Finding a Chulu (Way Out): Rural-origin Chinese Students Studying Abroad in South Korea

Based on multi-site research in China and South Korea, this paper examines the motivations for rural-origin Chinese students to study abroad in South Korea and how their overseas experiences are mediated by the intersection of internal and international educational hierarchies. Existing literature on transnational student mobility from Asia mainly focuses on students from urban middle-class backgrounds, while little attention has been paid to students from less advantaged backgrounds. Scholars have noted that China’s seemingly meritocratic gaokao (national college entrance exam) policy in reality functions to perpetuate the structural marginalization of rural students in its educational system. This research moves beyond the internal migration paradigm by examining how social inequalities associated with the rural/urban divide are reproduced and re-articulated by the intersection of class, gender, place of origin, and time management at the transnational scale.

寻找出路：农村出身的在韩中国留学生

关键词：跨国学生流动；中国；韩国；城乡分立；阶级；性别。

本论文根据对中韩两国多地的调研，考察了农村出身的中国学生到韩国留学的动机，以及他们在海外的经历如何受到国内和国际教育等级体制的交叉作用的影响。 现有研究亚洲学生跨国流动的文献主要集中考察来自城市中产阶级的学生，然而很少关注出身并不优越的学生群体。学者们已经注意到中国的高考（全国大学入学考试）看似是符合贤能政治的政策，但实际起到了固化教育体制中农村学生被结构性边缘化的作用。本研究超越了内部迁移研究，考察了城乡分立造成的社会不平等是如何通过阶级、性别、出生地以及时间管理等因素交叉作用得以在跨国层面再生并获得重新表达。

Translated from English by Li Guo