ABSTRACT
The growing Chinese middle class and their accumulation of wealth and economic capital have seen an increasing number of Chinese students pursuing their education in the West. This chapter will focus on the new habituses (insecurity, anxiety, and desire and aspiration for suzhi education and so forth) formed among China’s middle-class families when they face social, political, and cultural uncertainties both domestically and globally. This chapter discusses how such challenging environment and reality become the impetus to push the middle class to search for new opportunities of learning and education for their children, how studying abroad is framed as a new way of becoming a part of the global middle class, and how Chinese families negotiate their educational desires for their children. The chapter uses both quantitative and qualitative data drawn from over 200 students from China who are currently enrolled at American campuses.
