Moral Ambivalence on Commercial Service User: Taiwanese International Students Elite Identity-Making in Online Sharing Forums

• In Event: 4367 - Section on Asia and Asian America Roundtables
  In Refereed Roundtable 100min: 5. International Students from Asia in the U.S.

Abstract

International students often turn to online sources for help when they face different challenges admitting to a foreign university. Some of the actors within those online sources provide information, knowledge, and guidance are motivated by altruistic free-sharing while others by commercial interest. While consulting different sources online for information and knowledge are both understandable and somewhat necessary, what type and level of help are adequate remains a topical debate amongst scholars and administrations. This study examines how Taiwanese international students define two types of educational assistance differently in an online free-sharing forum. Finding suggests that students sorted different commercial practice by utilizing different “identity models,” according to perceived individual traits associated with the service. The three different kinds practices of receiving help from others received different treatment within the forum, one recognized as legitimate and privileged, the other as tainting and shameful, and still a third one as normal and acceptable. The article illuminates a growing phenomenon and debate about international student’s engagement with non-school actors and third-party admission-aid and information source.

Author

• Kenneth Han Chen, University at Albany-State University of New York