social networks, cultural capital and attachment to the host city: comparing overseas chinese...

Social networks, cultural capital and attachment tothe host city: Comparing overseas Chinese students

and foreign students in Taipei

Ai-hsuan Sandra MaDepartment of Sociology, National Chengchi University, 64, Zhinan Road, Section 2, Wenshan District, Taipei 11605,

Taiwan. Email: [email protected]

Abstract: A central theme in the literature on transnational migration is the embeddedness of suchmovement in social networks and the utilisation of social capital in facilitating mobility. This casestudy on overseas Chinese students and mainly non-Chinese foreign students studying at a topuniversity in Taipei brings in the notions of cultural capital and city. It investigates the ways socialnetworks shape the destination choices of these two groups of students, and how their patterns ofadjustment in the host milieu and attachment to the host city are affected by the transnationalmigration network (and the lack of it), embodied cultural capital and different host imaginariesconstructed by the Taiwan government. The results show that these two groups of internationalstudents differed in their reliance on transnational migration networks in making destination choicesprior to migration. Furthermore, the different forms of social networks and the differential social andcultural capital embedded in their respective groups, along with the distinctive host images that wereconstructed by the Taiwan government to cater for these two groups, shaped their overseasexperiences and attachment to the city of Taipei in distinctive ways.

Keywords: cultural capital, international student, social capital, social integration, social network

A central theme in the literature on internationalmigration is the embeddedness of transnationalmovement in social networks and the utilisationof social capital in facilitating mobility. Socialnetworks constructed through movements andinteractions of people across space constitutethe centre of microstructures that sustain migra-tion over time. The differential availability ofand access to networks that maintain migrationchannels further elucidate differences in indi-viduals’ propensity to move (Portes and Böröcz,1989). Empirical findings indicate how migrantsdevelop and use local and transnational socialnetworks to migrate, find employment andsettle in a new location; and how social net-works maintain and promote internationalmigration through transmitting resources andmediating macrostructural changes (Masseyet al., 1987).

Studies in international education have con-firmed the social embeddedness of educationalmobility and the influence of social networks on

international students’ education choices andexperiences. The presence of family or friendsin the host country is an important factorin international students’ destination choices(Mazzarol and Soutar, 2002), and friends andfamily often serve as a key source of informationand advice on their migration decisions (Pimpa,2005). Furthermore, international students tendto establish social ties with friends of the samenationality or a similar cultural background andform an ethnic community within the same uni-versity in order to buffer themselves againstproblems associated with a lack of assimilationto the host society (Al-Sharideh and Goe, 1998).However, these studies were based primarilyon international students from developingcountries in Asia to developed countries inNorth America and Europe (Bolsmann andMiller, 2008). In recent years several East Asiancountries have striven to recruit internationalstudents and to build world-class universities. Itis worth examining how these new destinations

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Asia Pacific Viewpoint, Vol. 55, No. 2, August 2014ISSN 1360-7456, pp226–241

© 2014 Victoria University of Wellington and Wiley Publishing Asia Pty Ltd doi: 10.1111/apv.12053

attract international students, and how theirstudy experiences shape their orientationstoward these rather unfamiliar providers.

Based on survey and interview data collectedfrom international students studying at a topTaiwanese university in Taipei, this paper inves-tigates the ways social networks shape theirdestination choices, and how their patterns ofadjustment in the host milieu and attachment tothe host city are affected by the transnationalmigration network (and the lack of it), embod-ied cultural capital and different host imaginar-ies constructed by the Taiwan government.Taiwan provides a unique case for studyingthis topic since in Taiwan international studentsare categorised into two subgroups: ‘overseasChinese students’ (chiaosheng) and ‘foreignstudents’ (waichisheng).1 Both are consideredinternational students and yet are subject to dif-ferent recruiting channels, governing policiesand agencies, and funding sources due to thedistinct historical contexts in which the recruit-ment policies were formed. Taipei, the capitalcity and one of the emerging world cities inAsia, is the site best suited for this investigation.In this paper international students’ identity (aseither foreign students or overseas Chinese stu-dents) is taken into account in examining howand to what extent different groups of interna-tional students’ migration decisions and sociallife in the host city are distinctively shaped bythe social networks to which they belong andthe cultural capital they possess, and how theirdifferential perceptions of and experience inTaipei correspond to the host images that theTaiwanese government constructed in appeal-ing to these students.

Asia: Promising contenders in global highereducation and emerging global cities

Due to the rapid increase of global highereducation in volume and diversity over the pasttwo decades, international student mobility hasbecome an increasingly significant phenom-enon (Verbik and Lasanowski, 2007). It is pro-jected that the overall demand for internationalhigher education worldwide will rise from 2.1million admission requests in 2003 to approxi-mately 5.8 million by 2020, with Asian studentsaccounting for the majority of this demand(Bohm et al., 2004). In the past, higher educa-

tion systems in Asia were limited in access andmainly served elites. In the 1980s the growingmiddle class in the region, rising literacy levelsand increasingly prevalent secondary schoolingbrought a surge in demand for access to highereducation (Altbach, 2004). Not only did highereducation systems in several Asian countriesundergo expansion and reform in response toincreasing local demand for higher education,but many students went abroad for educationalopportunities. Asian students are by far thelargest group of students studying abroad(International Organization for Migration,2009); in 2013, 53% international studentscame from Asia (OECD, 2013).

Meanwhile, several countries in East Asiahave entered the market as new players with theambition of becoming regional or even interna-tional education hubs (Verbik and Lasanowski,2007; OECD, 2013). Triggered by the region’sstrengthening economies, the governments’desired positioning in the international educa-tion market, and institutions’ aspirations tofacilitate international exchange and build aninternational reputation, China, Japan, Korea,Singapore and Taiwan are actively internation-alising their higher education systems with largeamounts of public funding, government-ledprogrammes and proactive marketing strategies.This has led to significant growth in interna-tional student enrolments and intensifiedintraregional student mobility (Mok and Chan,2008; Shin, 2009; Marginson et al., 2011).

In this process, several Asian cities aregaining prominence in their global ranking.Taipei became a regional hub in the 1990s dueto the regionalisation of the Taiwanese economy(Wang, 2004). In the most recent edition of theGlobal Cities Index and Emerging Cities OutlookReport, Tokyo, Hong Kong and Seoul were inthe top ten, Singapore was placed eleventh, andBeijing, Shanghai and Taipei were the top threeemerging global cities (Kearney, 2012). Taipeiwas also listed among the projected 75 mostdynamic cities of 2025 (Dobbs and Remes,2012).

International students in Taiwan:A brief overview

Taiwan’s endeavour to attract internationalstudents began in 1950 when overseas Chinese

Networks, capital & host city attachment

© 2014 Victoria University of Wellington and Wiley Publishing Asia Pty Ltd 227

students were recruited, mainly from SoutheastAsia. This recruitment policy was shaped bygeopolitics in the cold war era; the Taiwanesegovernment was eager to exercise ‘soft powerdiplomacy’ with Southeast Asia and establishties with overseas Chinese communitiesthrough higher education (Ma, 2014). Despitethe limited financial resources initially investedin recruitment, the number of overseas Chinesestudents studying in Taiwan higher educationinstitutions grew rapidly in the first few years,from 60 in 1951 to 886 in 1954. With aid fromthe USA from 1953 to 1965, overseas Chineseeducation flourished and the number of ethnicChinese studying in Taiwan institutions surgedto 5804 in 1960. Even after the end of US aid,the Taiwanese government was able to expandoverseas Chinese education with domesticresources, peaking at 11 582 in 1989. However,the enrolment numbers dropped steadilythroughout the 1990s; a decline that may beattributed to reforms of the student recruitmentpolicies and regional transformations in the1980s (Ma, 2014). After 2000 enrolments roseagain. According to the statistics of the Ministryof Education (MOE), in 2013 there were 18 333overseas Chinese students studying in Taiwan,including 17 055 degreed students and 1278students seeking vocational training. The topfive sending countries/regions were Malaysia,Macau, Hong Kong, Indonesia and Myanmar(Ministry of Education, 2014).

In contrast with its enthusiastic attitude towardrecruiting Chinese students, the Taiwanese gov-ernment took a lax stance toward recruitingforeign students due to the initial lack of politicalmotive (Ma, 2014). After the first group of sixforeign students came to Taiwan’s universities in1954, the enrolment of foreign studentsremained low until the mid-1970s (Ministry ofEducation, 2014). This increase in enrolmentwas triggered mainly by the rising worldwidedemand for higher education during this period(Altbach, 2004). Despite this growth, the numberof foreign student enrolments was still far behindthat of overseas Chinese students, reaching apeak of 6260 in 1989 before undergoing a steadydecline over the next 10 years. This decline wasmainly due to China’s ‘Open Door’ policy andthe rapid economic development of SoutheastAsia (Ma, 2014). The enrolment numberrebounded in 1999 and increased rapidly there-

after; since 2004 the number of foreign studentshas even surpassed that of overseas Chinesestudents. According to statistics from the MOE,the number of foreign students studying inTaiwan increased fivefold in 12 years: from 6380in 2001 to 35 141 in 2013, among which 12 597were degree-seeking students. Over 50% foreignstudents came from Asia, with Japan, Korea, theUSA, Indonesia and Vietnam sending the largestnumbers of foreign students (Ministry ofEducation, 2014). This dramatic increase wasprompted by a series of policies issued by theTaiwanese government to internationalise highereducation and expand recruitment of foreignstudents.These policy changes came in responseto the need for quality assurance in the rapidlyexpanding local higher education system andthe shrinking pool of the local student popula-tion due to the low fertility rate. Moreover, withthe rise of China and Taiwan’s increasingly com-pressed diplomatic space, Taiwan needed toexpand the scope of ‘soft power diplomacy’beyond overseas Chinese students in order toelevate its visibility in the global community(Ma, 2014). Figure 1 illustrates the trends of over-seas Chinese students and foreign studentsstudying in Taiwan’s higher education institu-tions from 1950 to 2012.

Methods

An international student survey was conductedfrom September to December 2010 at NationalTaiwan University (NTU), located in Taipei,Taiwan. In recent years NTU has been ranked asone of the top 100 universities in the QS WorldUniversity Rankings and the Times Higher Edu-cation World University Rankings, and has beenplaced among the top 150 in the Shanghai JiaoTong University’s Academic Ranking of WorldUniversities (ARWU).

A self-administered questionnaire was com-pleted by 524 international students studying atNTU in 2010. The questionnaire containedquestions regarding demographic and educa-tional background, channels used in obtaininginformation and advice about studying inTaiwan, reasons for choosing NTU to study,experiences in Taiwan, and postgraduationplans. To ensure that the sampled students hadaccumulated enough experience in Taiwan torespond properly to the questionnaire, I focused

A.S. Ma

© 2014 Victoria University of Wellington and Wiley Publishing Asia Pty Ltd228

on those who had studied at NTU for at leastone year. Overseas Chinese students, foreignstudents, and students from Hong Kong andMacau were included in the sample. BothEnglish and Chinese versions of the question-naire were utilised to facilitate responses, withthe latter translated. The survey adopted a pur-posive sampling method in which levels ofstudy, sex and country of origin were taken intoaccount. Hong Kong and Macau students wererecategorised as overseas Chinese students inthe analysis. We noticed in the survey that whileoverseas Chinese students were mostly degree-seeking students, foreign students at NTU werea more heterogeneous group that contained asignificant portion of short-term students. Toenhance the validity of the comparison betweenthese two groups, this paper employed onlythe survey data of degree-seeking studentsfor analysis (N = 432, including 207 overseasChinese students and 225 foreign students).

In-depth interviews were conducted in 2009,2010 and 2012 with 35 international studentsstudying at NTU, comprising 17 overseasChinese students and 18 foreign students. Bio-graphical profiles of international studentswere collected through interviews in order tounderstand individual and familial educationchoices and migration decision-making, finan-

cial resources, students’ integration into the hostenvironment and their postgraduation plans.

Social networks and the embeddedness ofmigration choices and experiences

International students’ destination choices andexperiences in the host city were strongly influ-enced by the patterns of their social networks.Four types of social networks were identifiedfrom the data: (i) social ties between the homecountry and Taiwan prior to migration; (ii) socialties with coethnics or conationals while study-ing in Taiwan; (iii) social ties with the localswhile studying in Taiwan; and (iv) social tieswith other internationals while studying inTaiwan.

Overseas Chinese students and foreign stu-dents not only belonged to different groups ofsocial networks, their social networks also dem-onstrated different degrees of extensity, density,clustering and multiplexity (Portes, 1995). Themajority of overseas Chinese students camefrom certain regions with significant ethnicChinese populations such as Southeast Asia,Hong Kong and Macau, and their transnationalmigration networks were often extensive withthese four kinds of social networks intertwined(Fig. 2). Multiple and clustered links between

60 000

50 000

Total Inbound

International Students

Degree-Seeking

Overseas Chinese

Students

Total Overseas Chinese

Students

Degree-Seeking Foreign

Students

Total Foreign Student

40 000

30 000

20 000

10 000

0

1950 1955 1960 1965 1970 1975 1980 1985 1990 1995 2000 20102005

Figure 1. Number of inbound international students, 1950–2012Source: Ministry of Education, 2013, 2014; Overseas Community Affairs Council, 2013a,b.



home countries and Taiwan based on kinship,high school and regional affiliations at origin,and university coethnic club memberships atdestination were densely knitted at the trans-national level. Interactions and cooperationamong different origin-based overseas Chinesestudent associations on campus were frequent,creating opportunities for ethnic Chinese stu-dents from different regions and countries tomeet.

In contrast, foreign students came from morediverse national and ethnic backgrounds. Therecency of significant flows of foreign studentto Taiwan, the relatively small numbers ofcoethnics/conationals and the greater diversityof the foreign student population on campusmade it more difficult to establish strong soli-darity among foreign students. The foreignstudent population on campus was also more

transient, with a significant number of foreignstudents studying as short-term exchange or lan-guage students on campus (Fig. 3).

Overseas Chinese students and foreign stu-dents also demonstrated different interactionpatterns with the locals, resulting in the differ-ential inclusion of the locals in their respectivesocial networks. First, overseas Chinese tendedto take the same classes as local students andlearned alongside them, while foreign studentswere more likely to take English-taught coursesand learned with other internationals. Second,most overseas Chinese students, especiallythose who came from Southeast Asia, workedpart time at a wide variety of units on campusand often off campus for local employers aswell, while only a handful of foreign studentsworked as research assistants on campus. Third,while some overseas Chinese students attended

family and friends

host university

host government

Home Society

social network

official institution

source of support and/or exchange

Host Society

other educational institutions (such as DPPOCS and UECOCS)

coethnic student associations and networks

high school cohorts,seniors, teachers

host school

host schools’ affiliated networksand organizations (such asUCSCAM and UCSTAM)

individual high school anduniversity alumni associations

regional and national high schooland university alumni associations

locals metthrough workor other socialsettings

foreign students

local Taiwanesestudents

ethnic Chinese students from othercountries/regions

Figure 2. Social networks of overseas Chinese students

A.S. Ma


university clubs formed mainly by local stu-dents, foreign students rarely did so.

Although official organisations (governmentsand educational institutions) at origin and des-tination provided support to both overseasChinese students and foreign students, theywere involved in distinctive ways. First, theinstitutional framework and organisational tiesin the overseas Chinese student recruitmentsystem were more extensive than those estab-lished in the foreign student recruitment system.Second, while the Taiwan government and uni-versities relied mainly on non-governmentalchannels to recruit overseas Chinese studentsthrough seeking cooperation with schools andeducational organisations in the sending coun-tries, their recruitment of foreign students wasmore likely to go through governmental chan-nels, especially when such recruitment wasdriven by diplomatic purposes.

The following analysis first discusses howsocial networks shaped the destination choices

of overseas Chinese students and foreign stu-dents. Second, it examines how the social net-works of these two groups operated distinctivelyin linking these two groups of students with thelocal population and shaping their social life inthe host city, thus making overseas Chinese stu-dents and foreign students experience andappreciate the host city in different ways.

Social networks and their influence on highereducation destination choices

Generally speaking, international students’social networks served as an important sourceof information and advice regarding study inTaiwan prior to migration. Based on the surveyresults, ‘friends and classmates’ were relied onmost in gaining information and advice, fol-lowed by ‘family and relatives’ and ‘senior stu-dents and alumni’ (Table 1). Comparison of thetwo subgroups of international students showsthat overseas Chinese students utilised all of

family, friends,acquaintances

coethnics off campus

other internationals off campus

home school

home government

Home Society

social network

official institution

source of support and/or exchange

Host Society

host university

host government and affiliated institutions

local Taiwanesecoethnics on campus

overseas Chinese students

other foreign students oncampus

Figure 3. Social networks of foreign students



these three types of social networks consider-ably more than foreign students, signifying themore salient role social networks played inshaping the migration decisions of overseasChinese students.

The reason why social networks played amore critical role in shaping overseas Chinesestudents’ decision to study in Taiwan wasbecause of the rich resources in the large anddense transnational migration network. Theextensiveness of this network allowed prospec-tive overseas Chinese students to have relativelyeasy access by virtue of their familial, schooland ethnic ties back home. They were then ableto mobilise the resources through this network,including asking for information and advice.Many overseas Chinese students mentionedthat their parents, relatives and/or siblings hadstudied in Taiwan, and these people set anexample for them to follow:

NTU-11: In Myanmar, you know, in our dis-trict, there are a lot of overseas Chinese, andthey all came to Taiwan for study. . . . We heardfrom some seniors and some relatives thatTaiwan is a good place and they take care ofoverseas Chinese students a lot.

For overseas Chinese students from majorsending regions or countries, private Chineseschools (in the cases of Malaysia, Myanmar andIndonesia), local schools (in the cases of Macauand Hong Kong) and their school peers backhome often effectively influenced their decisionto study in Taiwan. As one Malaysian Chinesestudent observed:

AB009: It was mainly my high school that didthe coordination [of helping students go toTaiwan]. Teachers were responsible for takingstudents’ names [for organising travel groups toTaiwan], and the school would take charge of

contacting students, the [high school] alumniassociation [in Taiwan], and the UniversityEntrance Committee of Overseas Chinese Stu-dents.2 . . . My school was very serious aboutthis and was very happy to help.

Moreover, the significant number of ethnicChinese students studying in Taiwan from thesemajor sending countries/areas over the last fewdecades created a solid foundation for a homo-geneous hierarchical system of student andalumni associations based on nationality andethnicity. The NTU Alumni Association ofHong Kong was founded in 1960, even beforethe establishment of an official NTU AlumniAssociation in 1962. In the case of MalaysianChinese, the extensive networks of student andalumni associations were based not only onuniversities in Taiwan but also on high schoolsand regions back home. These associations playa vital role in transmitting information aboutTaiwan to prospective students and usheringthem in their journey to Taiwan and theirrespective universities. In this context the desti-nation choice to study in Taiwan is bothrelationally and structurally embedded. Forexample, one Macau student said:

AB008: Every year we have many studentscoming to Taiwan to study. At the end of the fallsemester in our third year in high school, thegraduates who were studying in Taiwan wouldgo to these high schools in Macau and givetalks in counseling classes, telling us the ben-efits of studying in Taiwan. . . . The Associationof Macau College Student in Taiwan also holdsa forum [in Macau], and all of us would attend.

Another Macau student’s experience incoming to Taiwan, typical of overseas Chinesestudents, vividly portrayed the active role that

Table 1. Percentage of international students obtaining information and advice through social networks regarding study inTaiwan prior to migration

Source of information andadvice

From family orrelatives (%)

From friends orclassmates (%)

From senior students/alumni (%)

Type of international studentsOverseas Chinese students 44.4 50.2 45.9Foreign students 17.8 32.0 11.1Total international students 30.6 40.7 27.8

A.S. Ma


these associations played in facilitating studentmigration:

NTU-12: The seniors [hsuehchang andhsuehchieh] at the Hong Kong and MacauAssociation at NTU accompanied us [theincoming students] to fly to Taiwan. . . . [T]heseniors at the association on the Taiwan sidewould get the bus ready at the airport [inTaoyuan] to bring us to NTU. Then they wouldtake us to buy stuff, settle in at the dormitory,and open bank accounts. . . . We called it theFirst Seven [tou chi]; the first seven days ofwelcoming the incoming students. [Laughs]

Taiwan was not considered a popular desti-nation by many foreign students in their homecountries. Although these students also soughtinformation and advice through their social net-works, the lack of preceding student migrationto Taiwan from their home countries and theresulting immaturity of the transnational migra-tion networks made it less likely for thesestudents to obtain effective assistance and guid-ance through social networks. Exceptions werestudents who had ties with people in the posi-tion of ‘structural holes’ and could provideunique information, such as professors who hadlinks with Taiwan. Those who had no such con-nections often had to rely on formal channels,such as schools in home countries or govern-ment agencies, to obtain information. OneNicaraguan student said of his experience:

NTU-06: I talked to some people who hadbeen abroad to study, but none of them hadstudied in Asia before. In fact, I didn’t knowanyone who had studied here in Asia before.The first time was when I went to the Taiwaneseembassy in my country. But before, I just metpeople who were studying in Europe, or theU.S., and they encouraged me.

Social networks and the shaping of the hostcity experience

Overall, international students preferred to stayclose to friends from their home countries andtended to find their friends within the sameuniversity. According to the survey resultsshown in Table 2, friends from the same countryof origin and from the same university formedthe largest group in international students’ local

Tabl

e2.

Bac

kgro

und

char

acte

rist

ics

ofin

tern

atio

nal

stud

ents

’be

stfr

iend

s

Type

ofst

uden

t1s

tbe

stfr

iend

2nd

best

frie

nd3r

dbe

stfr

iend

Ove

rall

(N=

430)

(%)

Fore

ign

stud

ents

(N=

225)

(%)

Ove

rsea

sC

hine

sest

uden

ts(N

=20

5)(%

)

Ove

rall

(N=

429)

(%)

Fore

ign

stud

ents

(N=

225)

(%)

Ove

rsea

sC

hine

sest

uden

ts(N

=20

4)(%

)

Ove

rall

(N=

429)

(%)

Fore

ign

stud

ents

(N=

225)

(%)

Ove

rsea

sC

hine

sest

uden

ts(N

=20

4)(%

)

Bac

kgro

und

offr

iend

From

hom

eco

untr

y65

.659

.172

.758

.347

.670

.149

.340

.658

.9Fr

omho

stco

untr

y16

.517

.815

.125

.430

.220

.130

.330

.829

.7Fr

omot

her

coun

try

17.9

23.1

12.2

16.3

22.2

9.8

20.4

28.6

11.4

From

with

inN

TU75

69.2

81.4

74.2

66.1

83.3

71.1

64.4

78.4

From

outs

ide

NTU

2530

.818

.625

.833

.916

.728

.935

.621

.6

NTU

,N

atio

nalT

aiw

anU

nive

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.



social networks. This was especially true inregard to international students’ very bestfriends. It was also noted that the percentages ofthe first-, second- and third-best friend fromhome countries decreased in descending order,while the percentages of the first-, second- andthird-best friend from the host country increasedin ascending order. The percentages of the first-,second- and third-best friend from other coun-tries stayed approximately the same. The per-centages of the top three best friends fromwithin the university were approximately 70%though they decreased slightly along with theorder.

A closer look at Table 2 shows significantintergroup differences: overseas Chinese stu-dents were more likely than foreign students tobe friends with their own kind, and overseasChinese students embedded their social net-works more deeply in campus than foreignstudents.

Biographical interview materials offer helpfulinsights in explaining these differences. Filledwith clusters of family, school, and regionalcliques and overlapped ties, the extensivemigration network facilitates the adjustment ofoverseas Chinese students during their study inTaiwan and mediates between these studentsand the host environment. With this large safetynet, it is thus easy for overseas Chinese studentsto make friends with coethnics from the samecountry and stay within these networks, whichin turn maintain and even strengthen the exten-siveness and density of these transnationalnetworks. Portes (1995) argued that large anddense networks are most effective in developingnormative expectations and enforcing reciproc-ity obligations. This phenomenon is evident inthe transnational networks of overseas Chinesestudents. Having received generous favours andkindness from senior members in these coethnicstudent and alumni associations, most overseasChinese students feel obligated to show kind-ness and provide help to incoming groupmembers and share responsibilities withmembers of those associations as a gesture ofreciprocity:

NTU-25: At that time, we were asked to takepart [in the association], because the universityneeded to take care of newly arrived students[hsuehti and hsuehmei]. The senior female

students [of the association] would convinceyou. In fact, when I first came to Taiwan tostudy at NCCU, if I encountered any problemsacademically or in daily life, these seniorswould help me. . . . After you have receivedfavors from others, you feel like helping others.They [the junior students] were like us whenthey came. Helping them with what I knowand have learned is natural and right, and I doit wholeheartedly.

Although these coethnic groups provideresourceful support to and enforce reciprocityobligations on their members, they do not con-strain these members to stay only within thegroup and isolate them from the host milieu. Infact, one important way these groups serve theirmembers is to link overseas Chinese studentswith the host society, encouraging theirmembers to establish contact with the localsand guiding them in utilising resources in thehost environment. For example, group membersencourage fellow coethnics to make friendswith local students in order to learn with andfrom them. One Myanmar Chinese studentremarked:

NTU-11: We all tell the newly arrived studentsto make an effort in making friends becausemingling with local students is helpful in aca-demic learning. Their support can actually bequite significant. We are overseas Chinese stu-dents and are thus not familiar with the situa-tions here. If we can make friends with them[the local students], we are able to obtainmuch information from them.

The Overseas Chinese Students AdvisingDivision at NTU works in close collaborationwith the Taiwanese government to provide enor-mous resources and social support to overseasChinese student associations on campus andmaintain contact with alumni associations over-seas, further strengthening the cohesion of thesesocial networks. By organising activities acrossthe different regional associations on campus towhich overseas Chinese students belong, thisadministrative unit also creates a platform forethnic Chinese students from different regionsand countries to mingle. As one Macau studentstated:

AB008: I think that [The Overseas Chinese Stu-dents Advising Division] offers a lot of help.

A.S. Ma


The staff is very kind, in comparison with thosein other divisions. I started working part time inthat office. Through working there and partici-pating in their activities I met many overseasChinese students.

Even with the efforts of the InternationalStudent Affairs Office of NTU to bring foreignstudents together, the small cohort size (espe-cially among degree-seeking students), greaterdiversity within the foreign student population,and the relatively short history of foreign stu-dents studying at NTU made it less likely forthese students to learn the ropes from theirgroup members and more difficult to establishstrong cohesion among themselves. This alsoresulted in the university’s Foreign Student Asso-ciation playing a fairly weak role in foreignstudents’ lives. Take one Mongolian student, forexample. Although her school life was enrichedby participating in the Foreign Student Associa-tion, she still felt alienated in not being able toform alliances with other international students:

NTU-02: [The foreign students in my pro-gramme] mostly speak their own languagewith each other, they know very special tipsabout how to study, how to pass this exam, butof course they will not tell me about that! I’mjust doing it alone, by myself, and yeah, some-times cannot pass the exam, and fail and do itagain, those things happen.

Faced with these underdeveloped transna-tional networks, some foreign students turn tothe locals for resources and assistance. Like-wise, the university needs to mobilise localresources to provide support to the foreign stu-dents. A student from the Netherlands spoke ofhis arrival in Taiwan:

NTU-01: There was a volunteer assigned to me[by the University] to pick me up at the airport,which was really nice. Otherwise it wouldhave been a little bit difficult to find the wayhere, because I didn’t know any Chinese! Uh,I just knew how to draw my name; that was thefirst Chinese characters I learned.

Probably for this reason, foreign students fre-quently spoke of the friendliness of the locals intheir interviews. As one Mexican student put it:

NTU-15: One of the things I never stop feelingis that people are so kind, so helpful. They arereally, really, really eager to smile. I always feltthat Mexico was very open and welcoming topeople, and I think – wow! . . . It is even bigger[here]. If we are kind in Mexico, this is likethree times.

Foreign students’ positive encounters with thelocals in the host society do not necessarilygenerate closer ties with the local population.Table 3 shows international students’ overallself-evaluation of their living experience inTaipei. The top five items that received thehighest scores were ‘safe environment’ (3.30),‘transportation in Taipei’ (3.22), ‘local peopleare friendly’ (3.12), ‘easy to travel in Taiwan andthe neighbouring countries’ (3.08), and ‘thingsto see and do in Taipei’ (3.02), which manifestsTaipei’s strong cosmopolitan characters. Whencomparing the two groups’ ratings, the t-testresults show some significant differences: over-seas Chinese students were more likely thanforeign students to find it easy to mix with thelocal society (2.87 vs. 2.60; P < 0.001), find asocial group to share their interests (2.87 vs.2.63; P < 0.001), and find things to see and doin Taipei (3.11 vs. 2.94, P < 0.01). Foreign stu-dents were slightly more likely than overseasChinese students to find the local peoplefriendly (3.17 vs. 3.087), and yet this differencebears no statistical significance.

The extensive, dense, multiplex and clusteredtransnational migration network not only pro-vides a cultural and social enclave for manyoverseas Chinese students to associate with andfind people with whom they share interests, butalso facilitates adjustment by bridging thisenclave with the host milieu. Without thisnetwork foreign students find it more difficult toadjust.

Cultural capital: The keys to immersionand distinction

According to Bourdieu’s (1986) conceptua-lisation of the term, cultural capital can exist inembodied, objectified and institutionalisedstates. Embodied cultural capital comprisesacquired and cultivated properties that areincorporated into one’s self. Objectified culturalcapital consists of physical objects and media



that are owned. Institutionalised cultural capitalrefers to institutional recognition conferred toan individual, often in the form of academicqualifications. Linguistic capital, defined asthe mastery of and relation to language(Bourdieu and Passeron, 1990), can be per-ceived as a form of embodied cultural capitalsince it is an acquired means of communicationand self-expression that distinguishes one’ssocial position.

In this case study both overseas Chinese stu-dents and foreign students studied at the sameuniversity and thus held similar institutional cul-tural capital. However, their distinctive embod-ied cultural capital profoundly shaped theirexperiences in the host city. Table 4 shows themean scores of the self-evaluated Chinese lan-guage proficiency of the two groups.3 On ascale from 0 to 16, the overseas Chinese studentgroup received a mean score of 13.62, while theforeign student group’s mean score was 8.82,and the group difference was statistically signifi-cant (P < 0.001). Overseas Chinese students notonly had far better mastery of the Chinese lan-guage, their within-group difference in Chineselanguage skills was also much smaller whencompared with that of foreign students.

In addition to linguistic capital, overseasChinese students generally have more exposureto the Taiwanese cultural and social influencethrough media, literature and social networksprior to their study in Taiwan, which signifi-cantly influences their destination choices. Forexample, one overseas Chinese student fromMalaysia said:

AB001: Every year our graduates who went toTaiwan to study would come back to our highschool to give talks and hold forums aboutstudying in Taiwan. After attending those talksand forums, I thought it was a good idea [to

Tabl

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Satis

fact

ion

with

livin

gex

peri

ence

inTa

ipei

,t-

test

Iden

tity

The

food

inTa

ipei

Easy

tom

ixin

Taiw

anes

eso

ciet

y

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anlin

ess

inTa

ipei

Loca

lpe

ople

are

frie

ndly

Safe

envi

ronm

ent

The

wea

ther

inTa

ipei

Tran

spor

tatio

nin

Taip

eiEa

syto

find

aso

cial

grou

pto

shar

em

yin

tere

st

Exci

ting

lifes

tyle

inTa

ipei

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gsto

see

and

doin

Taip

ei

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totr

avel

inTa

iwan

and

the

neig

hbou

ring

coun

trie

s

Livi

ngco

stin

Taip

ei

Ove

rsea

sC

hine

seSt

uden

t3.

00*

2.87

***

3.04

3.07

3.15

***

2.36

**3.

01**

*2.

87**

*2.

883.

11**

2.98

**2.

72Fo

reig

nSt

uden

t2.

84*

2.60

***

2.91

3.17

3.43

***

2.09

**3.

40**

*2.

63**

*2.

862.

94**

3.18

**2.

74A

vera

ge2.

922.

732.

973.

123.

302.

223.

222.

752.

873.

023.

082.

73

*P<

0.05

.**

P<

0.01

.**

*P<

0.00

1.

Table 4. Self-evaluated Chinese language proficiency,t-test

Identity Chinese languageproficiency

Std.

Foreign students 8.82*** 3.78Overseas Chinese students 13.62*** 1.98Average 11.10 3.88

*P < 0.05. **P < 0.01. ***P < 0.001.

A.S. Ma


study in Taiwan], so I filled out the applicationform and came. . . . [My decision to study inTaiwan] was also related to my educationalbackground. I studied at a Chinese independ-ent high school that uses Chinese as the mainlanguage, and Taiwan is a Chinese languageenvironment, so I wanted to come here.Moreover, all the books I read in high schoolswere published in Taiwan.

Like foreign students, many overseas Chineseencountered adjustment difficulties when theystarted studying in Taiwan. Even in regard tolanguage, some mentioned that their insuffi-cient Chinese language skills and accent was ahurdle in their adjustment at the beginning:

NTU-25: Although I took Chinese lessons backin Myanmar, we spoke Burmese mostly athome and in that region. Therefore I couldunderstand Chinese but didn’t speak it verywell. When I interacted with people here andthey could not understand me even after I hadsaid it three times, I felt embarrassed to say itagain.

Nevertheless, the overseas Chinese students’language ability and knowledge of Taiwan werestill far better than those possessed by foreignstudents when they initially came to Taiwan,which made their adjustment less challenging.Frequent contact with the locals on campus andin the host city further enriched the Chinese andTaiwanese elements in their embodied culturalcapital. In comparison with foreign students,overseas Chinese students were more likely totake classes with local students, attend localstudent clubs and immerse themselves incampus life. To many overseas Chinese stu-dents, Taipei is not only the cultural heartlandbut exhibits the essential features of a cosmo-politan city, including the abundant part-timeemployment opportunities that they rely on.This employment enhances their social contactwith the university and the city, enabling themto better blend in with campus life and theurban fabric of the host city. The ethnic similari-ties with the locals further give them a betteropportunity to disguise themselves as locals ifthey wish. Take one Malaysian Chinese studentas an example. At the beginning of his studyat NTU 80% of his friends were MalaysianChinese. After four years of study, attending

various student clubs and sports teams oncampus, and working as a waiter at a restaurantin Taipei, he not only could pass himself off as aTaiwanese, the majority of his friends werelocal Taiwanese. He shared his experience ofadjustment:

NTU-07: The cultural difference is not toomuch; it took me about half to one month toadjust to the daily life here. . . . However, ittook me a longer time to adjust to the culturaldifference when interacting with classmateshere. . . . I started to learn their accent . . . nowI can switch between two language modes.When I interact with Malaysian Chinese, myMalaysian accent naturally comes out. Butwhen I interact with Taiwanese, I switch on myTaiwanese accent, though occasionally I slip inone or two sentences in the Malaysian accent.

Although many foreign students shared posi-tive experiences about interacting with thelocals at NTU and in Taipei, the languagebarrier and cultural distance often made it morechallenging to adjust to the host milieu andestablish in-depth relationships with the locals.Compared with overseas Chinese students, theywere more likely to sit in classes tailored forinternational students (such as English-taughtcourses) and lived separately from local stu-dents (at different dorms or off campus by them-selves). They barely participated in local studentactivities or organisations, and often establishedfriendly but distant relationships with the locals.Partly due to their generally more abundantfinancial resources and the more restrictedforeign student employment policy, foreign stu-dents were less likely to work, especially offcampus, which further limited their opportunityto enrich the host element of cultural capitaland their engagement in the urban life of Taipei:

NTU-02: I wanted to learn more Chinese, andI wish I had a kind of host family during mystudy at NTU. Like being a daughter, sort of.. . . I really missed somebody taking care ofme. . . . If I were to live with a family for twoyears in Taipei, then my Chinese would havebeen at a very high level, but I’ve learned alittle bit, not too impressive.

The cosmopolitan features of Taipei such aswell-developed urban infrastructure and highInternet speed allowed these students to live in



the city but remain estranged from it. As oneIndian graduate student put it:

NTU-13: When I was in India, we had a verygood concept about the neighborhood . . . buthere, I found that’s not the case. The people arebusy in their own life. . . . Overall, I’ve neverseen any unfriendly gesture from anyone[here], but I found a lack of more friendliness,which I had in my mind, or which I experi-enced in my childhood. . . . I think maybe it’sbecause Taipei is a city; the life is very fast, andpeople are more workaholic! [Laughs)

Two city imaginaries of Taipei: The heartlandof the cultural home vs. an emerging globalcity with an exotic cultural touch

The Taiwan government’s own understandingof the cultural capital of overseas Chinesecommunities and the lack of it among non-Chinese foreigners vitally shapes the ways thegovernment creates two city imaginaries in aneffort to lure students from these two markets.To the Taiwan government, the recruitment ofoverseas Chinese students and foreign studentshas different goals. Starting in 1950, attractingoverseas Chinese students to study in Taiwanhas been driven politically as a means of con-necting with the Chinese diaspora by claimingTaiwan as the cultural homeland that preservesgenuine Chinese cultural elements. To date, theTaiwan government not only actively recruitsoverseas Chinese students but also cultivatescultural and social bonds with them duringtheir study in Taiwan. Although the policy torecruit foreign students, implemented 50 yearslater in the early 2000s, is also politically moti-vated to elevate the visibility of Taiwan in theinternational community, it is mainly an effortto ensure the quality of higher education inTaiwan and to improve the competitiveness ofuniversities in the international community bypushing for the internationalisation of localhigher education and the diversification of thestudent population.

To achieve these goals, the Taiwan govern-ment not only utilised different strategies toattract overseas Chinese students and foreignstudents but constructed different images ofTaiwan to cater for these two groups. As acapital city, Taipei was thus symbolic in repre-

senting these images. To overseas Chinese stu-dents, Taiwan is portrayed as a cultural home inwhich Taipei is the heartland. To foreign stu-dents, Taiwan is depicted as a country in whichtradition and modernity are mixed, and Taipei isperceived as the centre of this dynamic society.

Both groups of students identified in thesurvey and interviews the cosmopolitan featuresof Taipei. Beyond the cosmopolitan impressionof the host city, these two groups experiencedand appreciated Taipei in different ways. On theone hand, overseas Chinese students tended toperceive Taipei as a city where they can beimmersed in Chinese culture and practices.One overseas Chinese student shared hisencounter with President Ma Ying-jeou and hisfeelings about studying at NTU:

NTU-3: [President Ma] said that you comeback home to study [huei guo nian shu], and Iwill take care of you. When people are good toyou and not ask for anything in return, ofcourse you have this sense of appreciation inyour heart. . . .

Interviewer: Do you have this sense of appre-ciation that you mentioned?

NTU-3: I truly have. Because you don’t have toworry much . . . here you really can concen-trate on study and pursue your dream. There-fore I feel that it is like a greenhouse here, andwe are protected. To me, Taiwan is a very warmplace and allows me to fully develop myself.. . . NTU is the number one school and hasalmost everything on campus. . . . The govern-ment developed this area very well, . . . I feelthat this is the center.

On the other hand, foreign students weremore likely to see Taipei as an emerging globalcity in an Asian country that displays externalinfluences and yet retains its distinctive culturalelement. One Japanese student described herimpression of Taipei:

NTU-21: I think the biggest characteristic ofTaipei is that a lot of different areas in the citywere built in different periods. Some areaswere built in the Qing dynasty, . . . some facili-ties like the roads were built during the Japa-nese colonization. After World War II, theTaiwanese government also built Taipei city’sown city district. So there are a lot of historicallayers in Taipei city. I think that is really inter-esting to see. (A foreign student from Japan)

A.S. Ma


Many overseas Chinese students at NTU notonly emphasised their cultural and social famili-arity with Taipei, they also expressed a strongsense of attachment and nostalgia toward thiscity.

AB004: It’s comfortable living in Taipei,because I feel it’s quite convenient here. . . . Ipersonally want to stay in Taipei. . . . It’s likemy second home. (An overseas Chinese fromIndonesia)

For many foreign students, especially thosenot from Asia, studying and living in Taipei ofteninvolved considerable personal transformation.Compared with overseas Chinese students, theynormally did not plan to linger in the city; theywere more likely to view this part of life as anenriching experience linked to their life backhome upon their return or as a stepping-stonefor them to move to a third country. As oneMexican student described his experience andfuture plan:

TU-15: It’s such a life-changing experience tocome here to Taipei, especially if you’re notAsian, if it’s your first time inAsia, and you comehere and you never learn Chinese and you haveto learn Chinese. Like twenty new things at thesame time. So you would have a shock; not onlyculture shock, but your life gets a shock. . . . Iwas being treated like a toddler again, it’s likeresetting your life. It’s a reset button, you startfrom zero. . . . After what I’ve achieved anddone with my life here, I am considering goingto a third country [for a PhD].

Conclusion

By employing survey data and biographic inter-views of overseas Chinese students and foreignstudents studying at NTU in Taipei, Taiwan, thispaper found that social networks play a criticalrole in shaping international students’ destina-tion choices, study experiences and attachmentto the host city. Not only were overseas Chinesestudents more likely to rely on mainly ethnicallybased transnational migration networks for infor-mation and advice prior to their migration, theywere also more likely to find their best friends inthe coethnic community on campus in the hostsociety. Through dense, multiplex and clusteredsocial ties within the overseas Chinese commu-nities back home, and incessant flows of incom-

ing overseas Chinese students and returnedgraduates, a self-sustained transnational studentmigration system between the sending countryand Taiwan based on Chinese ethnicity wascreated. This extensive transnational migrationnetwork facilitates the migration streams of over-seas Chinese students by transmitting informa-tion, providing support and guidance, andserving as a safety valve for incoming and currentstudents studying in the host society. While theoperation of this transnational migration networkdemonstrates the characteristics of familiarity,trustworthiness, solidarity and reciprocal obliga-tions entailed in the guanxi network, it does notdiscourage its members from forming externalconnections. This network concurrently pro-vides a bridge between the community of over-seas Chinese students and the local populationby helping its members immerse themselves inthe local milieu and connects cities and regions.Subsequently, although overseas Chinese stu-dents are more likely to find friends within thecircle of ethnic Chinese formed by conationalsand those from other countries, they find it easierto mix in the Taiwanese society and enjoy moreof the host city.

In contrast, foreign students not only rely lesson social networks for information and adviceprior to their migration but also are more likelyto make friends with people outside of theirnationality group at the destination. The rela-tively small size of conational groups and theweak cohesion within the foreign student popu-lation at NTU and in Taipei prevented mostforeign students from viewing these social net-works as a significant source of information orsupport either prior to migration or during theirstudy in the host society. This may motivateforeign students to seek friendships and connec-tions outside of their own nationality group.Nevertheless, their relationships with the localsare often constrained by their limited linguisticability and cultural knowledge of the hostsociety, thus making it more difficult for them toblend into the local life.

The results further demonstrate the signifi-cance of embodied cultural capital in shapinginternational students’ adaptability and localexperiences. The difference in the embodiedcultural capital held by overseas Chinese stu-dents and foreign students not only influencedtheir ability to adjust to the host setting and



experience it with locals but these differences inadaptability and local experiences furtherwidened the gap in embodied cultural capitalbetween these two groups. On the one hand,overseas Chinese students generally had morelinguistic capital and cultural knowledge priorto study in Taiwan. Upon arrival, their learningand employment patterns allowed them to havefrequent contact with locals on and off campus.The transnational migration network alsoassisted its new members in learning the ropesin academic and daily life, and similarities inethnic traits with the local population furthergranted them the opportunity to be able to dis-guise their foreignness. These factors allow for adeeper understanding and closer friendships tobe established between overseas Chinese stu-dents and the locals, and under these conditionsoverseas Chinese students were able to immersethemselves in the social life of the host city. Onthe other hand, foreign students were generallyweaker in their Chinese language ability andcultural knowledge when they came to Taiwan.The frail transnational migration networks pro-vided little help in overcoming its members’language and cultural barriers. Consequently,foreign students were more likely to encountermore adjustment difficulties and experience asense of distancing. For the cultural capitalembedded in migration networks to have a posi-tive effect on facilitating migration and adjust-ment, its transnational transferability is crucial.

Although international students at NTU gen-erally recognised and appreciated the cosmo-politan quality of Taipei, a difference existedbetween overseas Chinese students and foreignstudents in their orientation toward the city. Thisdifference was shaped not only by their differ-ential formation of social networks and embod-ied cultural capital but also by the distinctivecity imaginaries constructed by the Taiwan gov-ernment in appealing to these two groups. Thistwo city imaginaries were based on the govern-ment’s differential perceptions of the culturalcapital held respectively by overseas Chinesestudents and foreign students. The primordialistrhetoric in Taiwan’s efforts to recruit overseasChinese not only created a welcoming contextof reception but also constructed the hostsociety as a cultural ‘home’ to these ethnicChinese, and in this context Taipei was per-ceived as the heartland. This city image, along

with the rich social capital embedded inthe transnational migration network and theembodied cultural capital upheld by overseasChinese students, shaped their sense of attach-ment toward the host city. In contrast, Taipei wasdepicted to foreign students as an emergingAsian global city that was a dynamic mixture oftradition and modernity with a distinctive cul-tural element. Although most foreign studentsexperienced friendly encounters with the locals,their general unfamiliarity with the Chinese lan-guage and culture generated a challenge forforming close ties with the local population andbeing actively engaged in the local community.The cosmopolitan features of Taipei allowedthem to live in the city with relative ease butnevertheless stay estranged from it. Being lessattached to this host city, many foreign studentsviewed Taipei as a transit city en route to return-ing home or to another destination.

Acknowledgements

This work was supported by the Singapore Min-istry of Education (Academic Research Fund Tier2 Grant, MOE 20089-T2-1-101) and TaiwanNational Science Council (NSC 96-2412-H-004-004-MY2). The author would like to thankKong Chong Ho and Francis Collins for theirhelpful comments on earlier versions of thispaper.

Notes

1 The term ‘overseas Chinese student’ refers to those ofChinese ancestry who were born and raised abroadprior to school application, or individuals who residedoverseas for more than six consecutive years andacquired visas for studying abroad, in addition to over-seas student status or citizenship. The definition of ‘over-seas’ is limited to ‘countries or regions other thanMainland China, Hong Kong and Macau’ (OverseasCommunity Affairs Council, 2011), although studentsfrom Hong Kong and Macau enjoy the same benefits.The term ‘foreign student’ refers to a student of foreignnationality who has never held nationality status fromthe Republic of China (Taiwan) and does not possess anoverseas Chinese student status; an individual whoholds dual citizenship must have his/her ROC (Taiwan-ese) citizenship annulled for eight years to qualify (Min-istry of Education, 2012).

2 An inter-university organisation responsible for overseasChinese student admissions in Taiwan.

3 In the survey question, the self-evaluation of Chineselanguage proficiency consisted of four dimensions:speaking, listening, reading and writing.

A.S. Ma


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