“I Just Came Here to Muddle Along”

Despite cold weather, few direct flights, and low popularity in China, Siberian universities successfully attract self-funded Chinese students. Due to low tuition and living costs, these regional universities enable Chinese and other international students from humbler economic backgrounds to receive education abroad. Our ethnography examines the adaptation strategies of Chinese students who study in Tomsk, a higher education hub in Siberia. To many, studying in Siberia is a short-term transition stage in their future professional trajectory. Students rarely familiarize themselves with study requirements or opportunities to diversify their social life. The predisposition not to adapt and limited socialization with the local community are connected with students’ temporariness. Chinese students’ self-understandings in Siberia show us that (non-)adaptation strategies and vocabularies get perpetuated discursively within the Chinese student community.