Chinese students at U.K. universities: Transnational education mobilities as a stepping-stone to adulthood

Abstract

This article explores transnational Chinese students' education migration to the United Kingdom through a lifecourse perspective. Drawing on in-depth interviews with 43 transnational Chinese graduates from U.K. universities, I found that participants regarded their transnational education migration as a stepping-stone to adulthood. Influenced by the mobilities paradigm, this paper elaborates on the transitions to adulthood experienced by transnational Chinese students. The findings illustrate how transnational education mobilities transform social networks, in which transnational Chinese students rehearse their role as an adult in everyday social interactions, and how the intersection of Confucian collectivism and students' class background influences their experiences and understandings of transitions to adulthood. Therefore, this paper advances existing scholarship on transnational Chinese students by proposing a lifecourse perspective and exemplifies the complexities of mobile youth's lifecourse transitions by emphasising the cultural and social construction of transnational Chinese students' adulthood.