Dreams of Flight: The Lives of Chinese Women Students in the West

by Fran Martin

Overview

In Dreams of Flight, Fran Martin explores how young Chinese women negotiate competing pressures on their identity while studying abroad. On one hand, unmarried middle-class women in the single-child generations are encouraged to develop themselves as professional human capital through international education, molding themselves into independent, cosmopolitan, career-oriented individuals. On the other, strong neotraditionalist state, social, and familial pressures of the post-Mao era push them back toward marriage and family by age thirty. Martin examines these women’s motivations for studying in Australia and traces their embodied and emotional experiences of urban life, social media worlds, work in low-skilled and professional jobs, romantic relationships, religion, Chinese patriotism, and changed self-understanding after study abroad. Martin illustrates how emerging forms of gender, class, and mobility fundamentally transform the basis of identity for a whole generation of Chinese women.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781478014935
Publisher:	Duke University Press
Publication date:	02/22/2022
Pages:	368
Product dimensions:	6.00(w) x 9.00(h) x 0.81(d)

About the Author

Fran Martin is Reader in Cultural Studies at the University of Melbourne, author of Backward Glances: Contemporary Chinese Cultures and the Female Homoerotic Imaginary, and coauthor of Telemodernities: Television and Transforming Lives in Asia, both also published by Duke UniversityPress.

Table of Contents

Preface: After Mobility?  ix
Acknowledgments  xi
Introduction: Worlds in Motion  1
1. Before Study: Dreams of Flight  35
2. Place: Welcome to Melvillage  57
3. Media: Connection and Encapsulation  97
4. Work: Emplacement, Mobility, and Value  128
5. Sexuality: Liminal Times  161
6. Faith: Spirits of Movement  190
7. Patriotism: Feeling Global Chineseness  215
8. After Study: Moving On, Moving Up, Moving Out  247
Conclusion: Unsettled Dreams  279
Notes  297
Works Cited  311
Index  347

Editorial Reviews

Fran Martin describes with great sensitivity and empathy how it feels to be a ‘Chinese international student’ in a Western metropolis and how their ‘dreams of flight’—away from the strictures of neotraditional femininity and toward an aspired mobile, cosmopolitan self—must navigate the impositions of family, gender, race, and nation. In a time of rising tensions between China and the West, Dreams of Flight reminds us of the human ordinariness and heterogeneity of people who are all-too-easily homogenized and ostracized as ‘the Chinese.’”—Ien Ang, author of, On Not Speaking Chinese: Living between Asia and the West

“Dreams of Flight exemplifies the best in theoretically engaged ethnography. It tells the stories of the research participants in a beautiful, lyrical way while making nuanced and sophisticated theoretical arguments based on their experiences. It also offers a deeper understanding of Chinese students in Australia, a country that is understudied in the literature on transnational Chinese students, most of which focuses on the United States and the United Kingdom. Specialists in China studies, migration studies, international education, anthropology, and sociology will all welcome this outstanding work.”—Vanessa L. Fong, author of, Paradise Redefined: Transnational Chinese Students and the Quest for Flexible Citizenship in the Developed World

"[Martin's] offers a unique blend of ethnographic observation, individual narrative, and theoretical considerations and is an excellent addition to the field of gender studies and the study of educational mobility."—Zeyi Liu, Journal of International Women's Studies

"This remarkable book provides a rare deep dive into the lives of a group of people who are often the subject of unfounded stereotypes and misunderstanding. . . . Very seldom do we have the opportunity to hear from Chinese students themselves about their lives, experiences, and worldviews. . . . This book provides a deep sense of the complexities and contradictions inherent in transnational mobility, showing us the dangers of simple narratives, and most of all, allowing the everyday humanity of Chinese students to shine through."—Christina Ho, Pacific Affairs

"Dreams of Flight is an invaluable resource for scholars, advanced undergraduates, and graduate students seeking a comparison or contrast to these present circumstances, a pleasurable and informative ethnography, and stimulating discussions of its themes and relevant theories."—Arianne M. Gaetano, Feminist Encounters

"Dreams of Flight needs to be read as an incredibly rich and rewarding contribution to the understanding of the increasing entanglement of international education with migration trajectories. . . . Dreams of Flight will prove invaluable for scholars who are seeking to understand their interlocutors’ trajectories from the perspective of both home and host country as they navigate multiple alliances, expectations and dreams."—Michiel Baas, Journal of Development Studies

“[Martin's] in-depth ethnography and vivid case studies of these young Chinese women experiencing global mobility make Dreams of Flight an excellent resource for those interested in migration studies, international education, gender studies, anthropology, sociology, and China studies.”—Bei Zhang, Resources for Gender and Women's Studies

"An engaging and original ethnographic exploration . . . .  Dreams of Flight innovatively contributes to understanding both Chinese student migration in transnational destinations and social developments in contemporary China.”—Z.M. Howlett, Asian Journal of Social Science

“Martin has provided an immensely readable account of the hopes, dreams, and inner turmoil single-child women are experiencing as they question their upbringing.”—William Jankowiak, NAN NÜ

From the Publisher

Fran Martin describes with great sensitivity and empathy how it feels to be a ‘Chinese international student’ in a Western metropolis and how their ‘dreams of flight’—away from the strictures of neotraditional femininity and toward an aspired mobile, cosmopolitan self—must navigate the impositions of family, gender, race, and nation. In a time of rising tensions between China and the West, Dreams of Flight reminds us of the human ordinariness and heterogeneity of people who are all-too-easily homogenized and ostracized as ‘the Chinese.’

On Not Speaking Chinese: Living between Asia and the West - Ien Ang

Martin has provided an immensely readable account of the hopes, dreams, and inner turmoil single-child women are experiencing as they question their upbringing.

NAN NÜ - William Jankowiak

"Dreams of Flight needs to be read as an incredibly rich and rewarding contribution to the understanding of the increasing entanglement of international education with migration trajectories. . . . Dreams of Flight will prove invaluable for scholars who are seeking to understand their interlocutors’ trajectories from the perspective of both home and host country as they navigate multiple alliances, expectations and dreams."

Journal of Development Studies - Michiel Baas

"An engaging and original ethnographic exploration . . . .  Dreams of Flight innovatively contributes to understanding both Chinese student migration in transnational destinations and social developments in contemporary China.

Asian Journal of Social Science - Z.M. Howlett

[Martin's] in-depth ethnography and vivid case studies of these young Chinese women experiencing global mobility make Dreams of Flight an excellent resource for those interested in migration studies, international education, gender studies, anthropology, sociology, and China studies.

Resources for Gender and Women's Studies - Bei Zhang

"Dreams of Flight is an invaluable resource for scholars, advanced undergraduates, and graduate students seeking a comparison or contrast to these present circumstances, a pleasurable and informative ethnography, and stimulating discussions of its themes and relevant theories."

Feminist Encounters - Arianne M. Gaetano

"This remarkable book provides a rare deep dive into the lives of a group of people who are often the subject of unfounded stereotypes and misunderstanding. . . . Very seldom do we have the opportunity to hear from Chinese students themselves about their lives, experiences, and worldviews. . . . This book provides a deep sense of the complexities and contradictions inherent in transnational mobility, showing us the dangers of simple narratives, and most of all, allowing the everyday humanity of Chinese students to shine through."

Pacific Affairs - Christina Ho

Dreams of Flight exemplifies the best in theoretically engaged ethnography. It tells the stories of the research participants in a beautiful, lyrical way while making nuanced and sophisticated theoretical arguments based on their experiences. It also offers a deeper understanding of Chinese students in Australia, a country that is understudied in the literature on transnational Chinese students, most of which focuses on the United States and the United Kingdom. Specialists in China studies, migration studies, international education, anthropology, and sociology will all welcome this outstanding work.

Paradise Redefined: Transnational Chinese Students and the Quest for Flexible Citizenship in the Developed World - Vanessa L. Fong

"[Martin's] offers a unique blend of ethnographic observation, individual narrative, and theoretical considerations and is an excellent addition to the field of gender studies and the study of educational mobility."

Journal of International Women's Studies - Zeyi Liu

"Dreams of Flight needs to be read as an incredibly rich and rewarding contribution to the understanding of the increasing entanglement of international education with migration trajectories. . . . Dreams of Flight will prove invaluable for scholars who are seeking to understand their interlocutors’ trajectories from the perspective of both home and host country as they navigate multiple alliances, expectations and dreams."

Journal of Development Studies - Fran Martin