ABSTRACT
This introduction presents an overview of the key concepts discussed in the subsequent chapters of this book. The book documents the results of a project that collected the educational life stories of a group of people who studied for a British business degree at a private college in Beijing between 1996 and 1999. It also presents some introduction to and analysis of the contemporary educational scene in China. The book discusses some of the issues that Chinese students might face when coming to study in universities in Britain, as they are doing in increasing numbers. It attempts to raise some of the issues involved in cultural exchange for Chinese students coming to study in "the West". The book presents the stories as an unedited collection to act as an open resource for students of Chinese culture and education and as a social document presenting accounts of a certain aspect of Chinese life at the end of the 20th century.
