Chinese international students (Fong, 2011; Wu and Tarc, 2021, 2022). From this perspective, Chinese students and their families are mainly portrayed as instrumentalist, investing in Western education primarily to obtain cultural symbols of academic credentials that are convertible to enhanced prospects for imagined futures overseas.

There is a rich literature on the mobilities of international students for higher education (Brooks and Waters, 2022). Previous research, however, has focused almost exclusively on students already abroad. It has tended to overlook a significant development in education systems worldwide: the expansion of international schools that serve local populations rather than just expatriates (Bunnell, 2022). International schools are defined here broadly as schools offering international curricula and English-medium-of-instruction in non-English-speaking countries. In China, the number of international schools boomed from 22 in 2000 (Brummitt and Keeling 2013, p. 30) to 1,103 in 2022, with an enrolment of around 406,037 students (ISC Research, 2022). Although international schooling has been historically associated with education for mobile expatriates, 87% of international schools in China cater exclusively or primarily to Chinese citizens (NewSchool Insight, 2019). Despite the expansion, research on students attending these international schools for Chinese citizens was thin on the ground.

In this article, we report on a qualitative research project to illuminate local families' motivations for and experiences with international schooling in Shenzhen, a rapidly developing metropolitan city situated across the border from Hong Kong in South China. In so doing, we interrogate and expand on the flexible citizenship framework by illuminating the emergent identities and imagined future mobilities of students. Rather than representing the students as a homogenous group with narrow instrumentalist ambitions for overseas study, interviews with students and their parents in the current project revealed identities and imagined futures that were authentically global in their orientation. Although their narratives involved instrumental thinking resembling flexible citizenship, we argue that their education cultivated a distinctive sense of global citizenship that was interwoven with Chinese roots.

Flexible citizenship and Chinese international students

Ong's (1999) conceptualisation of flexible citizenship derived from an investigation of affluent Chinese diasporas in North America. The term referred to:

[...] the strategies and effects of mobile managers, technocrats, and professionals seeking to both circumvent and benefit from different nation-state regimes by selecting different sites for investments, work, and family relocation (p. 112).

Under the economic and political contexts of China in the late 1990s, flexible citizenship involved, firstly, escaping political control or instability, as caused by events such as the handover of Hong Kong in 1997 and, secondly, pursuing economic and social status in developed countries, especially in the Anglophone West.

Central to the success of flexible citizenship was active, effective and sustainable accumulation and conversion of capital (Bourdieu, 1986), usually starting from economic investments but later being convertible to cultural and social prestige. Although some Chinese immigrants gained social acceptance through economic contributions to host communities, others found “it important to engage in the practice of cultural citizenship, that is, in ways of belonging according to the dominant cultural criteria” (Ong, 1999, p. 106), where education played a crucial role. For many, “strategies of accumulation begin with the acquisition of a Western education” (Ong, 1999, p. 95). A Western university degree became the “ultimate symbolic capital”, which “guarantees that the holder has acquired the cultural knowledge, skills, and credentials that enable the transposition of social status from one country to another” (Ong, 1999, p. 90).

Although Ong suggested flexible citizenship might not be uniquely Chinese but rather “a product and condition of late capitalism” (Ong, 1999, p. 240), it nevertheless became widely applied to explain the Chinese diaspora. Fong's (2011) ethnographic study on youth across socioeconomic and academic backgrounds from Dalian, China contributed to the concept's popularisation in research of Chinese international students. Her participants' desire for overseas education was shaped by the imagination of a developed-world community “of mobile, wealthy, well-educated, and well-connected people” and their affluent lifestyles (Fong, 2011, p. 6), which was deemed unavailable in China as a “backward” developing country. The developed world, including the USA, the UK, Canada and Australia, was imagined more or less as homogeneous, thus allowing flexibility in the choice of destination as well as the means for mobility. The prospect of being able to study abroad, perceived as gaining cultural symbols and an entry ticket into the developed world, mattered more than the quality of programme, school or university. Often because of inadequacy in English proficiency, academic preparedness and knowledge of host societies, many led a “floating life” abroad: “a concept associated with instability, transience, uncertainty, and lack of rootedness” (Fong, 2011, p. 97). They were ambivalent about different options and willing to keep flexibility, as long as they would not be “stuck” in China. Flexible citizenship was thus viewed as escaping the “backwardness” of China and seising all accessible resources and opportunities to become a social and cultural (and legal) citizen of the developed world.

Both Ong and Fong argued flexible citizenship as global mobility with a direction, i.e. escaping deficiencies in the home society and instrumentally pursuing a livelihood in a new host society (or societies) that offered an imagined future with significantly enhanced prospects. Flexible citizens were characterised as pursuing Western education for symbolic or institutionalised cultural capital (e.g. education qualifications validated in the host society) above and beyond embodied cultural capital (e.g. incorporating values, cultivation or long-lasting dispositions) (Bourdieu, 1986). Subsequent research on Chinese international students has not fundamentally challenged the flexible citizenship framework.

Chinese students' decision to study abroad has been explained by a desire to escape a fiercely competitive national education system, the pedagogy of rote learning and potential or actual failure in the National College Entrance Examinations (Gaokao), which determines admission into national universities (Fong, 2011; Wu and Tarc, 2021). Furthermore, studying abroad has been described as a strategy to avoid or better manage problems in China, for instance, gendered risks imposed by traditional patriarchal ideals of marriage and childbearing (Martin, 2017). It is often claimed that Chinese students choose universities and majors based on career prospects instead of personal interests (Kim et al., 2016). They are deemed to prioritise the attainment of credentials, as symbolic capital directly convertible to labour market opportunities, over embodied cultural or cosmopolitan capital such as English and intercultural understanding (Wu and Tarc, 2021). Upon staying abroad, Chinese students are typically viewed from a deficit frame: a passive, silent “Chinese learner” stereotype (Ryan and Louie, 2007) and ill-prepared for Western pedagogies. They have also been characterised by self-isolating or interacting only with other Chinese students in social life, while relying heavily on family connections and friend circles back home for emotional support and career development (Wu and Zheng, 2021). Related to this, they are believed to be constrained in practices desired by external forces, such as parental expectations and lack agency for self-determination.

A few studies have criticised the flexible citizenship concept and its application to Chinese international students. For instance, Lin (2012) challenged the homogeneous use of flexible citizenship to portray globally mobile Chinese people Rizvi (2010) raised caution over Ong's overstatement of instrumentalist calculations. Based on nationwide evidence from the UK, Cebolla-Boado and colleagues (2018) challenged a purely instrumental perspective to understand Chinese international students and argued that, for many, the lived cultural experience of studying at a British university has value in itself on their way towards self-realisation. In this article, we apply the flexible citizenship framework by interrogating its assumptions and expanding on its scope with reference to international schooling in China. We aim to uncover why international school students and their parents choose overseas higher education and how the international schooling experience shapes students' outlook on China, the world and the future.

International schooling in China

As noted, international schools are defined here as schools teaching international curricula at least partly in English outside an English-speaking country. In China, alongside “Schools for Children of Foreign Workers” that only enrol foreign passport holders (e.g. expatriates and Chinese returnees), most international schools target local Chinese families. These schools offering international curricula to Chinese citizens have also been referred to as Chinese internationalised schools (Poole, 2020). They encompass a large number of private bilingual schools and a smaller number of international divisions of elite public schools. All schools for Chinese citizens teach the state-mandated national curriculum during the nine-year compulsory education. While some international schools also teach international curricula integrated or alongside the national curriculum, most offer international curricula at the high school level, such as International Baccalaureate Diploma Programme (IBDP), Advanced Levels (A-Levels) and Advanced Placement (AP). Choosing international schooling is a high-stake decision in China. Without studying the national high-school curriculum, students cannot take the Gaokao and be admitted into Chinese universities.

International schools cluster in large cities. In 2019, the average annual fee was ¥253,723 (US$38,739) in Shanghai (the most expensive) and ¥159,886 (US$24,411) in Guangdong Province (the fourth) (NewSchool Insight, 2019). Thus, international schooling forms an exclusive commodity for affluent urban families, especially the “new rich” in China, who accumulated wealth during the reforms and opening-up as entrepreneurs and high-level professionals (Yang et al., 2021). Many are keen to convert wealth into international education opportunities for their children to seek future economic, social and cultural prestige (Xiang and Shen, 2009). Owing to a lack of familiarity with international education or English proficiency, these parents often use an “outsourcing concerted cultivation” strategy for their children's overseas university admission by investing in both international schools and educational consultants to exchange economic resources for the cultural competencies of “experts” (Ma and Wright, 2021).

International schools prepare students for overseas higher education not only through the provision of globally recognised credentials, English language training, extracurricular opportunities and pedagogies aligned with Western universities but also through teachers and counsellors who understand university admission processes (Lee and Wright, 2016; Wright and Lee, 2022). Moreover, international schools seek to cultivate cosmopolitanism and “global citizenship” (Hayden et al., 2020; Weenink, 2008), defined as participating in and contributing to “contemporary global issues at local, national and global levels as informed, engaged, responsible and responsive global citizens” (UNESCO, 2017, p. 16). However, this type of education may be in tension with the Chinese state's agenda for citizenship education characterised by building a collective memory of history, patriotism and national pride (Law, 2013). International schools for Chinese citizens practice routines such as weekly national-flag-raising ceremonies, allow international curricula to be scrutinised by state authorities and exercise (self-) censorship over politically sensitive issues (Wright et al., 2022a; Wu and Koh, 2022). These schools were found to cultivate “cosmopolitan nationalism” among students by combining global aspirations and nationalistic roots (Wright et al., 2022b). Nonetheless, a research gap remained in understanding the emergent identities and imagined future mobilities of local students at international schools in China, particularly regarding the flexible citizenship framework applied in research on Chinese international students.

Methods

This article is part of a larger project on international schooling in Shenzhen, China. Designated as the first special economic zone in 1980 under the reforms and opening-up, the city has developed at a rapid pace over the past few decades. Since 1985, the per capita disposable income of Shenzhen's residents has increased more than 30 fold to ¥62,522 (US$9,650) (Shenzhen Government, 2021). Marketisation and rising demand from newly affluent parents resulted in international school expansion in Shenzhen, reaching 47 schools in 2020. Among the 41 schools that enrolled primarily or exclusively Chinese citizens, 35 were bilingual private schools and six were international divisions of elite public schools.

We conducted in-depth semistructured interviews with final-year high-school students (n = 60) and parents (n = 16) from eight international schools in Shenzhen: six private bilingual schools and two international divisions of elite public schools from November 2019 to August 2020. These schools offered the following international curricula: AP, A-Levels and IBDP (see Table 1 for details). Each participant was given a choice to be interviewed in English, Mandarin or Cantonese. The interviews centred on the participants' motivations for overseas higher education, their lived experiences with international schooling, their self-perceived identities, as well as post high-school plans. After being transcribed (and translated into English), the interviews were analysed via NVivo 12 in two rounds. Firstly, initial codes were created to assign symbolic meanings to the data. Then, these codes were grouped into broader themes through pattern coding. In the next section, we report the key research findings.

Findings

Pursuing overseas higher education for both symbolic and embodied capital

We found that global mobility for higher education was considered as the primary purpose of international schooling. This choice was motivated by the prospects of accumulating both symbolic cultural capital and embodied cultural capital. While some participants framed it as “going to a Western university”, the majority explicitly aspired for elite overseas universities in Anglophone developed countries, such as “Top 30 in the United States”, “the Russell Group in the United Kingdom” and “the Group of Eight in Australia”. These universities were desired not only because their degrees were regarded as prestigious symbolic capital for the labour market but also because our participants considered them the sites for embodied cultural capital cultivation in an era of globalisation.

Firstly, the logic of escaping China to pursue better prospects in a developed country, as in the flexible citizenship framework, was at play in shaping our participants' aspirations for elite overseas higher education. Attending an international school in China was considered an alternative to mainstream national education that offered a higher chance for admission into elite universities while avoiding the extremely competitive, “impossible” to excel and life-determining Gaokao system. Our participants perceived that elite universities overseas had less competitive admission processes for students compared with top Chinese universities. They believed that by attaining globally validated high-school qualifications, their higher education options and prospects of admission to a globally elite university were substantially enhanced.

An appeal of an elite university degree was the accumulation of symbolic capital readily convertible to labour market opportunities. Our participants were convinced that an elite university degree was an “entry ticket” into prestigious careers, which would exclude graduates from lower-status universities. As Ms Zhou [1], whose daughter was taking AP at a private school, said:

Top companies have lists of top-ranking universities whose graduates they would hire. If you are not on the lists, you don't even get your resume passed the first round of selection (22 November, 2019).

At the same time, our participants demonstrated a holistic understanding of the benefits of elite overseas higher education as also involving the cultivation of embodied cultural capital. They believed that elite overseas universities would provide superior libraries, laboratories, sports facilities, student accommodation, neighbourhoods and so on, which would facilitate quality learning. In addition, elite overseas universities were associated with internationally renowned faculty, talented students as well as successful alumni/ae, all of which would create an atmosphere for self-enhancement, healthy peer pressure and a resourceful community that would be available throughout their life.

Further, as embodied cultural capital, intercultural experience and character building contributed to our participants' motivation for overseas higher education. Studying abroad was seen as an opportunity to “experience different cultures”, “improve understanding of global affairs” and “have exchanges with students all over the world”. From the parents' perspective, leading a life in another country could guide their children to become knowledgeable and critical, offer them a tough trial in life and encourage them to become independent and self-sufficient. All these were considered valuable preparation for imagined futures in a globally integrated world. Ms Zheng, whose son was taking the A-Levels at a private school, made this point clearly:

The ability to think globally is essential, as the Earth is now a hyper-connected “village”. He must go out to learn about different cultures and meet diverse people. For example, he needs to understand the fundamentals about Catholic, Orthodox, Protestant beliefs as well as Islam and Buddhism, although not necessarily becoming religious himself, because he may work or live with all kinds of people. Also, as information is booming, he must learn to think critically and independently. The young generation enjoys so many options. He needs to find his own way and pursue his passion (10 July, 2020).

Well preparedness, confidence and enhanced aspirations

We found that the international schools played a vital role in cultivating the students' sense of preparedness for overseas higher education. Unlike the Chinese international students in previous literature who have been represented as ill-prepared for Western education (Fong, 2011; Wu and Tarc, 2021), our participants were self-confident about pursuing overseas higher education. Firstly, they perceived that international schooling would help prepare students for Western approaches to learning, not only through English language training and globally-validated credentials but also through exposure to Westernised pedagogies. What Huan (IBDP, international division, female) shared was echoed by many participants:

At school, most teachers require us to do presentations or group work in class. I think this could help me prepare for university study, because in American universities, students often need to have a debate or present their ideas in class, or work with other students. Essay writing is also another important example (6 December, 2019).

Our participants cited extracurricular activities as another aspect of international schooling that was perceived to resemble overseas higher education and help them develop crucial soft skills, including leadership, time management, organisation, cooperation and intercultural communication. There were interest-based activities, such as sports clubs, drama societies, debate teams, students' unions and service programmes like volunteer teaching trips to disadvantaged schools. They particularly appreciated international extracurricular opportunities. Activities such as the Model United Nations, summer schools at overseas universities and service trips in other Asian countries allowed the students to travel abroad, meet people from different cultures and make meaningful contributions, while also adding to their CVs for university applications. These experiences were described as educative by bringing overseas living and intercultural interactions to reality and confidence boosting, as the students realised their potential and possibilities.

In some cases, we found that experiences of international schooling enhanced the students' aspirations for their futures. One example is Tao, who described how opportunities offered by a private AP school instilled a self-belief about her ability to attend a highly ranked university in the USA:

Before coming to this school, I was a bit depressed about my academic capacity. I thought I would just go to any American university that would admit me. The business competition was a turning point. It showed I have other strengths and abilities. Then the Model United Nation trip really changed my mindset. I realised I could be as good as students from around the globe. Then I thought I should at least get into a top 30 university (5 January, 2020).

The students' self-confidence appears to have been boosted by the experience of exposures to extracurricular and international opportunities, as well as the diverse teaching and assessment methods. Many believed that the international schooling experience made them comprehensively developed, well-rounded and competent candidates for elite overseas universities. For example, Xing made his way from a private IBDP school to Yale University:

I'm confident […] my SAT scores are quite high for students who get into top institutions like Yale, but more is about activities and personalities that they see from your application profile. More about confidence. And more well-rounded. I did lots of things at school. I do sports. And I do drama, music, etc. (13 July, 2020).

Becoming “global citizens” at international schools

Nearly all the students regarded themselves as “global citizens”, citing knowledge of global issues and holding globally-oriented values. Notably, they believed that being a global citizen was compatible with a Chinese identity. They described how global issues were integrated into international curricula, such as learning about history on a global scale, debating topics like climate change and keeping up with global social movements like Black Lives Matter. Such understanding of global issues was considered valuable to operate successfully in an integrated world, especially by making sense of the “forces that will shape [their] lives”. Siyuan (A-Level, private school, male) noted: “globalisation is happening right now, and we have to know about it” (10 July, 2020), and Lei (AP, private school, female) said: “in the future, we will go to other countries and will cooperate with people from other countries” (23 November, 2019). In other words, an interest in “understanding different cultures” was widespread, so were beliefs in the “equality of all human beings”.

For many students, being knowledgeable about global issues also meant learning about both sides of the issue and being able to think critically and not take anything for granted, which they regarded as a basic capacity for living in a globalised world. As Long (AP, private school, male) articulated with reference to social unrest in Hong Kong:

I don't just believe every news I see, because maybe what is showed here is different from somewhere else. And you can't really know which one is correct, because media most of the time is […] It exaggerates or does whatever it takes to attract audience. So, you can't trust media. You have to be critical and get different views, and maybe just go there and see for yourself (7 January, 2020).

With knowledge and a critical attitude to global issues, the students believed that they had developed perspectives that superseded a national frame. As Ziyu (IBDP, international division, male) explained:

I like to talk about the general history of the world. I think I'm a citizen of the world. Whenever I encounter a topic or issue, I'd think about it from the perspective of the world as a whole, not from a country or as an individual (6 December, 2019).

Many students commented on their ideals of global stewardship, such as the belief that all people have an obligation to protect societies, cultures and the Earth. A few described a “commitment” to addressing global issues through career aspirations that ranged from “establishing an NGO to enhance IT-based learning in poor areas worldwide” to “specialising in diplomacy for peace-making missions”.

The students, however, did not think globally-oriented values would weaken their Chinese identity. They felt proud of China and expressed confidence in its future. Some framed learning about the globe as “learning deeper about China” and “its strengths and weaknesses” through comparison. Others imagined their future abroad as “learning about other cultures while also showing the world more about the Chinese culture”. Mr Wang, a parent of a private-school AP student, stated:

Young people could integrate Chinese and Western cultures and make that a competitive edge in the globalised world (23 November, 2019).

In other words, our participants believed that the international schooling experience helped to cultivate globally-oriented identities while not undermining Chinese roots. Boyang's (A-Levels, private school, male) imaged future as contributing to the whole of humanity as a Chinese scientist appropriately concludes this section:

In primary school, our textbooks highly praised scientists who returned to develop the socialist China after studying abroad, like Qian Xuesen. Later, through A-Level physics, I learned about the globally and historically significant achievements of Chinese scientists like Yang Chen-Ning, who didn't return but developed successful careers overseas. I think both are great. But, for me, I wish to become a physicist and work wherever I can have the best support, probably in collaboration with physicists all around the globe, including China. I wish to contribute to the whole humanity as a Chinese scientist (19 August, 2020).

Flexible imagined futures

When it came to imagined futures, most participants demonstrated considerable flexibility and a willingness to explore diverse life pathways. Generally, they considered it too early in their lives to make concrete long-term plans. Overseas higher education was regarded as the major opportunity to explore different options and to do what one truly feels passionate about, whereas career planning would come later. As Mr Guo (son taking A-Levels at a public division) said:

I found him full of ideas about the future. He wished to learn more in college and explore more, to truly find and get to know a profession. I said to him, “Don't work only for work's sake. You must do something that you really like and build a career upon it”. In the future, I wish him to work for a dream, not just for an income (5 December, 2019).

Our participants also expressed flexibility in terms of imagined global mobilities for careers. Some noted plans to work or pursue postgraduate education in the destination of their university or move to another country. Others planned to return to China after graduation or in a not-so-distant future. Nonetheless, it was clear that the students saw the future as full of options waiting for them to explore, and it could take place wherever they chose. Within this perspective, a rising China was one of the most cited possibilities along with other developed countries. As Lulu, an A-level private-school female student who aspired to work in finance, put it: “London, Singapore, Hong Kong, Shenzhen […] they are the same, so I’ll probably choose the place where I find most pleasant to live in or get the best opportunities” (19 August, 2020).

To sum up, our participants chose overseas universities for the purpose of both symbolic capital attainment, as manifested by degrees, as well as embodied cultural capital accumulation through Western higher education. They believed that international schooling prepared students well for Western higher education, enhanced their aspirations and confidence and cultivated authentically global identities. Although instrumental thinking and flexibility were evident in our participants' narrated experiences, they held distinctively different outlooks, aspirations and attitudes on China and the world than has typically been depicted by the flexible citizenship framework.

Discussion and conclusion

In this article, we challenged the homogenising use of the flexible citizenship framework in research on Chinese international students. In so doing, we contribute to the literature by expanding the scope of flexible citizenship with regard to the emergent identities and imagined future mobilities of students attending international schools in China that cater to local families. Firstly, we join Cebolla-Boado et al. (2018) and Rizvi (2010) to challenge the flexible citizenship framework's overstatement of instrumentalist calculations. Instead of regarding overseas education merely as a means to accumulate symbolic capital convertible for enhanced prospects (Fong, 2011; Wu and Tarc, 2021), our participants chose to pursue not only the symbolic capital of degrees but also a high-quality, open, diverse, critical and character-building education, i.e. embodied cultural capital cultivation for a globalised world. By aspiring for elite universities in Anglophone societies, they demonstrated a complex understanding of elite degrees as positional goods in a global higher education landscape hegemonised by the West (Marginson, 2008) as well as the core of international education as building intercultural competencies and cosmopolitan dispositions (Weenink, 2008). Unlike the Chinese international students in previous literature who have been represented as ill-prepared for Western education (Fong, 2011), international schooling experience appears to have helped our participants feel confidently ready for overseas studies through English proficiency, international curricula and extracurricular exposures.

International schooling appears to have instilled authentically global values in the students. They regarded themselves as knowledgeable and critical about global issues, respectful of cultural diversity and responsible for global betterment, thus self-perceived “global citizens”. Similar globally-oriented logics were missing in the flexible citizenship framework, with its narrow focus on instrumental considerations (Fong, 2011; Ong, 1999). Our participants maintained a strong Chinese identity, which they considered compatible with being “global citizens”. On the surface, their Chinese roots may resemble the emotional, cultural and social attachments” flexible citizens” had towards home (Ong, 1999). However, our participants' confidence in China as a rising global power and willingness to build careers in China set them apart from flexible citizens, whose primary goal was to escape a “backward” China and pursue livelihoods in the developed world. We argue that, even though instrumental thinking and flexibility were at play in our participants' choice of overseas higher education and imagined futures, the Chinese international school students were becoming global citizens with Chinese roots, as captured by the concept of “cosmopolitan nationalism” (Wright et al., 2022b).

Expanding on our findings, we now discuss the changing desire among young people for overseas higher education in China. According to Bourdieu (1977), cross-generational differences are shaped by the different “conditions of existence” that impose on each generation different “definitions of the impossible, the possible, and the probable” (p. 78). Applying this understanding, we examine the broader social transformations in urban China that shaped its people's choices over three generations: before the reforms and opening-up in 1978, from the 1980s to the early 21st century and in the first two decades of the 21st century.

Firstly, before the reforms and opening-up in 1978, especially during the ten-year cultural revolution that preceded it, socialist and patriotic discourses dominated China. People typically formed strong political, social and emotional bonds to the socialist rule and felt hostile towards the “capitalist West”. Under a strict state-planning economy, the urban population were distributed in “work units” that offered accommodation, medical care, children's education and other essential life assurances (Bian, 1994). For a vast majority of the population, education played a relatively insignificant role in determining life chances. In this context, overseas education was unattainable, unwelcome and unnecessary.

Secondly, from the 1980s to the early 21st century, economic reforms disrupted socialist public institutions such as housing, health care and education and placed Chinese families under increasing social insecurities and self-accountability. An individualised, success-driving ethic began to dominate (Yan, 2013). Education gradually became a vital means to climb the social ladder. Free compulsory education was universalised in the 1980s, and the 1990s witnessed expansions of high school and post-secondary education. The one-child policy further motivated urban parents to invest in the education of their “only hope”. Moreover, as cultural inputs from the outside world (e.g. TV shows, music, literature and food) and developing-versus-developed-world discourses were popularised, many found it hard to shake off the idea of a “backward” China or uncertainty about its future (Fong, 2011, pp. 70–71). A growing desire for “the developed world” motivated families from diverse backgrounds to desire overseas education despite the high costs, especially when they saw little chance to succeed in the national education system. This was the period when both Ong (1999) and Fong (2011) conducted their research that generated and popularised the flexible citizenship framework.

Thirdly, in the first two decades of the 21st century, when our student participants were born and raised, individualisation and competition intensified in Chinese cities. With individual responsibility for educational success and future prosperity, aspirations and anxieties merged to characterise urban Chinese families (Kipnis, 2011). The mass expansion of higher education in China began to be criticised for exacerbating inequalities in access to elite universities, graduate unemployment and credential inflation (Mok, 2016). Hence, admission into China's elite universities became more competitive and harder to guarantee (Zhang, 2016). As an alternative, more affluent families demanded overseas education, which contributed to responsive policy relaxations, including international schools' expansion to cater to local students.

The young generation in China has grown up as learners of the English language (starting as early as in preschools), active users of the internet and consumers of global brands and cultural products. Their global awareness and cultural readiness for overseas studies, therefore, tends to be more developed than previous generations. On the global stage, China increasingly presented itself as a rising power, not only in economic terms but also through “soft power” international initiatives such as “Belt and Road Initiative”, foreign aid, peace-making missions, contributions to Sustainability Goals and so on (Jiang, 2021). The state and mass media widely disseminated these messages as part of a new push for patriotic education (Guo, 2019). Meanwhile, the image of developed countries suffered, for example, through the financial crisis in 2008, political scandals, campus shootings and, most recently, the perceived mishandling of COVID-19. The prestige of overseas education, especially the elite Western universities, still firmly stands and continues to attract Chinese students. Yet, the events of the past 20 years appear to have contributed to our participants' emergent identities that combined globally-oriented values with self-confidence regarding their Chinese roots.

An additional point we wish to make concerns the limitations of globally-oriented education at Chinese international schools. Most student participants confidently identified themselves as “global citizens” and discussed features of global citizenship such as intercultural awareness, universal respect for others and global responsibility (UNESCO, 2017). Yet, the majority were only able to articulate globally-oriented values in terms of acknowledging global problems, respecting cultural diversity and motivation to promote the betterment of the world. More specifically, their understandings matched closer with what de Andreotti (2014) termed “soft global citizenship” rather than “critical global citizenship”. The latter requires more sophisticated and critical insights into global structures, assumptions, power relations, active engagement with global issues and informed and responsible action. One cause may be the global-national dynamics of international schools for local students in China, especially the need to comply with the state agenda and requirements (Wright et al., 2022a; Wu and Koh, 2022). Another reason could be embedded in the features of these schools where English instruction and expatriate teachers may be marginalised by a dominant Chinese community (Poole, 2020). In any case, it appears that Chinese international schools have some way to go if they see their role as cultivating a more critical form of global citizenship amongst their students.

At last, we wish to address two limitations of this article and propose future research directions. Firstly, as part of an exploratory project on international schools in Shenzhen serving Chinese citizens, this article provided a bird's-eye view of parents’ and students' motivations, experiences and identities. Future research can build on it by conducting investigations on potential similarities and differences amongst, for example, international school types, international curricula and locations to provide more nuanced insights into China's international school sector. Secondly, a person's identity can be fluid. It remains unknown how Chinese international school students may or may not change their global-national outlook, values and future imaginations after going overseas for higher education, especially if they experience formal and informal “othering” processes from host societies (Marginson, 2013). It is also unknown to what extent findings from this article may speak for the current generation of Chinese students preparing for overseas education through channels other than international schools. We encourage further research to expand the scope of the investigation.

Table 1.

Details of the interview participants

Participants	Parents	Students
Gender
Female	12	32
Male	4	28
School type
Private school	11	39
Public division	5	21
International curriculum
A-levels	6	24
AP	5	22
IBDP	5	14
Total	16	60

Note

1. Participants’ names used in the paper are all pseudonyms.