Interesting - A New Chinese Invasion

What implications does this article in today's (November 7, 2010) New York Times hold for America? Are these young Chinese planning on staying and getting jobs upon graduation? Are they going to be Americanized and take our values of freedom and democracy back to China? How is this experience going to affect them and can they bring China and America closer together?

The article does not answer my questions. It just brings them to the forefront. The article is long but I believe worth the read and thinking about its potential.

From the article:
After a year, Ms. Liu believes she is less of the quiet-Asian-nerd stereotype that she had felt followed her through Yale’s Gothic hallways. Now she wears makeup, raises her hand in class, and has a different perspective than her friends in China, according to whom “I’m contaminated by American culture and not Chinese anymore.”

Perhaps most unsettling to Chinese students is the robust activist culture on campus, where young Americans find their voices on issues like war, civil rights and immigration. In China, protests are illegal and vocal dissent forbidden, and on sensitive topics like Tibet and Taiwan a majority are in lockstep with their government. It can be especially painful hearing Westerners condemn China after growing up steeped in propaganda blaming the West for the suffering before Communism.

With China becoming a world power and so many American high-tech companies investing in China, I was under the impression that our great universities had taken a back seat to the Chinese. Maybe this is not the case. One thing that is obvious to me is the importance that these students' parents place on education. As heavy as the cost burden is for families here, without government assistance the cost for a Chinese family must be staggering.

For the entire article, click on the link below.
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/11/07/education/07china-t.html?_r=1&ref=us