New Books Network Yingyi Ma, "Ambitious and Anxious: How Chinese College Students Succeed and Struggle in American Higher Education" (Columbia UP, 2020)
Apr 15, 2026
Yingyi Ma, sociologist and Syracuse University professor who studies Chinese students in U.S. higher education. She examines the surge of self-funded Chinese undergraduates, contrasting diverse pathways into U.S. colleges. She highlights classroom participation, social adjustment and loneliness, pragmatic major choices, and the complex stay-or-return mobility shaping their futures.
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Diverse Backgrounds But Shared Ambition And Anxiety
- The new wave of Chinese students is socioeconomically diverse, not uniformly 'rich kids'; both affluent boarding-school students and ordinary middle-class families send children abroad.
- Both groups share high ambition and significant anxiety, though aims differ (creative careers vs. quick labor-market returns).
Study Abroad As A New Education Gospel
- Ma contrasts the old Chinese 'Gaokao' gospel with a 'new education gospel' where studying abroad offers an alternative path and perceived liberation from test-focused pressure.
- Even Chinese university insiders, including professors, send children overseas, signaling belief in US education's superior value.
Four Stratified Pathways To US College
- Yingyi Ma identifies four stratified pathways to US undergrad study: full K-12 in Chinese public schools, international divisions within public schools, private/international schools in China, and US boarding high schools.
- Pathways differ by cost, language prep, and readiness for US classroom norms.
