Chinese International Students’ Identities at International Universities in Japan: Pursuit of Competitive and Irreplaceable Identities

• In Event: Global Higher Education and Visions of Social Justice

Abstract

This paper is based on a study that examines the construction of Chinese international students’ identities in their international education experiences at two Japanese universities. These universities exemplify recent Japanese government internationalization policies. The findings reveal that these students use the internationalized Japanese university education as a way to attain a competitive and irreplaceable identity in the employment market in China and beyond. Their identity construction illuminates not only their strategic response to given life circumstances in China but also the reproduction of class at local and global levels. This paper calls for an alternative conceptualization and practice of internationalization in which students of different backgrounds can not only pursue their self interests but also imagine their common future together.

Author

• Hanae Tsukada, The University of British Columbia