Changes and challenges during the COVID-19 pandemic: Chinese international students in the United States

• In Event: Gender, Race and Disabilities in Education

Proposal

Abstract

Although numerous textbooks and scholarly articles illustrate the racial discrimination against black Americans, few research studies examine other minority groups who also experience injustice during tremendous disasters. Major global crises like a war or a pandemic puts certain minority groups in jeopardy, such as the Japanese Americans during World War II, the Muslim groups during the 9/11 crisis and Chinese and other Asian groups during the COVID-19 crisis. Using the ongoing Coronavirus crisis (COVID-19) as a case study, this paper illustrates racial discrimination experiences of Chinese international students. Drawing on a qualitative study among ten Chinese international students in X university, this study shows: 1) Chinese students became a stigmatized group and suffered physical and mental assaults; 2) US mass media reacts to negative images of Chinese people after the COVID-19 outbreak; 3) numerous Chinese international students changed their job orientation due to the economic setback and COVID-19 psychological trauma.
Research Question 1: How do Chinese students narrate and reflect on their cultural, social, emotional and academic experiences from before they were locked down and during the COVID-19 pandemic when they worked remotely in a large research university?
Research Question 2: In light of COVID-19-related changes and challenges, to what extent do Chinese students see themselves altering previously expected personal and professionally related decisions after obtaining higher education degrees in the United States?
Literature Review
In the 20th-21st centuries, Chinese and other Asian Americans are typically considered as the “model minority” in the United States, which means they are expected to embody traits of intelligence, capability, ambition, and laboriousness (Lee, 2009; Ho & Jackson, 2001; Wong, Lai, Nagasawa, & Lin, 1998; Yee, 1992). However, the model minority is a double-edged sword. One the one hand, Chinese and other Asian-Americans are perceived as a group who tend to do well educationally and economically (Maddux, et al., 2008). However, not every Asian group can achieve high standard scores or obtain great education attainments. While Chinese, Japanese and Korean students normally obtain enough economic support from their family and appear to be winners in educational contests, students from Cambodia, Hmong, and Lao have relatively low rates of educational attainment (Lee, 2009). The model minority stereotype considers Asian students as a monolithic group, which “masks significant diversity” (Lee, 2009, p. 13) among Asians. White supremacy treats Asian as a monolithic racial construction, and this stereotype has been “deeply embedded in Western societies for centuries” (Iftikar & Museus, 2018, p. 936). On the other hand, in the education arena, the model minority creates the misconception that “Asian American students in k-12 and higher education do not need culturally responsive resources or support, and causes excessive pressure on them to achieve perfection” (Iftikar & Museus, 2018, p.942). But, Chinese international students confront numerous cultural, language barriers and racial discrimination, when they moved into the United States, especially during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Research Methods
A qualitative research method was utilized in my study. A qualitative approach was appropriate for my research questions because, as stated by Bogdan and Biklen (2007), it is “rich in description of people, places, and conversations” (p.2). Unlike quantitative studies, qualitative researchers do not approach their research with hypotheses to test. Rather, qualitative researchers tend to collect data “through sustained contact with people in settings where subjects normally spend their time-- classrooms, cafeterias, teachers’ lounges, dormitories, street corners” (Bogdan & Biklen, 2007, p.2). In my study, I conducted in-depth interviews with ten Chinese international students. Due to the COVID-19 regulations, I collected my data through Zoom meetings with my participants.
Research Findings
1. From a “model minority” to a “stigmatized” group: Chinese students’ experiences of racial discrimination during the COVID-19 pandemic
Chinese students suffered much more discrimination and became a “stigma” group due to this pandemic.COVID-19 stigmatized Asian-Americans, including Chinese international students, because the pandemic originally found in Wuhan, China in early 2020. “Since the outbreak of the novel coronavirus, anti-Chinese sentiment has been spreading around the world” ( Gao & Sai, 2020, p.184). Chinese are the marginalized group, suffering both physically and mentally as a result. Meng, a female student in her mid twenties studying Education, commented in an interview:
Oh my god. I remembered that time I asked a person to help me obtain my Social Security Number (SSN). She told me that “you can call the hotline”. In the hotline, the person asked me: “where do you come from?” I told her that I came from China. Suddenly, I could feel that she changed her attitude...I felt disappointed and I never experienced this before. It was my first time of experiencing racism. (January 3, 2021)

2.Bias and Prejudice: US Mass Media Produced Negative Images of Chinese People after the COVID-19 Outbreak
From March 1, 2020 to February 21, 2021, the number of tweets exclusively mentioning “Chinese virus or China virus rather than COVID-19 or coronavirus” (Budhwani and Sun, 2020, p.2) increased dramatically throughout the United States. Two Chinese international students Wei and Yun’s comment that bias, prejudice and ethnocentrism against Chinese people are promoted by US mainstream media, which deliberately dehumanize Chinese international students and other Asian groups, those malicious words in US mass media make them feel as though they do not belong there.

3.Chinese International Students Changed Their Job Orientations After the Outbreak of COVID-19 Crisis

Before the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic, many international students were willing to remain in the United States to pursue their dreams in Silicon Valley or other cosmopolitan cities in the US. (Wang, 2021). However, during the pandemic situation in 2020, the educational landscape for millions of students has been drastically changed.
Qian [pseudonym] comments in the interview:
Because of the COVID-19, I realize that there are many disadvantages of the U.S., such as the structure of the whole country. I want to go back to my home country. But the most important reason of changing my job orientation is my mental health issues during the COVID-19 crisis.

Author

• Lianzi Ouyang, State University of New York, University at Buffalo