Student Union
Isolation Increases Anxiety for Chinese Students in US
During her first year in college, Yiping Zhong began to have panic attacks every time she walked into class.
For the Beijing native attending Macalester College in St. Paul, Minnesota, the panic attacks were just one symptom of the deep depression she had sunk into since arriving at college in the United States. In addition to binge eating and debilitating stomachaches, she often struggled to get out of bed in the morning and missed weeks of class.
"I start to cry every night," she said, describing the illness, "I don't know why. Every day when it would come to that time, I just start crying for no reason."
Zhong's experience is not uncommon among the more than 300,000 Chinese international students studying in the United States. A study conducted at Yale University in 2013 found that about 45% of Chinese students there experienced depression, while 29% experienced anxiety. Yale's findings echoed that of other colleges, suggesting that many Chinese students — like other foreign students — are at risk for serious mental health issues.
Studying in America as an international student can be lonely and alienating.
"We feel like we don't own this space because we are guests, or we come from the outside," said Ryan Tian from Suzhou, China, a second-year student at Columbia University in New York City. "We would fear that people who live here, own this country or own this space, Americans, would judge us for not understanding their culture."
Tian said that between Chinese international students and domestic students there is a "sense of strangeness from both groups" that can prevent Chinese students from feeling comfortable at American colleges and universities.
"For (Chinese students) who don't understand another country, they would just assume that people have a hostile sentiment because of the trade war or because of the economic and political stuff," Tian said, referring to political tensions between the U.S. and China.
Fear of a new environment, cultural adjustment and homesickness were found to be among the main challenges faced by Chinese international students in a 2017 study conducted by Syracuse University professors Yue Zhang ABD and Eunjoo Jung Ed.D. This was exacerbated by difficulty with English and academic pressure, the study said.
For Tian, pressure also comes from elders who constantly remind their children that you "have to find a very good job and make a ton of money."
Yet, Tian said, international students suffer from a lack of nearby family members and friends to turn to for academic support and career opportunities.
"It's very hard because of the visa policies and the lack of networking and connections in this country," he said. "That also adds another layer of pressure to international students. They want to achieve the same success, is how people view it, as domestic students, but they don't really have the same resources."
"Our parents didn't go to college in this country and they don't know how to navigate the system," Tian added.
Being unfamiliar with American culture also places some Chinese international students at a disadvantage among their domestic peers.
"American humor and Chinese humor is totally different." Zhong explained. "Sometimes, people are laughing, and I don't know why they're laughing. Like, why?' Why is that funny?"
Mental health resources can be hard to reach for students not used to having them available. In Chinese culture, a stigma exists about needing mental health support.
"In China, going to a therapist for your mental health problems is not a really popular thing to do. And a lot of times, people would judge you, basically," said Ivy Li, a sophomore at New York University who is originally from Beijing.
Academic pressure in fierce in China. But the emotional strain as a result of this pressure is not acknowledged in Chinese culture.
"A lot of us came from a background where mental health discussions are not a frequent topic in everyday life," Tian explained. "It's even sometimes a social stigma if you show mental vulnerability."
Tian said he believes that de-stigmatizing mental health challenges can help Chinese students.
"I think to overcome the psychological barrier in order to be able to be brave enough to embrace mental health issues, and to talk about mental health issues, is really important," he said.
To Wang, progress can be found in "more awareness and people feeling more comfortable talking about it or just seeking help, knowing where to find resources."
Student groups also can be helpful, said Li.
"For Chinese students, there's the CSSA (Chinese Student and Scholars Association). ... For people who come here for the first time, it's definitely more important to find a student body group that really knows who you are and where you're from."
Some American colleges have mental health resources.
Columbia University, for example, has a full range of services available to students through Columbia Health's Counseling and Psychological Services unit.
"The team is well-equipped to support the mental health needs of international students, yes. And also the diverse backgrounds of domestic students — we have more than 60 providers who collectively speak 16 languages and are from a variety of racial, cultural, and social backgrounds with training in a number of therapeutic methodologies to address student needs," said Gayle Gatchalian, a representative at Columbia.
With the help of counseling and supportive relationships, Zhong said she is preparing for her junior year, and says she feels healthier and more optimistic.
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- By Dylan Ebs
International students find community during Pride Month
For LGBTQ+ international students, Pride Month, observed in June, is a unique time to reflect.
They hold on to multiple identities — both their LGBTQ+ identity and their cultural background — but coming to terms with them is not always easy.
For graduate student David Zhou, these identities can feel conflicting as transgender rights in China remain a controversial issue and spaces for LGBTQ people close. Zhou, 25, is transgender and pursuing an education in the STEM field at an urban university in the Midwestern United States.
VOA is using a pseudonym for Zhou’s first name and is not naming his university to protect his identity due to safety concerns back home in China. Zhou is not open about his transgender identity to his family.
During Pride Month, Zhou said he attended multiple LGBTQ+ events in his community and is surrounded by a supportive group of LGBTQ+ students who can relate to his experiences. But he’s not open about his identity to everyone on campus and said he doesn’t disclose his preferred pronouns to everyone to avoid transphobic comments.
“I feel like I have to make some judgments of the character of that person to see if they’re a good person to disclose [my identity] to,” Zhou said.
Zhou’s Pride Month celebrations included attending local markets with LGBTQ+ vendors and hanging out with his LGBTQ+ friends.
“They normalized being trans and for a long time I feel like trans identity is, should I say a vulnerability, brings me fear and worrying about discrimination, but having those events are helpful because it allowed me to see that queer people could just [live] openly,” he said.
At social events where few international students are present, Zhou said it can be tough to fit in.
“There's a lot of times like when they were talking about things I kind of, don't really understand, mostly because I kind of lack some background experience or knowledge,” he said.
Zhou said he is not aware of specific groups for LGBTQ+ international students at his university, but said international students are more prevalent in graduate programs and therefore find representation in organizations for LGBTQ+ graduate students.
In China, transgender individuals must obtain consent from an “immediate family member,” even for adults hoping to transition, which critics say limits the autonomy of transgender individuals while supporters say the policy protects doctors from violence by upset parents.
Struby Struble, a former coordinator of the University of Missouri LGBTQ+ Resource Center, told NAFSA: Association of International Educators in 2015 that LGBTQ+ international students face a “double barrier” on campus.
“With their international student friends, they feel isolated because they’re the LGBT one,” she said. “But then among the LGBT students on campus, they feel isolated because they’re the international one.”
Nick Martin, associate director of the Q Center, Binghamton University’s LGBTQ+ student support office, said when international students tour the center, there’s often a sense of hesitation as they enter a type of space that may not be present in their home country.
“I compare that to a year in after they've come into the space, they've again, maybe come to some of our events, they've got more connected,” he said.
Martin said graduate students have a unique interest in the Q Center as they may use the office for research and advocacy purposes that align with their studies.
“For older students, there may be hesitancy in a different way, but I think it's more in the vein of they want to do some of the advocacy work,” he said.
Martin said he thinks about how both his office and BU’s international student office can support students who come from countries with few — if any — protections for LGBTQ+ individuals.
“It's been a learning process of what those students really need, but I think I've kind of learned that a lot of students are just looking for the safe space that we offer,” Martin said.
- By VOA News
International students discuss US campus culture shock
International students at De Anza College in Cupertino, California, talked about culture shock in an article in La Voz News, the student newspaper.
"It felt like a major culture shock. Everything was so different, from academics to mannerism," said a student from Mexico.
Read the full story here.
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- By Stella Hsu
Reports of visa checks, deportations worry Chinese STEM students in US
Geopolitical tensions and growing competition in tech between the United States and China appear to be spilling over into academia despite commitments from the world’s two biggest economies to boost people-to-people exchanges.
The United States remains the top choice for Chinese students seeking to study abroad with nearly 300,000 studying in American colleges and universities during the 2022-2023 school year. But reports of some cases that students and professors are facing extra scrutiny while passing through immigration and the deportation of others are raising concerns.
For Chen Xiaojin, a doctoral student studying semiconductor materials at a university in the Washington, D.C., metropolitan area, it has been six years since she returned to her hometown of Beijing.
At first, it was the COVID-19 pandemic that kept her from going home. But over the past two years, she has been deterred by accounts of Chinese students majoring in science and engineering being required to reapply for their visas upon returning to China.
She also says she is worried by reports over the past six months of Chinese students being deported, even at nearby Dulles Airport.
"My current research is relatively sensitive, and my boss [adviser] is getting funds from the U.S. Department of Defense, making it even more sensitive,” she told VOA. "I am afraid that I won't be able to return after I go back [to China]."
Chen says that if she did return to China, she would have to apply for a new visa.
In a report late last month, Bloomberg said it had found at least 20 Chinese students and scholars with valid visas who were deported at U.S. Customs since November and barred from reentry. The U.S. Customs and Border Protection Agency does not release relevant data.
Immigration attorney Dan Berger represented one Chinese student who was deported late last year. He tells VOA Mandarin that the student studied biological sciences at Yale University and was about to complete her doctorate.
She visited her family in China and got a new visa but was deported by customs at Dulles Airport and barred from reentering the country for five years. Berger said he did not see anything suspicious in the transcript of the conversation between the student and the customs officer.
"We have seen what seems like a pattern over the last six months of Chinese PhD students being turned around…. more than I've seen in quite a while," he said.
Matthew Brazil, a fellow at the Jamestown Foundation, said neither country seems willing to explain the situation. However, he believes that in most cases, the United States must have valid reasons for blocking visa holders from entering the country.
In some cases, the student’s background may not match what is written on the visa application. In other cases, customs agents may also find something that the State Department missed, and once they see it, they are responsible for taking action.
"I wish the Chinese side would be specific about their students who were refused entry,” he said. “The fact that both sides are mum on details and that the Chinese side is engaged with the usual angry rhetoric means that each has security concerns. And that says to me that there was good reason for the U.S. to stop these particular applicants."
Brazil also sees a connection between the entry denials and export control regulations issued by the United States in October 2022 that restrict China's ability to obtain advanced computing chips, develop and maintain supercomputers, and manufacture advanced semiconductors.
U.S. Customs and Border Protection is one of the law enforcement agencies authorized to investigate violations of export control regulations, he said.
"Beijing's intelligence agencies are known to focus attention on PRC [People's Republic of China] students and scientists headed abroad who study or work on dual-use technologies controlled under the Export Administration Act — compelling Chinese students and scientists to report on what they've learned when they return to China on holiday,” he said. “This has been true for decades."
Bill Drexel, a fellow for the Technology and National Security Program at the Center for a New American Security, said the U.S. government did find some cases where students tried to steal strategic technology for China.
"I think it would both not be surprising that they found some really questionable or incriminating evidence for some students,” he said. “It would also not be surprising if, in their hunt for really solid evidence, they also may have made some mistakes on other students.”
Drexel adds that “it’s just kind of an unfortunate fact of the time that we live in and the tactics that the CCP uses when it comes to these measures."
In a post on X in early May, U.S. ambassador to China Nicholas Burns tried to dispel concerns about visas and entry to the United States for students and scholars. In the post, he said "99.9% of Chinese students holding visas encounter no issues upon entering the United States.”
In an interview with The Wall Street Journal Monday, Burns said it is China that is making it impossible to promote people-to-people ties. Burns told the Journal that students attending events sponsored by the United States in China have been interrogated and intimidated.
He also said that since U.S. President Joe Biden and China’s leader Xi Jinping held their summit in San Francisco last year, China’s Ministry of State Security and other agencies had interfered with Chinese citizens’ participation at some 61 events.
At a regular briefing on Wednesday, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Mao Ning dismissed those accusations, saying that they did not “reflect reality" and that went against key understandings reached by both countries’ presidents in San Francisco.
“The United States, under the pretext of 'national security,' unjustifiably harasses, interrogates, and deports Chinese students in the U.S., causing them significant harm and creating a severe chilling effect,” Mao said. “The image of the United States in the minds of the Chinese people fundamentally depends on the actions of the United States itself.”
Drexel said he believes Burns’ comments about visas and students' willingness to study in the U.S. still ring true.
“On balance, it's still the case that American universities are overwhelmingly warm towards Chinese students and want them in large numbers," he said.
However, Berger, the immigration lawyer, is concerned about the chilling effect recent cases involving Chinese students could have.
"In general, we are being more careful about advising Chinese graduate students in STEM fields about traveling and letting them know that there is some small risk,” he said.
Even though the risk is small, it does seem to be real at the moment, he said.
Adrianna Zhang contributed to this report.
