StudentsACulturalPerspective.PDF

International Mobility of Chinese Students / W. Liu 41 CSSHE SCéES Canadian Journal of Higher Education Revue canadienne d’enseignement supérieur Volume 46, No. 4, 2016, pages 41 - 59 The International Mobility of Chinese Students: A Cultural Perspective Wei Liu University of Alberta Abstract Anyone hoping to understand China and Chinese people’s behaviour in the present day must examine China’s long history and culture, as these often have crystallized into current behavioural patterns. This paper discusses one important push-out factor for Chinese students’ outbound mobility, and an element that is ignored in many futuristic predictions of international stu- dent mobility: traditional Chinese educational culture. I conduct an in-depth analysis of three major aspects of Chinese educational culture in relation to Chinese students’ international mobility: the education-first culture, the sav- ing culture, and the extended-family culture. I argue that these three aspects will continue to drive Chinese students’ outbound mobility. Résumé Si on veut comprendre la Chine et le comportement de son peuple aujourd’hui, il faut repenser à la longue histoire et à la culture de ce pays. En effet, le passé du peuple chinois se cristallise souvent dans ses modèles de comportement actuels. Cet article aborde un élément important de la mobilité des étudiants chinois vers des pays étrangers, élément ignoré par de nombreuses prédictions futuristes quant à la mobilité des étudiants internationaux, notam