Are Chinese people falling out of love with the Western dream?
- Fewer young adults regard the West as a place to look up to, according to survey by research centre affiliated to Chinese state-run tabloid
- ‘Social strata in the US are deeply entrenched because of [the lack of] education and unequal opportunities created by races and poverty,’ blogger says
When Jade Deng was about to give birth at a hospital in San Antonio, Texas in July, she was shocked to learn that staff at the Chinese consulate in Houston were burning documents.
“Why did they do that?” the 33-year-old former garden designer from central China’s Hubei province asked her husband, who at the time was studying for a PhD in biology at the University of Texas in San Antonio.
“Because the consulate will close soon,” he said.
The Dengs had planned to stay in the US if the husband could find a job after graduating. But the fraught relationship between China and the US and the suspicion of Chinese scientists on US campuses convinced them it was no longer a land of opportunity.
In January, they returned to Hubei to start a new life. “It’s hard for a Chinese to be really a part of US society,” Jade said.