China's trailblazing foreign students

Chinese American writer Zha Jianying recounts her experience as one of the first students to leave China for the United States in the early 1980s following the Cultural Revolution. Emerging from a decade of educational collapse and political indoctrination, she navigated a complex, self-directed application process to secure a scholarship at the University of South Carolina. Her journey highlights the stark cultural and academic contrasts between the two nations, ranging from the isolationist environment of her youth to the open, critical discourse of American higher education. Despite the initial financial strain and language barriers, her academic path was eventually interrupted by the 1989 Tiananmen Square uprising, which prompted her permanent return to the United States. Today, she observes a shift in perspective among contemporary Chinese students, who increasingly view U.S.-China relations through a more nationalistic and power-oriented lens.