Growing up in China, Hailun “Helen” Zhou always knew that she would finish her high-school education in the US, whatever the cost.
“That’s what everybody does,” said the 17-year-old from Sichuan Province who has spent the last two years studying in California and is to graduate this spring. “My father’s friends all sent their kids abroad, so that was the trend.”
Zhou is among a growing number of Chinese teenagers who are flocking to US high schools, looking for a Western education and a competitive edge in gaining admission to US universities and then finding a job back home.
However, the pursuit of the US dream can quickly turn into a nightmare, experts say, as many of these so-called “parachute kids” live in the US with little parental supervision and can end up in trouble — and even in prison.
“It’s a huge industry,” said Joaquin Lim, who runs a company that helps place Chinese students in US schools. “The last figure I read put it at US$25 billion.”
Of nearly 1 million international students enrolled in public and private institutions in the US between 2014 and last year, about 304,000 — or 31.2 percent — were from China, according to the Washington-based Institute of International Education.
About 30,000 of those students attended secondary schools, compared with fewer than 1,000 a decade ago.
The majority of these “parachute kids” aged between 14 and 19 land in southern California. For the most part, they attend Catholic or Christian schools because of restrictions by the US government on foreign student enrollment at public schools.
In cities such as Murrieta, the number of Chinese students has ballooned in recent years, bringing welcome cash to the school district, as well as to the host families who care for the teens.
“It costs about US$50,000 a year for the parents, who are mostly middle class, to send their kids here, but they consider it an investment,” Lim said. “Three years ago, we had about 40 Chinese students enrolled in high schools in Murrieta and today we have more than 300 and the number keeps growing.”
Most of the teens adjust well to US life, said Renate Jefferson, who oversees the exchange program for the public school district.
“What they notice first is the blue sky,” she said. “They just walk around in awe at the blue sky. They think it’s beautiful.”
The students are also baffled by the freedom they enjoy academically and the artistic outlets available to them — a welcome change from the rigorous, numbers-obsessed learning system in China.
“If there is one word to describe life here, it’s the word ‘free,’” said Junheng “Carl” Li, 19, who is graduating this year from a Catholic school in Murrieta. “You have a lot of choices and much more freedom to study what you’re interested in.”
However, many of these students are in for a hard landing in the US, ill-equipped to navigate the cultural transition and their newfound independence.
Last month, three Chinese teenagers enrolled at a private school in Rowland Heights — a neighborhood east of Los Angeles that has a large Chinese diaspora — were given stiff prison sentences for attacking two other teenagers.
A judge at the preliminary hearing said the case reminded him of Lord of the Flies.
The incident attracted widespread attention in China and prompted soul-searching on the wisdom of sending teenagers to a foreign country with no close parental supervision.
“You don’t send your child 6,000 miles before verifying the school and who they are staying with,” Lim said. “Too often, these kids are thrown into a completely foreign environment and are not prepared to fend for themselves.”
Police sergeant Steven Perez, who was involved in the Rowland Heights case, said officers are increasingly finding teenagers out on their own at night or even living in homes bought by their parents with little or no adult guidance.
“You basically have kids who are managing themselves and have no one to answer to,” Perez said. “Or you have kids basically renting a room where they are residents and they are not accountable to those people either.”
Evan Freed, an attorney who represented one of the Rowland Heights teenagers who was sentenced to 13 years in prison, said the case should serve as a wake-up call to parents that they could be setting their kids up for disaster rather than a bright future.
“As my client told the court — she felt lost, she felt sad that her family wasn’t here and that she basically took advantage of the freedom that she had,” Freed said.
‘IN A DIFFERENT PLACE’: The envoy first visited Shanghai, where he attended a Chinese basketball playoff match, and is to meet top officials in Beijing tomorrow US Secretary of State Antony Blinken yesterday arrived in China on his second visit in a year as the US ramps up pressure on its rival over its support for Russia while also seeking to manage tensions with Beijing. The US diplomat tomorrow is to meet China’s top brass in Beijing, where he is also expected to plead for restraint as Taiwan inaugurates president-elect William Lai (賴清德), and to raise US concerns on Chinese trade practices. However, Blinken is also seeking to stabilize ties, with tensions between the world’s two largest economies easing since his previous visit in June last year. At the
Nearly half of China’s major cities are suffering “moderate to severe” levels of subsidence, putting millions of people at risk of flooding, especially as sea levels rise, according to a study of nationwide satellite data released yesterday. The authors of the paper, published by the journal Science, found that 45 percent of China’s urban land was sinking faster than 3mm per year, with 16 percent at more than 10mm per year, driven not only by declining water tables, but also the sheer weight of the built environment. With China’s urban population already in excess of 900 million people, “even a small portion
UNSETTLING IMAGES: The scene took place in front of TV crews covering the Trump trial, with a CNN anchor calling it an ‘emotional and unbelievably disturbing moment’ A man who doused himself in an accelerant and set himself on fire outside the courthouse where former US president Donald Trump is on trial has died, police said yesterday. The New York City Police Department (NYPD) said the man was declared dead by staff at an area hospital. The man was in Collect Pond Park at about 1:30pm on Friday when he took out pamphlets espousing conspiracy theories, tossed them around, then doused himself in an accelerant and set himself on fire, officials and witnesses said. A large number of police officers were nearby when it happened. Some officers and bystanders rushed
Beijing is continuing to commit genocide and crimes against humanity against Uyghurs and other Muslim minorities in its western Xinjiang province, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said in a report published on Monday, ahead of his planned visit to China this week. The State Department’s annual human rights report, which documents abuses recorded all over the world during the previous calendar year, repeated language from previous years on the treatment of Muslims in Xinjiang, but the publication raises the issue ahead of delicate talks, including on the war in Ukraine and global trade, between the top U.S. diplomat and Chinese