Dennis T. Yang is associate director for the Beijing Gateway Office at Boston University.

Employing an ethnographic approach, Yang examines the cultural and social reasons that drive the steady influx of Chinese students onto US campuses for their undergraduate degrees. The author applies the Wisconsin model of status attainment and Bourdieu’s capital theory as his theoretical framework and analyzes firsthand data from interviews with students, parents, teachers, and educational agents in Shanghai. After a thorough discussion of the influence of significant others’ values and expectations on students’ pursuit of cultural, social, and economic capitals in their educational attainment processes, Yang argues that the impetus for beginning an overseas educational path is a cultural determination to preserve, protect, and promote the mianzi (face, social reputation, and prestige) for students and their families. The book is well written with rich information and eye-opening analysis. It will give readers valuable insight into understanding the surge of Chinese students on US campuses. Summing Up: Highly recommended. All levels/libraries.

• Chapter1: Reaching for the Chinese DreamChapter 2: Theoretical FrameworkChapter 3: Cheeseheads, Colleges, and Chinese ParentsChapter 4: Chinese Forms of CapitalChapter 5: Mianzi, Motivations, and Higher Education

Dennis T. Yang is associate director for the Beijing Gateway Office at Boston University.

Employing an ethnographic approach, Yang examines the cultural and social reasons that drive the steady influx of Chinese students onto US campuses for their undergraduate degrees. The author applies the Wisconsin model of status attainment and Bourdieu’s capital theory as his theoretical framework and analyzes firsthand data from interviews with students, parents, teachers, and educational agents in Shanghai. After a thorough discussion of the influence of significant others’ values and expectations on students’ pursuit of cultural, social, and economic capitals in their educational attainment processes, Yang argues that the impetus for beginning an overseas educational path is a cultural determination to preserve, protect, and promote the mianzi (face, social reputation, and prestige) for students and their families. The book is well written with rich information and eye-opening analysis. It will give readers valuable insight into understanding the surge of Chinese students on US campuses. Summing Up: Highly recommended. All levels/libraries.

• Chapter1: Reaching for the Chinese DreamChapter 2: Theoretical FrameworkChapter 3: Cheeseheads, Colleges, and Chinese ParentsChapter 4: Chinese Forms of CapitalChapter 5: Mianzi, Motivations, and Higher Education

Dennis T. Yang is associate director for the Beijing Gateway Office at Boston University.

Employing an ethnographic approach, Yang examines the cultural and social reasons that drive the steady influx of Chinese students onto US campuses for their undergraduate degrees. The author applies the Wisconsin model of status attainment and Bourdieu’s capital theory as his theoretical framework and analyzes firsthand data from interviews with students, parents, teachers, and educational agents in Shanghai. After a thorough discussion of the influence of significant others’ values and expectations on students’ pursuit of cultural, social, and economic capitals in their educational attainment processes, Yang argues that the impetus for beginning an overseas educational path is a cultural determination to preserve, protect, and promote the mianzi (face, social reputation, and prestige) for students and their families. The book is well written with rich information and eye-opening analysis. It will give readers valuable insight into understanding the surge of Chinese students on US campuses. Summing Up: Highly recommended. All levels/libraries.

• Chapter1: Reaching for the Chinese DreamChapter 2: Theoretical FrameworkChapter 3: Cheeseheads, Colleges, and Chinese ParentsChapter 4: Chinese Forms of CapitalChapter 5: Mianzi, Motivations, and Higher Education