Paradise Redefined: Transnational Chinese Students and the Quest for Flexible Citizenship in the Developed World

In 2004, Vanessa Fong offered a groundbreaking ethnographic exploration of the social, economic, and psychological development of children born since China's one-child policy was introduced in 1979. Her book Only Hope left readers with a picture of stressed, ambitious adolescents for whom elite status was the ultimate goal, though relatively few were in a position to achieve it.

In Paradise Redefined, Fong tracks the experiences of many in her initial cohort of Chinese only-children—now col...