In recent years, the swell in the number of Chinese students pursuing international higher education (IHE) has positioned them as the largest international student group worldwide.Footnote 1 Héctor Cebolla-Boado and his colleagues attribute part of this trend to the expansion of China's middle class, for whom IHE is more accessible and affordable.Footnote 2 Biao Xiang and Wei Shen suggest that international education is perceived by middle-class families as a conduit for upward social mobility and a means to attain status in a global context.Footnote 3 Researchers such as Vanessa Fong analyse how geographical imaginations of concepts such as “Western” and “developed” impact these educational choices.Footnote 4 Peidong Yang's study links middle-class students’ aspirations for IHE to the overarching educational desires in China, highlighting how China's cultural reverence for education, which is deeply rooted in Confucian values and aspirations for social mobility, motivates international education mobilities.Footnote 5 He posits that such educational aspirations are not just individual pursuits but are ingrained within the societal psyche that guides Chinese students’ experiences within these complex sociocultural matrices.Footnote 6 Recent literature also incorporates a gender perspective, focusing on how female Chinese students perceive an overseas education, suggesting that female Chinese students view IHE as a way to confront and negotiate patriarchal norms in Chinese society.Footnote 7
Another notable aspect of this rapid growth in the number of Chinese international students is that they are predominantly funded by their families. According to the Ministry of Education, in 2018, over 90 per cent of the Chinese students studying abroad were family-funded.Footnote 8 While existing research has focused on the substantial support provided by Chinese families, particularly through the lenses of cultural capital and social reproduction,Footnote 9 this study contributes a new perspective by examining how broader sociocultural forces in China influence the trend among middle-class families of pursuing higher education overseas and linking IHE fever to China's modernity. By unpacking the participants’ perceptions of IHE and interrogating their family's support of it, this paper argues that the normative biography, as conceptualized by the authors, is fundamental in shaping IHE fever among China's middle-class families. This conformist narrative outlines a societal expectation of a structured life path, marked by sequentially timed milestones. Education is a key stepping stone in helping young adults construct the normative biography, with family support for education being an integral part of the endorsement of this life path. Our analysis of student narratives about their pursuit of IHE and their family's support and encouragement reveals that IHE represents a priority channel for young adults from middle-class families through which they can align with the normative biography. In other words, this paper suggests that pursuing IHE is seen as a strategic means to adhere to socially and culturally defined life milestones and goals valued in China.
We begin this article with a review of the literature on educational desire in contemporary China, illustrating how Chinese educational aspirations and parental support for these aspirations are intricately interwoven with China's modernity. We then provide the details of our research method before exploring how IHE fever among China's middle-class families is shaped by their attempts to align themselves with the normative biography.Footnote 10 This concept of normative biography is characterized by two main features: temporality and interconnectedness. Our findings show how these two features work to position IHE as a crucial milestone in the collectively imagined life paths of the middle class. While scholars have conducted fruitful works on international higher educational practices from the perspective of temporality, this paper expands the discussion.Footnote 11 It not only shows how international educational mobility is structured by the dominant life-course narrative but also goes further by examining how the broader sociocultural context, specifically within the framework of modernity in China, shapes the life-course narrative (for example, its rigid timetable and sequence) and its impact on middle-class families’ pursuit of IHE. Moreover, the normative biography also requires parents to play a vital role in guiding their children through various life stages, preparing them for and helping them align with its prescribed expectations. Parents’ support of IHE forms part of their parental role in fostering the normative biography of their children. This research provides a nuanced understanding that the IHE fever among middle-class families is deeply rooted in the discourses of modernity and intergenerationality of Chinese families.
Educational Fever, Modernity and Intergenerationality in China
Education desire, the standardized life pathway for youth and modernity in China
Educational desire in China has long been a central focus of scholarly research, with existing literature demonstrating how the pursuit of education in China is deeply influenced by broader sociocultural contexts.Footnote 12 In his study on the educational desire of Chinese families, Andrew Kipnis noticed that the interweaving of the state discourse of modernity and a deep-seated cultural aspiration for academic achievement in China transforms educational desire into a mode of governmentality, defining education as a pathway towards higher morality, social mobility and the actualization of life's values.Footnote 13 According to Kipnis, inherent in educational desire is the establishment of a hierarchical framework that links educational attainment with factors such as income and moral standing, thereby differentiating individuals based on their adherence to the dominant discourse.Footnote 14 Therefore, educational desire in China not only fosters a hierarchical view of education but also imposes a hierarchical perspective of life success.Footnote 15
In a similar vein, Paul Willis explores how the discourse of modernity in China defines a standardized life pathway and shapes a hierarchical education system.Footnote 16 Delving into the college entrance examination (gaokao 高考), Willis’s research reveals the profound influence of modernity on the role of education in Chinese youths' daily lives and their choices in life course. He identifies three critical aspects of modernity – the rural–urban divide, the growth of Chinese-style consumerism and the rise of the internet – as key factors shaping educational practices and their associated meanings. These three aspects of modernity function as crucial instruments for comprehending educational practices in China, as they create a symbolic framework that delineates anticipated life trajectories through education, subsequently impacting daily life and the process of making sense of one's experiences. To elaborate further, the discourse of modernity defines a hierarchical and standardized educational pathway, where studying in a university via gaokao is seen as the gateway to a desired life trajectory marked by a more modern urban lifestyle and upward social mobility, aligning with these three aspects of modernity.
More recent scholarship calls for attention to students’ agency in understanding their compliance or resistance within the normative educational life pathways and their adaption to their specific temporal and social realities.Footnote 17 According to Ziyu Wang and colleagues, there are variations and unevenness in youth transitions and biographies, where young people can exercise their agency to navigate conventional linear and predetermined pathways.Footnote 18 They further notice that class background influences Chinese individuals’ ability to adapt and exert agency in constructing their temporal orientations and educational trajectories. Their research findings resonate with the scholarly observation that students’ social backgrounds (for example, class, sexuality and gender) guide their navigation of the normative educational life transitions. For example, while both working-class and middle-class parents in China recognize the importance of conforming to the normative educational transitions,Footnote 19 middle-class students often receive considerably more support from their parents in adhering to these norms.
Such agency has also been found in the IHE mobility of middle-class LGBTQ+ individuals in China to seek freedom from restrictive societal norms and to pursue their desired lifestyles and aspirations. Lucetta Kam details how the agency of Chinese middle-class queer women manifests in their negotiation of sexual normativity through international migration from China to Australia.Footnote 20 She highlights how going abroad has become a collective aspiration for Chinese middle-class queer women to evade the heteronormative expectations imposed on them by their parents and society. One of the main ways this international mobility is achieved is through IHE, sometimes with parental financial support. Suzanne Choi demonstrates the importance of education for gay men from privileged family backgrounds when negotiating heteronormative family pressure and achieving their own desired life goals through multiple global migrations throughout their lifetime.Footnote 21
While these studies highlight how the intersection between individuals’ agency and their social backgrounds enables them to negotiate the normativity through IHE, understanding how parents perceive and support their children's life trajectories through IHE mobility requires further exploration. In the context of IHE in China, fruitful research has explored Chinese students’ IHE mobility as family practices and experiences, particularly through the lens of class.Footnote 22 However, there is a scarcity of research into how IHE mobility is shaped by broader social contexts, for example intergenerationality and modernity, as noticed by this paper. Only Zhe Wang's research addresses how the discourse of modernity shapes the transnational mobility of Chinese students by instilling in them discourses such as modernization, individualism and industriousness.Footnote 23 Although her studies offer valuable insights into modernity and educational practices, the underlying motivations that drive families to provide such substantial support for their children's education within the Chinese context remain underexplored. Hence, this paper offers a familial aspect to the understanding of educational desire and practices influenced by modernity in China.
Parental desire for children's education: intergenerationality and modernity in China
The preceding subsection explored the connection between individual educational aspirations and modernity. This subsection reviews the research that can provide insights into how modernity influences intergenerational relationships, transforming educational fever into a familial pursuit. The significance of intergenerational relationships in Chinese families has been conceptualized as “intergenerationality,” a term that emphasizes intergenerational interactions between parents and children as well as between grandparents and children.Footnote 24 The concept of intergenerationality is crucial to understanding China's modernity. In the early years of the People's Republic of China, political leaders attempted to disrupt reciprocal intergenerational care, at least on an ideological level.Footnote 25 Now, following China's engagement with the global neoliberal economy in the 1980s and onwards, individuals have been exposed to the marketization and commercialization of urban housing, healthcare services and the education system.Footnote 26 This has resulted in a re-emphasis on the importance of family alliances in managing these new risks.Footnote 27
Existing literature on Chinese parents’ aspirations for their children's education highlights the parental obligations to maximize their children's human capital when navigating the challenges of the risk society.Footnote 28 Yang Ke's research reveals that modern motherhood has evolved into a profession focused on securing a “good” education. Tasks include activities such as networking for educational resources, researching tutorial markets and school requirements, creating personalized study plans and integrating these resources to give their children a competitive edge in the education system.Footnote 29 The family has a moral responsibility for creating the right “conditions” (tiaojian 条件) for its children's educationFootnote 30 and equipping them for the competitive global market.Footnote 31 As the tasks of motherhood have shifted, with mothers taking on a greater role in their children's education, grandparents have stepped in to play a more substantial role in childrearing, often taking on the physical childcare responsibilities.Footnote 32
While these studies provide some insights into parental support for education, few studies focus on IHE. As students reach adulthood, they can enter the job market and achieve independence from their parents. What does this parental support for education mean? This paper aims to bridge the gaps by examining what IHE fever entails for middle-class families in China.
Method
This paper draws on qualitative interview data gathered from a larger research project on the international education mobilities of Chinese students that was conducted by one of the authors between 2017 and 2022. The interview selection procedure for this paper was based on a multifaceted framework of eligibility criteria designed to capture the nuanced intricacies of the middle-class socio-economic status in the Chinese context. The delineation of the Chinese middle class presents a challenge owing to its multifaceted dimensions.Footnote 33 As China's rapid urbanization has substantially reconfigured the landscape, regional disparity is a crucial factor in defining the identity of the middle class.Footnote 34 Urban hukou 户口 status,Footnote 35 particularly within megacities, first-tier citiesFootnote 36 and provincial capitals, is significant because it decides whether an individual has access to critical social services, such as healthcare and social security, adding further layers of complexityFootnote 37. Hence, a comprehensive understanding of China's middle class mandates the consideration of various factors, including hukou status, city of residence, property ownership, access to healthcare and social security, educational level, and managerial-level or managerial-type employment.Footnote 38
To uphold the tenets of methodological rigour and soundness, we applied the following specific criteria. First, participants had to be fully financially supported by their families or parents. Second, participants and their parents had to be urban hukou holders. Third, as the possession of residential property within their hukou city is deemed a pivotal benchmark of middle-class life in China, participants’ parents had to own at least one residential property, symbolizing their socio-economic standing and stability. Finally, participants’ parents had to have post-secondary education (technical or non-technical) or higher, hold managerial-level or equivalent positions, or be professionally qualified, for example as a doctor, professor or engineer. It is important to recognize that while annual household income is a significant indicator of class status, many participants were not fully aware of their family's income during their time abroad. Additionally, the income of middle-class families can vary greatly over time and is influenced by regional disparities in provinces, municipalities and economic zones throughout China. Therefore, in our participant selection process, we did not set a specific minimum household income threshold. Finally, we factored in participants’ personal perceptions of class. In accordance with the prevalent view among our participants, we decided to exclude individuals whose annual family income was in excess of 1 million yuan, an amount often identified in interviews as representative of wealthy or upper-class families in China.
In total, we analysed 65 in-depth interviews with 28 male and 37 female Chinese participants. In terms of educational level, 3 had a bachelor's degree, 48 had a master's degree and 14 had doctoral degrees. Two interviewees were from first-tier cities, 21 from second-tier cities or provincial capitals, and 42 were from third or lower-tier cities. The highest number of students (32) had chosen to study in the UK, 11 in Asian regions/countries like Hong Kong, South Korea, Japan, Singapore, etc., 9 in the US, and 7 had gone to Australia and New Zealand. Four students had gone to mainland Europe and two to Canada. Most participants in this study were aged between 22 and 35 at the time of the interview (2018–2019). This age distribution aligns with the 2015 statistics provided by the Ministry of Education, which indicate that 95 per cent of returnees are between 23 and 33 years old.Footnote 39 The study strictly adhered to ethical guidelines and principles, including informed consent and confidentiality. Stringent measures were taken to protect the privacy of participants, including the use of pseudonyms and the anonymization of personal information. We employed a narrative approach to analyse the data.Footnote 40
Findings: IHE as a Priority Pathway to the Normative Biography
In this section, we illuminate the IHE fever among middle-class students in China and the parental support offered by uncovering a unique perspective of what we term the normative biography. The term refers to the aspirations and imaginations participants hold for their life in their 20s and early 30s, including specific milestones they hope to reach. The normative biography can be divided into three key stages, including securing “good” education during their early 20s, living a modern and cosmopolitan life in a megacity in their mid-20s, and establishing a family in their late 20s or early 30s, with stable and advantageous conditions for their children's education. IHE is perceived as a priority pathway to realizing these life milestones and attaining the imagined life. Moreover, intergenerationality is salient in the sense that the parents of these international students are expected to ensure that their offspring conform to the normative biography by supporting their education. Next, we elaborate two characteristics of the normative biography that shape IHE fever: temporality and interconnectedness.
IHE fever and the temporality of the normative biography
The order of life stages
The first characteristic of temporality is the sequence of the three stages in the normative biography. Many participants emphasized that their early 20s should be the time for educational pursuits. At this stage, opting for a job or remaining unemployed is generally less socially accepted among children from middle-class families. As we delved deeper into the concept of the “right” age for studying, participants revealed the pressure to conform to the collective choices of their peers. Consider, for example, Betty (25, master's degree), who came from a second-tier city and whose parents both worked for state-owned companies. She completed her undergraduate degree in China and a master's degree in the UK. When discussing her decision to study abroad, she explained, “At that age [22], everyone around me was pursuing a master's degree. Why not study? It's too early to look for a job in your early 20s; it's not the right age for it.” Like Betty, most participants saw their early 20s as the most opportune time for educational pursuits. This collectively defined age for study was further enforced by the belief that failing to seize educational opportunities in one's early 20s might lead to missing the chance for further education later on in life, as other priorities would inevitably take over. As Jimmy (28, master's degree) reflected:
Certainly, I should study now [in his early 20s]. Once I enter the workforce, it's time to earn money and start a family. There won't be time for further education. Plus, even if I could abandon everything and focus on studying, what about my parents? What will my relatives and neighbours think about that? It's like I'm leaving them in a difficult situation. We're expected to do certain things at certain ages.
Jimmy's words reveal the heavy influence of societal expectations at his age and the importance of the chronological order of his life stages. Jimmy recognized the importance of timing in his education and when he entered the workforce and established a family. Deviating from these expectations would cause a sense of disorientation in his life and was also perceived as potentially problematic for his family's reputation. This suggests that parents are also involved in the normative biographies of their young adult children, which we discuss in more detail below.
A collectively defined “good” education and timeframe
Another characteristic of the temporality of the normative biography is its tight timeframe, which results from the interplay between the chronological order of life stages and a collectively defined “good” education. Not only were our participants expected to pursue an education in their 20s, they had to attain what is collectively considered to be a “good” education. Our interviews revealed that, for middle-class families, there are two criteria for a “good” education: it should be of a high level, with a master's degree often considered the minimum standard, and the institutions where individuals complete their master's programmes should be ranked highly in the hierarchy of universities. To be more specific, our interviewees felt there was a sense of urgency to secure a master's degree from a top university during their early 20s. Before delving into how the definition of a “good” education is shaped by the modernity discourse, we first explore why this sense of urgency leads participants to collectively regard IHE as the ideal pathway to reaching the expected milestones of their 20s.
Many participants revealed that they had made the decision to pursue a master's degree before they opted to study abroad. Their preference for IHE was the result of overseas universities offering comparatively easier access and better rankings than China's universities. While good education can be found within China, accessing it is extremely difficult and intensely competitive. Consequently, studying abroad emerged as an attractive option that bypassed this hurdle, as noted in other research.Footnote 41 Bill (28, master's) explained about the fierce competition of the postgraduate entrance examination (kaoyan 考研):
Preparing for kaoyan is really challenging. It demands extensive preparation, typically spanning a year. The examination comprises four rigorous written tests, each lasting approximately three hours, and culminates with an interview. The level of difficulty is akin to that of the gaokao 高考 (college entrance examination), and I was reluctant to relive that nightmarish experience.
Similar to Bill, 42 out of 65 of our participants had completed their undergraduate studies in China before pursuing their postgraduate/doctoral education abroad. Among those, 27 expressed their reluctance to sit the kaoyan. The more prestigious the university in China, the fiercer the competition becomes – indeed, the intense competition for such a limited resource is often likened to “thousands of troops crossing a single-log bridge” (qianjun wanma guo dumuqiao 千军万马过独木桥), and the statistics reflect this.Footnote 42 For students from middle-class backgrounds, however, gaining admission to a high-ranked overseas university can be a more achievable goal:
Unlike the domestic postgraduate entrance examination, pursuing a master's degree overseas typically requires only the IELTS, without the need to take specialized courses. In terms of the application process, I found an agent, so I didn't have to worry about preparing and submitting documents myself … Regardless of the circumstances, you are almost guaranteed admission to a university abroad. Moreover, the probability is high that the ranking of the university you get into will be much higher than what you could achieve through strenuous efforts in the domestic postgraduate entrance examination. For instance, if I were to strive for the domestic postgraduate entrance examination, I might have a chance at Zhejiang University, but Zhejiang University ranks significantly lower than Imperial College London. (Jane, 26, master's)
In this context, IHE emerges as a priority pathway that offers the normative biography for middle-class Chinese in their 20s.
Some interviewees further pointed out that the IHE pathway was preferable because not only did it require less preparation time but it also offered a shorter duration of study, reducing the risk of missing out on other opportunities that might arise in their early 20s. Some participants, particularly female students, explained that they chose postgraduate programmes in the UK or Hong Kong because of their one-year duration. This not only allowed a swift transition into the workforce, another crucial milestone in the normative life path, but also minimized the risks of falling behind in terms of getting married and starting a family, the subsequent milestones in the normative biography. It is, therefore, important to acknowledge that gender is a factor in the perceived value of IHE in the pursuit of the normative biography. Although the temporal norms of life pathways have been studied for marriageFootnote 43 and reproduction,Footnote 44 this paper adds to our understanding by examining its impacts on educational practices.
The normative biography timetable and parental support for IHE
The normative biography not only influences the life trajectories of middle-class young adults; their parents also embrace the social expectations surrounding the timings of specific events, a factor that shapes parental support for IHE. The important chronological order of life milestones and the tight timeframe mean that parental support is crucial if young adults are going to be successful in following the normative biography, as they may not have had the opportunity to become financially independent before embarking on their educational journey. Parents regard supporting their children's education as a fundamental parental duty. During our interviews, the participants revealed that while they were preparing for their IHE, their parents consistently emphasized their own “responsibilities” (zeren 责任) and “efforts” (jinli 尽力) to provide any assistance necessary to ensure their children's access to education. This commitment can be exemplified by the “division of labour,” as described by Nancy (28, PhD): “My parents always told me that my responsibility was to focus on studying, while their responsibility was to create the conditions (tiaojian 条件) for my education; they would spare no effort in fulfilling their role.” This quote resonates with Teresa Kuan's argument that, when faced with uncertainty over their children's future in a neoliberal context, parents’ efforts to create the correct “conditions” can be viewed as a moral practice that could free them from future blame for not being qualified parents.Footnote 45 Pei-Chia Lan, in her study of Taiwanese parents and immigrant parents in the United States, attributed parental efforts to secure a good education for their offspring to the unequal global structures that immigrants face, such as the racialized US labour market and global competition.Footnote 46
Although these studies enrich our understanding of the educational fever among Chinese parents, upon closer analysis, we find that parental support for IHE is not only to support their children's education but also to ensure that their children conform to the normative biography. The parents of our participants felt a significant obligation to ensure that their children received the education prescribed by the normative biography during their early 20s. According to some interviewees, their parents made it clear that it was unacceptable to deviate from the normative biography. Yun's (27, master's) response highlights how parents perceive the importance of education and timing in adhering to the normative biography:
When I failed the postgraduate entrance exam, I was just sitting at home … My parents urged me, suggesting that perhaps I should go abroad; after all, obtaining a postgraduate degree is necessary, and re-taking the exam after a year was considered a waste of time. I initially didn't want to study abroad owing to the expenses. However, my parents felt that while money can be earned back, lost time cannot be reclaimed.
Parents' support of the normative biography, rather than just education, is also reflected in how their attitudes towards IHE change at different stages of their children's normative biography. During our interviews, participants who had gone abroad to study at an “older” age revealed that they had often received less encouragement and even disapproval from their parents. Rong (32, master's), for example, enrolled in a master's degree in her late 20s, and her parents were strongly opposed to her decision to study abroad:
When I had just graduated from my undergraduate studies, my parents wanted me to study abroad and even urged me to do so. But at that time, I considered working instead, and though they didn't like my choice, they respected my decision. However, when I expressed a desire to study abroad again, they felt I was past the ideal age for it. They believed I should have been getting married at that point and were concerned that by the time I returned from studying abroad, I might miss out on finding a suitable partner. So, they were initially quite against my decision to study abroad. They argued that I had already passed the ideal age for such an endeavour, especially since I had a stable job, and they didn't see the value in further education, so they would not support it.
Other participants who had worked before studying abroad also said that they had difficulty convincing their parents to support their IHE journey, indicating that parents consider international education worthwhile only when it aligns with the expected timings of the normative biography. Parents often feel that they are no longer obligated to support the education aspirations of their children, regardless of academic achievements and preparedness, when their children reach the age of employment. At this stage, they believe their children should prioritize the next life stage or career goals. Therefore, parental support of IHE is subject to specific temporal considerations, as dictated by the normative biography.
Parental support for the normative biography is also reflected in parents’ support for post-graduation transitions. Parental assistance in ensuring their children conform to the right sequence and timetable of events according to the normative biography is not only concerned with education but with all life events for their children in their 20s. Many of our participants revealed that their parents had covered the entire costs of their airfare, accommodation and living expenses as they transitioned to work in a megacity, a process that typically took six months to a year. Once their children have secured employment, particularly in the new city, parents also assist in purchasing a home and helping them settle into adulthood and the next life stage. This level of support is part of the parents’ preparation for their children to eventually become parents themselves. This ongoing parental influence on the lives of adult children resonates with the findings of Jieyu Liu's study on the urban cohort born in China in the 1990s.Footnote 47 Parents of this cohort placed a strong emphasis on academic performance in their children's upbringing, and as these children reached adulthood, their parents continued to be involved in various facets of their lives, including career choices, dating, marriage and even divorce decisions. Our study further points out how the two generations make joint decisions to ensure that each generation of the family conforms to the normative biography.
IHE and the interconnectedness of the normative biography
Above, we discuss how the right timeframe to secure “good” education shapes educational choices. In this section, we delve deeper into how the interconnectedness of the three key three stages of the normative biography for young adults in their 20s and early 30s shapes their perception of IHE as a form of “good” education.
During interviews, participants usually categorized universities, jobs and cities into different tiers, believing that only by attending high-tier universities could they access corresponding high-tier jobs and cities. The majority of participants linked their choice of IHE with their aspiration to live a modern urban professional life once they had completed their studies in their early 20s. Interviewees believed that IHE would facilitate their entry into the professional world by allowing them to secure positions in reputable companies within China's megacities. This formed part of their collective vision for their life in their mid-20s, which encompassed not only pursuing high-flying careers in fields such as finance, the arts or high technology, but also extended to their everyday middle-class consumption and modern way of life. Our participants explained that achieving this normative biography would entail working and living in major cities in China. In our interview, Kate (29, master's) shared the following:
Shanghai offers more than just competitive salaries in big companies; it provides an opportunity to learn and grow by collaborating with intelligent and open-minded individuals. The work culture here is modern and dynamic … Additionally, the city boasts a diverse culinary scene and a wide range of commodities … there are international [musical] shows and [art] exhibitions that you can only find in Shanghai in China … While I considered staying in the US, I realized that working in Shanghai offers a similar or wider experience.
According to Kate's narrative, the city – particularly megacities like Beijing and Shanghai – is an essential element of her desired lifestyle. Megacities form the backdrop to an ideal career and a life intertwined with the modern world. In other words, megacities not only offer better opportunities for superior career pathways but also serve as gateways to a global urban professional life. Our interviewees’ reflections on education and lifestyles resonate with the existing scholarly discussions on educational practices and modernity in China that argue that Chinese cities, especially megacities, serve as symbols of modernity and embody an aspirational way of life for students when making their educational decisions.Footnote 48 We also found that our interviewees’ aspirations for a modern urban lifestyle influenced their IHE fever.
IHE is valued because of its capacity to facilitate a smoother transition to becoming a cosmopolitan urban professional in one's mid-20s. When participants referred to promising and stable employment in megacities, they implied positions within “state-owned companies” (guoqi 国企), Fortune Global 500 companies, new/high-tech companies, etc. These jobs offer superior career prospects and the higher and stable salaries required to live a cosmopolitan urban life, and our participants’ pursuit of IHE was woven into their aspirations for such jobs. Mary (26, master's) elaborated:
I wanted to find a job in Shanghai and needed a master's degree at that time … Holding a master's degree enhances the likelihood of securing a position in foreign or state-owned companies, where you will benefit from a more stable job, a higher salary and superior career platforms. However, without a master's degree, you won't even have a ticket to enter [the competitive job market].
A master's degree is not the only mandated job requirement; the recruitment process is heavily influenced by the university ranking system. As Mary further explained:
In Shanghai, the job search process typically involves stringent résumé screening, where only graduates from universities ranked in the top 500 or those who have graduated from 985 and 211 universities have a chance to pass the initial screening. Graduates from universities outside of these categories often struggle to even get their résumés considered. Many UK universities perform well in various ranking systems. As a result, it remains easier for students who have studied at UK universities and then returned to China to secure good employment opportunities.
The importance of university ranking in deciding what constitutes a “good” education echoes Ran Ren's research on how educational success is perceived and valorized in the Chinese job market.Footnote 49 Ren finds that the initial résumé selection process heavily prioritizes educational credentials, with a candidate's alma mater being a prime determinant. Recruiters predominantly refer to rankings and lists, like Project 985/211 or the Times World University Rankings, to sift through vast numbers of applications. As a result, Ren argues, university ranking, as an indicator of a graduate's “learning ability,” leads to a form of “credential cronyism” within the job market.
Moreover, IHE also plays a role in helping newcomers relocate and settle in megacities. Megacity governments often implement favourable policies to attract overseas student returnees, making the process of relocation more accessible and welcoming. For instance, megacity governments institutionalize IHE degrees as a form of cultural capital in the hukou application process, with a specific focus on master's graduates from universities ranked within the top 500 of prominent global ranking systems.Footnote 50 For a significant portion of our participants, the importance of hukou was closely linked with their aspirations to become good parents in their late 20s and early 30s by providing a good education for the next generation, as their parents did for them. There are better educational resources for children in megacities, but to access these resources, the family must have local hukou.
The interconnectedness of these three life stages can also be seen in the reluctance of parents who imagined a different life from the urban professional one for their children to support IHE. For instance, some of our interviewees explained that when their parents preferred them to pursue a local career, prepare for the government examinations or else stay close to home, they faced significant challenges in persuading their parents to support their pursuit of IHE. Therefore, the differing perspectives of what constitutes the normative biography impacted the extent of parental support of children's IHE. This suggests that the value of IHE is determined by its capability to help participants conform to the normative biography at later life stages, emphasizing the interconnectedness of the three stages.
Discussion and Conclusion
During our interviews, the concept of the normative biography emerged as a significant theme underlying our participants’ interpretation of IHE fever. This normative biography refers to the collective life path prescribed for middle-class adults in their 20s and early 30s in mainland China. IHE is perceived as an efficient, prioritized and reliable pathway to facilitate these young adults’ adherence to the normative biography. More specifically, the normative biography has two distinct features: timing and interconnectedness. The importance attached to timing means there is an unalterable sequence and exact timeframe for three different life milestones for these young adults: they should be getting a “good” education in their early 20s, securing a “good” job in a megacity in their mid-20s, and starting a family in a megacity in their late 20s and early 30s. Thus, the pursuit of education is not only about the type of education pursued but also about the sequence and timing of it: it is only considered “good” when undertaken at the appropriate life stage. IHE is easier to access for children from middle-class families and is less competitive to enter. Thus, it can provide an opportunity for these young adults to obtain a “good” education at the right time. Moreover, the interconnectedness of the normative biography means that the level of education young adults can attain significantly determines the level of job they can secure and the tier of city they can settle down in. In China, there are collectively defined hierarchies in each of these three stages: university ranking, job hierarchy and city ranking. IHE is “good” in the sense that many overseas universities hold higher positions than domestic universities in the university rankings. Consequently, IHE can be key in reaching milestones at subsequent stages of the normative biography, ultimately facilitating young adults' aspirations to become cosmopolitan, modern and middle-class individuals, and preparing them to be good parents for the third generation.
The normative biography also influences parental support for IHE. In our research, we observed that parents were deeply committed to ensuring that their adult children adhered to the normative biography. Parents supported IHE when it occurred in their children's early to mid-20s, i.e. before they entered the workforce, if parents imagined the same cosmopolitan professional life for their children. Thus, the influence of this cultural norm for a young adult biography extends to intergenerational family expectations, prompting significant parental investment in IHE to ensure that children follow the “correct” path. Moreover, parents not only support their children's education but also their transition to the workplace and relocation to a megacity. The two generations also make concerted efforts to ensure that the third generation enjoys the benefits of having a “good” education, living in a “good” city and having a “good” job.
This paper has enriched our understanding of how China's modernity, as the broader sociocultural context, influences the IHE fever of its middle-class families. First, China's modernity features a strong collective characteristic, which may explain why the participants in this study exhibited a strong inclination towards following the normative biography. As some scholars argue, modernity in East Asian countries emerges as an unintended consequence of government-driven development initiatives with unified aims, and thus often finds expression through the cultural and discursive articulation of collective desires and aspirations.Footnote 51 Second, in line with the observations of other scholars, this paper also finds that Chinese middle-class families’ pursuit of the normative biography through IHE is moulded by rigid hierarchical norms, as reflected in their emphases on a megacity-centric lifestyle and university rankings.Footnote 52 A successful life path is collectively defined as a professional career and residency in a megacity at the right time of life, and IHE is viewed as a stepping stone towards achieving this. Third, China's modernity involves strong reciprocal intergenerational relationships, explaining why the pursuit of IHE is a familial endeavour. By leveraging their class advantages to access IHE as a shortcut to achieving this normative biography, middle-class parents can equip their children with the resources required to secure professional jobs and settle down in cosmopolises, and thereby reproduce their middle-class status.Footnote 53 Their use of IHE to reproduce class privilege resonates with the existing literature on IHE as a field of social reproduction.Footnote 54 However, much of that literature focuses on class habitus and distinctions, viewing IHE practices as a cosmopolitan consumption and lifestyle of the global middle class;Footnote 55 this is different from the normative biography that Chinese middle-class families aspire to. Therefore, while the existing literature has exemplified how IHE mobility is not an isolated phenomenon but is intricately connected to the broader sociocultural contexts (for example, uneven global power relations),Footnote 56 this paper contributes to the literature by showing how Chinese students’ IHE mobility is shaped by the normative biography in China.
While our study suggests that IHE mobility is a superior pathway to the normative biography, counterexamples also demonstrate the agency of students to negotiate with the normative biography through IHE mobility. For example, Rong's agency can be seen in her insistence on pursuing IHE, even though it was perceived by her parents as diverging from the normative biography. In her case, she believed that IHE could help her find a job in Shanghai and build a promising career, which she considered more important than getting married in her 30s, as dictated by the normative biography. This agency resonates with the reviewed literature on Chinese LGBTQ+ individuals who turn to the mobility offered by IHE to evade the heteronormativity in China.Footnote 57 However, while the literature has explored individuals’ agency in using IHE to evade rather than conform to the normativity, it has not adequately examined parents’ perceptions of IHE. Although Kam states that her research subjects received family support to pursue IHE, it remains unclear whether parents actively supported their children's international mobility to deviate from heteronormative paths, or whether this support resulted from children concealing their sexuality and life plans.Footnote 58 Thus, the relationship between IHE fever, parental support and normative biographies is complex and deserves further exploration.
Acknowledging the complexity and heterogeneity of international Chinese students, this paper suggests that future research should consider more diverse backgrounds when examining the influences of sociocultural structures on IHE practices. This paper draws mainly from interviews with students from middle-class families; it would be worthwhile to investigate students from other class backgrounds and those receiving less family support. Other scholars have shown that Chinese elite families who support their children's transnational middle-school education are looking for a “well-rounded” Western education and aspire to attain a more mobile and geographically flexible global middle-class status, which is in contrast to the normative biography pursued by participants in this study.Footnote 59 Thus, we encourage further exploration of how these aspirations are shaped by other political and social contexts and discourses, such as Western modernity, as characterized by individualism or by whiteness, which has been shown to influence educational practices.Footnote 60
Additionally, the changing sociopolitical context in China shapes the life events and stages within the normative biography and influences the definition of a “good” education. Future scholarship on the normative biography should adopt a fluid and time-sensitive approach to accommodate these sociopolitical changes. Finally, during our fieldwork, we noticed that IHE mobility has influenced students’ reflections on the normative biography and their valuation of education. We propose that the concept of the normative biography should be considered fluid and adaptable, subject to changes and reflexivity based on experiences. Therefore, although this study does not primarily focus on the impact of mobility, future research could explore how IHE may trigger reflexivity through other sociological lenses, such as agency.
Conflicts of interest
None.
Zhe WANG is a postdoctoral researcher at the department of education, University of Oxford. Her research focuses on international higher education, mobility, social and spatial inequality, and development, with a regional interest in China.
Xuerui HU holds a PhD in social sciences from the Social Research Institute, University College London. Her research interests include family studies, reproduction, sexuality and gender studies.
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