Event: Checking in on China’s ‘Parachute Generation’

Sixth Tone Agora is a series of public events, includinglectures and expert roundtables, organized by Sixth Tone. It is an opportunity to meet and engage with some of contemporary China’s most interesting and innovative thinkers, academics, and writers.

The next Agora event will take place at Duoyun Books · Theater Store from 14:00 p.m. to 16:00 p.m., June 18, 2023. Tu Siqi, a postdoctoral research fellow at NYU Shanghai, will give a talk on China’s “parachute generation” and transnational education.

The lecture is in English. Slots must be reserved in advance. Entry fee: 40 yuan. The fee will be refunded as a coupon for the store’s café (valid until June 30).

Abstract:

There were more than 46,000 Chinese studying in American high schools in 2015, up from just 637 a decade prior. The New York Times Magazine called them China’s “parachute generation”; in Chinese, they’re known as the “little study abroad-ers.” But for all the enthusiasm for overseas education among Chinese families, we still know very little about these students’ lives.

Tu Siqi, a postdoctoral researcher at NYU Shanghai and the author of the forthcoming “Destination Diploma: How Chinese Upper-Middle Class families ‘Outsource’ Secondary Education to the United States,” has conducted over 100 in-depth interviews with Chinese parents, students, and educational consultants. Starting with a discussion of the 2017 documentary “Maineland,” Tu will share her perspective on Chinese families’ experiences of life between the U.S. and China, the aspirations and trajectories of parachute kids, and the rise of alternative options for transnational education, including Thailand and Malaysia.

SPEAKER:Tu Siqi

Bio:Tu Siqi is a postdoctoral research fellow at the Center for Applied Social and Economic Research at NYU Shanghai and was a postdoctoral research fellow at the Department of Ethics, Law, and Politics of the Max Planck Institute for the Study of Religious and Ethnic Diversity. Her work focuses on issues of global citizenship, elite education, international (im)mobility, migration, and the political economy of global cities.

Scan the QR code to make a reservation and find out more about the event.