The Previous and Present Life of Study-abroad
In September 1872, six Chinese children aged between 10 and 16 years old reached the coast of California. According to Chinese Educational Commission Students in Qing Dynasty, this was the first group of Chinese students to study overseas. The kids with their long braids and Qing dynasty’s style robes, had their photo taken on arrival in San Francisco.
By 1880, the Qing government had sent about 50 Chinese students to study Western science and engineering in the United State under the suggestions of Yung Wing, who went abroad with a missionary and later became the first Chinese graduates of Yale University. To the surprise of the Americans, the Chinese kids all performed exceedingly well even though everything was taught in English. Twenty two of them went on to Yale University, eight to the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, three to Columbia University, and one to Harvard.
These kids later became pioneer eminent figures in 19th Century’s China and in the international community. What they didn’t know was that this was just the start of Chinese people’s aspiration to get a foreign education and hopefully, a bright future.
In the following century, it was either out of a thirst for knowledge, or simply that the diplomatic situation was favorable then, countless young people from China went to study in the USA, France, Japan, Germany and the Soviet Union.
Some of them stayed in those countries after they finished their education. They became the first generation of Chinese emigrants. Some went back to contributed their homeland with the advanced knowledge they gained overseas, the famous architect couple Liang Sicheng and Lin Huiyin, were one of them.
These very first generation of pioneers, especially those ones after May Fourth Student Movement, in which students across the China called for the emphasize of science and democracy, had become the chief source of Chinese people’s fantasy in oversea education: “a lot of students after the movement, bearing the mission of saving their country, went abroad and came back with advanced knowledge and broad horizon. They played important roles in the modern China’s history,” said Prof. Wang Qisheng, history professor of Peking University, in an article he submitted for China Scholars Abroad magazine.
“When I was little, I heard from my parents about how a peer of them were treated differently after he came back from the Soviet Union,” said a 48-year-old parent Ms Zhang: “it was such a glorious thing to be sent to abroad for education.”
How Study-abroad Agencies Started
In recent decades, the number of Chinese students who wish to study abroad has exploded. This, in turn, created business opportunities. English education institutions, visa helper centers and later study-abroad agencies, which act as one stop shops for students who want to go overseas, are now all over China
In 1978, when the Chinese government began Reform and Opening up, the 40-years’ break of Chinese education due to war and political instability was finally ended, families who could afford it, tried every which way to send their children abroad. The patriarch leader, Deng Xiaoping, expanded the quota of students who could go overseas from “around ten”, to “hundreds and thousands” (要成千上萬地派，不是只派十個八個").
In 1980, China began to grant approval for self-funded students to study abroad. Those seeking a foreign education increased ten times between 1983 and 1986, said a documentary about the history of oversea education done by Phoenix TV. Only one year later by 1987, 100 thousand Chinese students went abroad for education.
According to Prof.Wang’s analysis, over 220 thousands student went to over 100 different countries and regions for education during 1978 to 2000, covered almost every science and social science majors.
In late 1980s and early 1990s, many institutions opened up to prepare students for life outside China. Not only did they provide English classes, they also arranged applications to schools and universities overseas and helped with visa preparation. New Oriental Education, the biggest English education institution in China today with more than 67 branch offices now, was founded at that time.
A major obstacle for Chinese students in that period was a lack of access to information on education institutions overseas. They didn’t know how to apply nor did they know what would happen once they went abroad.
Agents, consultants and so-called “foreign ambassadors” then appeared. They worked for English education companies and helped to sort out applications for the students.
The lack of regulation on how these companies and agents operate led to cases of fraud and exploitation of families who aspired for a better future for their children.
