Description
In Dreams of Flight, Fran Martin explores how young Chinese women negotiate competing pressures on their identity while studying abroad. On one hand, unmarried middle-class women in the single-child generations are encouraged to develop themselves as professional human capital through international education, molding themselves into independent, cosmopolitan, career-oriented individuals. On the other, strong neotraditionalist state, social, and familial pressures of the post-Mao era push them back toward marriage and family by age thirty. Martin examines these women's motivations for studying in Australia and traces their embodied and emotional experiences of urban life, social media worlds, work in low-skilled and professional jobs, romantic relationships, religion, Chinese patriotism, and changed self-understanding after study abroad. Martin illustrates how emerging forms of gender, class, and mobility fundamentally transform the basis of identity for a whole generation of Chinese women.
About the Author
Fran Martin is Reader in Cultural Studies at the University of Melbourne, author of Backward Glances: Contemporary Chinese Cultures and the Female Homoerotic Imaginary, and coauthor of Telemodernities: Television and Transforming Lives in Asia, both also published by Duke University Press.
Reviews
"Fran Martin describes with great sensitivity and empathy how it feels to be a 'Chinese international student' in a Western metropolis and how their 'dreams of flight'-away from the strictures of neotraditional femininity and toward an aspired mobile, cosmopolitan self-must navigate the impositions of family, gender, race, and nation. In a time of rising tensions between China and the West, Dreams of Flight reminds us of the human ordinariness and heterogeneity of people who are all-too-easily homogenized and ostracized as 'the Chinese.'" -- Ien Ang, author of * On Not Speaking Chinese: Living between Asia and the West *
"Dreams of Flight exemplifies the best in theoretically engaged ethnography. It tells the stories of the research participants in a beautiful, lyrical way while making nuanced and sophisticated theoretical arguments based on their experiences. It also offers a deeper understanding of Chinese students in Australia, a country that is understudied in the literature on transnational Chinese students, most of which focuses on the United States and the United Kingdom. Specialists in China studies, migration studies, international education, anthropology, and sociology will all welcome this outstanding work." -- Vanessa L. Fong, author of * Paradise Redefined: Transnational Chinese Students and the Quest for Flexible Citizenship in the Developed World *
"[Martin's] offers a unique blend of ethnographic observation, individual narrative, and theoretical considerations and is an excellent addition to the field of gender studies and the study of educational mobility." -- Zeyi Liu * Journal of International Women's Studies *
"This remarkable book provides a rare deep dive into the lives of a group of people who are often the subject of unfounded stereotypes and misunderstanding. . . . Very seldom do we have the opportunity to hear from Chinese students themselves about their lives, experiences, and worldviews. . . . This book provides a deep sense of the complexities and contradictions inherent in transnational mobility, showing us the dangers of simple narratives, and most of all, allowing the everyday humanity of Chinese students to shine through." -- Christina Ho * Pacific Affairs *
"Dreams of Flight is an invaluable resource for scholars, advanced undergraduates, and graduate students seeking a comparison or contrast to these present circumstances, a pleasurable and informative ethnography, and stimulating discussions of its themes and relevant theories." -- Arianne M. Gaetano * Feminist Encounters *
"Dreams of Flight needs to be read as an incredibly rich and rewarding contribution to the understanding of the increasing entanglement of international education with migration trajectories. . . . Dreams of Flight will prove invaluable for scholars who are seeking to understand their interlocutors' trajectories from the perspective of both home and host country as they navigate multiple alliances, expectations and dreams." -- Fran Martin * Journal of Development Studies *
Book Information
ISBN 9781478017615
Author Fran Martin
Format Paperback
Page Count 368
Imprint Duke University Press
Publisher Duke University Press
Weight(grams) 499g
About the Author
Fran Martin is Reader in Cultural Studies at the University of Melbourne, author of Backward Glances: Contemporary Chinese Cultures and the Female Homoerotic Imaginary, and coauthor of Telemodernities: Television and Transforming Lives in Asia, both also published by Duke University Press.
Reviews
"Fran Martin describes with great sensitivity and empathy how it feels to be a 'Chinese international student' in a Western metropolis and how their 'dreams of flight'-away from the strictures of neotraditional femininity and toward an aspired mobile, cosmopolitan self-must navigate the impositions of family, gender, race, and nation. In a time of rising tensions between China and the West, Dreams of Flight reminds us of the human ordinariness and heterogeneity of people who are all-too-easily homogenized and ostracized as 'the Chinese.'" -- Ien Ang, author of * On Not Speaking Chinese: Living between Asia and the West *
"Dreams of Flight exemplifies the best in theoretically engaged ethnography. It tells the stories of the research participants in a beautiful, lyrical way while making nuanced and sophisticated theoretical arguments based on their experiences. It also offers a deeper understanding of Chinese students in Australia, a country that is understudied in the literature on transnational Chinese students, most of which focuses on the United States and the United Kingdom. Specialists in China studies, migration studies, international education, anthropology, and sociology will all welcome this outstanding work." -- Vanessa L. Fong, author of * Paradise Redefined: Transnational Chinese Students and the Quest for Flexible Citizenship in the Developed World *
"[Martin's] offers a unique blend of ethnographic observation, individual narrative, and theoretical considerations and is an excellent addition to the field of gender studies and the study of educational mobility." -- Zeyi Liu * Journal of International Women's Studies *
"This remarkable book provides a rare deep dive into the lives of a group of people who are often the subject of unfounded stereotypes and misunderstanding. . . . Very seldom do we have the opportunity to hear from Chinese students themselves about their lives, experiences, and worldviews. . . . This book provides a deep sense of the complexities and contradictions inherent in transnational mobility, showing us the dangers of simple narratives, and most of all, allowing the everyday humanity of Chinese students to shine through." -- Christina Ho * Pacific Affairs *
"Dreams of Flight is an invaluable resource for scholars, advanced undergraduates, and graduate students seeking a comparison or contrast to these present circumstances, a pleasurable and informative ethnography, and stimulating discussions of its themes and relevant theories." -- Arianne M. Gaetano * Feminist Encounters *
"Dreams of Flight needs to be read as an incredibly rich and rewarding contribution to the understanding of the increasing entanglement of international education with migration trajectories. . . . Dreams of Flight will prove invaluable for scholars who are seeking to understand their interlocutors' trajectories from the perspective of both home and host country as they navigate multiple alliances, expectations and dreams." -- Fran Martin * Journal of Development Studies *
Book Information
ISBN 9781478017615
Author Fran Martin
Format Paperback
Page Count 368
Imprint Duke University Press
Publisher Duke University Press
Weight(grams) 499g
