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This article investigates how the desire for Western credentials and transnational mobility reconcile with strong nationalist sentiments among Chinese students and how Chinese students’ overseas educational experiences are largely structured by the People’s Republic of China (PRC). Through a 12-month transnational ethnography study of 15 Chinese students migrating between China’s Pearl River Delta and the US Midwest, I argue that transnational education has become a crucial part of China’s nation-building in the era of intensified globalization. The seemingly contradictory existence of the transnational desire for Western education and rising nationalist sentiments work jointly in the neoliberal market economy to build entrepreneurial individuals, who are expected to contribute to China’s economic growth as well as political rejuvenation. This article reveals that transnationalism is, by no means, the opposing force of nationalism. On the contrary, the movement, mobility, and fluidity endowed by transnationalism could enhance the migrants’ national identity and political intolerance.
Shanshan Jiang (Mon,) studied this question.