China’s ‘parachute kids’: young, determined, but not always prepared据美国《洛杉矶时报》网站11月21日报道，每年，900万中国学生争夺着700万大学名额。而大约100万被大学拒之门外的人会选择出国留学。2015年，其中的30万人来到了美国。 报道称，然而，越来越多年纪越来越小的学生正在离开中国的教育制度。过去10年间，就读美国中学的中国学生人数从1200人跃升到5.2万人。在这群因为没有家人陪伴而被称为“降落伞孩子”的学生中，超过四分之一在加利福尼亚州。 全球化和快速的致富使得中国两大传统价值观陷入困境：家庭和教育。 大多数在美国学习的中国未成年人都生活在寄宿家庭中：一个熟人、朋友或者从网上认识的陌生人，同意以每月约1000美元的价格给学生提供食宿和照顾。他们形成一个巨大的、不受监管的代理监护行业，主要依靠寄宿家庭的善意来确保学生的安全和健康。 教育专家认为，因为在成长阶段与他们的家人和所属的文化分离，这些“降落伞孩子”更容易被孤立、更有侵略性、焦虑、抑郁和自杀。寄宿家庭和学校难以复制这些学生在中国可能获得的支持。不能辜负父母投资所带来的压力则带来了更大的挑战。 It used to be that Chinese students in American schools were largely limited to graduate students, independently making the decision to live and study abroad. Gradually that trend shifted, with more students coming from China to earn bachelor’s degrees at American institutions. Now, the population is widening once again, with vast numbers of Chinese students studying in the U.S. from ever-younger ages. Bill Zhou is a resident of Rowland Heights, California, though he was born in Shenzhen. Zhou and his wife are currently housing just such a student: Hsu, also from Shenzhen, who is living with Zhou (a paid arrangement) while he attends Southlands Christian School, a private, religious institution. Although Zhou is a caring and solicitous guardian for Hsu, he knows there are many people taking advantage of the trend who are far less conscientious than he is. In a recent Lost Angeles Times article, Zhou described his reservations about the current system – or lack thereof. “They don’t know if the school is good. They don’t know if the home stay is good. But everyone else is doing it, so they do it, too,” Zhou said, addressing the parents of so-called parachute children, who earn the nickname by “parachuting” into the U.S. by themselves, unaccompanied by family. After placing his ad for a home stay, Zhou received replies from parents of children as young as 6, expressing interesting in his offer, according to the article. Based on statistics, Zhou has reason to be concerned. A recent article in Sixth Tone, sister site of Thepaper.cn, cited data from U.S. Immigrations and Customs Enforcement, which stated that the number of Chinese students enrolled at U.S. secondary schools increased from just 637 in 2005 to more than 46,000 in 2015. Currently, Chinese students make up half of all international students in the American secondary education system. Those numbers are reflected in Chinese society and even popular culture, where a new television drama titled “A Love for Separation” debuted several months ago, according to Sixth Tone. But even as the choice to send young teenagers abroad becomes more accepted and popular, some worry that neither parents nor the parachute children themselves quite know what they’re getting themselves into. “It is a common misunderstanding that studying in a private American high school is easier than school in China,’ the mother of a Chinese student currently enrolled at an American prep school told the author of the Sixth Tone article. “My son is under enormous pressure to compete with accomplished peers. He was very lonely during his first year of high school, and found it hard to assimilate into an unfamiliar environment.” Chinese parents send their teenagers abroad for a variety of reasons. For some students, it is to escape the rigid Chinese education system; for others, it is a second chance to recover from bad grades or a low score on China’s college entrance exam. For still others, it is simply a lifelong dream – one which doting parents are loathe to deny. This trend isn’t going anywhere soon, judging from the latest statistics. What could and should increase, however, is the understanding of what it means to be a parachute child: bright, brave, and perhaps just a little bit reckless. |
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