For a long time, young people in China should go to study in the USA for at least one semester. Since the corona pandemic, however, more and more people have lost interest in foreign countries.
By Steffen Wurzel, ARD-Studio Shanghai
Wang Wenquan is studying Marketing in Shanghai. He has a casual apex, a small earring in his left ear and wears oversized silver hipster glasses. He actually wanted to move to the USA for a semester abroad soon, something he had planned for years.
But “for various reasons” he canceled his US plans, says the 23-year-old. Mainly because of the corona pandemic, which hit the United States particularly hard. “I don’t think what he says and does will really solve the pandemic problems – contrary to what he claims,” says Wang. By “he”, Wang means US President Donald Trump.
In China, the corona crisis is largely under control
In China, the country of origin of the Corona crisis, the authorities have largely stopped the spread of the virus in recent months. Everyday life is normal again in many areas of life. The Chinese are now looking all the more astonished at the USA, where the situation does not seem to be easing.
Marketing student Wang is concerned above all that prejudice, resentment and, in some cases, even open xenophobia towards people from China in the USA have recently increased significantly: “In the wake of the pandemic, Trump set up a lot of hurdles for students from China. Some even had to go to the USA leave, “he says. “If I were to travel to America now, I would feel the resistance of the people there. That of course affects everyday life and my safety. So … I don’t feel like moving to the USA.”
“They used to think: Everything is better abroad”
“I think it is quite possible that more and more young people from China will stay in their own country instead of studying abroad for some time,” says student advisor Guan Yan, who works for the University of Edinburgh in Shanghai. She found that in China the interest in studying abroad has declined noticeably in recent months – a complete reversal of the trend of recent years.
“That has a lot to do with China, which is becoming more and more self-confident, and also with the fact that the Chinese leadership has got the Corona crisis under control – despite some negative aspects that still exist,” she says. “Many students from China and their parents are now of the opinion: We have visited other countries and continents, but that did not particularly impress us. They used to think: Everything is better abroad. Today, they are rather disappointed.”
China’s growing nationalism is directed against Trump
Study advisor Guan believes that the state media in China are also to some extent to blame for this trend. They often painted a very drastic, chaotic picture of foreign countries – although it wasn’t really that bad.
Marketing student Wang Wenquan from Shanghai has in any case lost his desire for the long-awaited stay in the USA. “There is ethnic conflict in the US and a lot of people have guns. It’s dangerous,” he says. “Spurred on by Donald Trump, more and more Americans will be xenophobic towards people like me.”
Study advisor Guan Yan thinks it is worrying that young people in China seem to be increasingly losing interest in foreign countries. “This is a trend that worries me,” she says. “Although this problem does not only affect China. After all, nationalist thinking is on the advance worldwide.”
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