China Youth Daily Client News (China Youth Daily·China Youth Daily reporter Hu Wenli) In 1872, Rong Hong led the first batch of 30 children to the United States, thus starting a wave of study abroad in China's modern history. By 2022, it will be 150 years since China’s first batch of government-sponsored students went abroad. For more than a hundred years, from the wave of overseas students to the wave of "returnees", the flow of international talents in China has made important contributions to China's modernization process and globalization.
As studying abroad becomes increasingly common and younger, “returnees” have become an important social group in contemporary China. Recently, the Think Tank on Globalization (CCG) released the book "Returnees to China", which aims to describe the history, trends and development of the returnees group and draw a panoramic view of the development of the returnee group, so as to promote the role of "returnees" in China's participation in globalization. Play a bigger role. At the "Centennial Wave of Returnees" seminar published by "Returnees to China", many experts and scholars from education, academia, business and other fields focused on the new trends in the development of study abroad and the new role of "returnees" in the new era of globalization. Role discussion.
The development of "returnees" returning to China will present ten major trends
In "Returnees to China", the author systematically summarizes China's century-old history of studying abroad, and elaborates on the trend of studying abroad in China since the 21st century from the two perspectives of studying abroad and "returnees". New changes and trends in the "returnees" wave. At the same time, the author also made new judgments on the ten major trends in the development of Chinese overseas students returning home, including: the return of "returnees" will show a steady growth trend; entrepreneurship will still be the focus of the future; the employment of "returnees" has entered the "Bronze Age"; Local enterprises and second-tier cities will attract more "returnees"; "returnees" will enter the "circulation era"; promote the pace of democratic construction; lead Chinese enterprises to "go global"; promote the development of high-tech emerging industries; improve the level of domestic academic research and explore Innovate educational mechanisms; become a new force in people-to-people diplomacy and promote China's integration with the world.
Cover of "Returning to China". Photo courtesy of Globalization Think Tank
"(Studying abroad) has changed a lot in these years. When (I) first went abroad, there was a big gap between China and foreign countries. There are so many highways in the United States , but China doesn’t even have one. Today, China’s highways (mileage) has exceeded that of the United States "It has become a country with the most expressways in the world, not to mention high-speed rail." According to Pan Qingzhong, executive vice president of Tsinghua University Schwarzman College, today it is more necessary to "go out" and "invite in" than in the past. , so as to achieve "know ourselves and the enemy" and "common development". For more and more international students to choose to "return", China's own development and strength are important prerequisites.
"When I was studying abroad, domestic universities wanted to introduce high-level talents from overseas." Sun Yutao, deputy dean of the School of Economics and Management at Dalian University of Technology, pointed out that studying abroad has now entered the "mass era" from the "elite era", forming a The "'returnees' cycle". An interesting phenomenon is that some international students become professors in foreign universities, then return to China, and then go abroad again. "They keep going out and coming back. When China becomes more and more powerful, the 'returnee' cycle will also become the norm." Sun Yutao It is believed that in order to introduce "returnees", in addition to changes in the country's general environment, changes in the small environment are also important. After "introducing people", they must "use them well" and "retain them" in order to establish a healthy "returnee" talent system.
From the perspective of employment, He Mei, chairman of Wailian Overseas Consulting Group, encouraged international students to choose a career path with a more global perspective, and suggested that they actively pay attention to the global M&A market. She cited a set of data as an example: In 2021, the US M&A market reached US$2.593 trillion, an increase of 102% over the previous year; the UK M&A transaction volume also reached US$322 billion in the same year, twice the previous year. "The rapid expansion of the global M&A market has created a lot of opportunities for 'returnees'. First, they can export Chinese brands and expand their original market share; second, they can choose popular tracks in the M&A market, such as consumption, energy, finance, and services. , medical care, industrial manufacturing, digital new media, etc.," He Mei said.
Communication with the world has changed from "one-way" to "two-way"
In recent years, due to the twists and turns in Sino-US relations, the flow of returnees has also encountered various obstacles. Long Denggao, director of the Chinese Business Research Center at Tsinghua University and Distinguished Professor of the Yangtze River Scholars of the Ministry of Education, said: "In the past, Chinese people in the United States and international students had unimpeded communication with mainland China. But in the era of Sino-US confrontation, some high-end talents have concerns about returning to China for development. Especially high-tech talents.”
Long Denggao pointed out that compared with previous years, the atmosphere of academic exchanges between China and foreign countries has undergone great changes recently. For example, in the past, students at Tsinghua actively sought opportunities to go to Europe and the United States for academic exchanges during their doctoral studies, "begging me to recommend them," but now "I beg them to go abroad, but I can't even push them." In Long Denggao's view, today's information technology has indeed made great progress, and it is becoming more and more convenient to 'study abroad' in China. "But no matter what, studying abroad is certainly different from online communication, and the on-site atmosphere is also different."
According to Wang Mengyan, President of Educational Testing Service (ETS) China, one of the main challenges facing students studying abroad is the issue of visa issuance. In the first half of 2022, the number of Chinese study visas in the United States dropped by about 50%. She believes that although there are many factors behind the decline in the number of visas, it has created a "long tail effect" and will continue to affect more Chinese students' decisions to study abroad in the future. How does
resolve the sluggish academic exchange atmosphere between China and foreign countries and break the growing ice in the study abroad industry under the dual pressures of the COVID-19 epidemic and Sino-US friction? According to experts, "two-way communication" is an important keyword.
"We hope that (China and foreign countries) can strengthen communication from the macro-environmental level, so as to conduct more diversified exchanges and two-way exchanges." Wang Mengyan pointed out that many Sino-foreign cooperative schools have strong enrollment needs for overseas high school students. She suggested that the training of young overseas students should be planned in advance so that they can enter China and understand China earlier. "I hope that more Chinese families and influential overseas schools will cooperate with China in the future and provide more support for China's international education."
, as a "returnee" who has returned to China for 15 years to develop, is the founder and CEO of Neutron Star Innovation Zhang Peng, CEO and chairman of Lianhai Assets, also believes that "returnees" can play a role in two-way communication in industrial development. On the one hand, Chinese companies need to introduce a large number of "returnees" to help Chinese companies develop; on the other hand, "returnees" can help Chinese companies explore international markets and promote Chinese companies to go global. "Chinese home appliances already have brand premiums in Europe and Russia, and China's new energy industries, including electric vehicles , are also occupying an increasing share in the international market." Zhang Peng said that in this process, "returnees "Using our own understanding of the industrial chain has played a big role.
Contemporary "returnees" should become a bridge of communication between China and the world
With the continuous improvement of China's comprehensive national strength, the mission of contemporary "returnees" has also quietly changed.
Liu Ke, dean of the School of Innovation and Entrepreneurship and Clean Energy Research Institute of Southern University of Science and Technology, summarized the "returnees" in the modern history of China into five generations: First, they were pioneers who devoted themselves to the new democratic revolution. , such as Li Dazhao, Chen Duxiu, Zhou Enlai, Deng Xiaoping; the second is the founding fathers who laid the foundation for building a new socialist China, such as the scientists who made significant contributions to the ", two bombs and one star " cause; the third is reform Scholars who introduced foreign development experience and subject knowledge into China after the opening up, such as Wang Boming, Gao Xiqing, Zhang Weiying, Lin Yifu, etc.; the fourth is the high-tech entrepreneurs who emerged in the information age, such as Robin Li, Zhang Chaoyang etc.; fifth are senior intellectuals who have returned to serve in China as China's national strength has grown in recent years, such as Shi Wei, Song Yonghua, Lu HD, etc.
"Each generation of 'returnees' has a historical mission. From now on, our task is to tell Chinese stories well around the world." Liu Ke said that when the "post-80s" and "post-90s" receive overseas education After that, it can become a bridge for communication between the world and China. He encouraged contemporary "returnees" to tell Chinese stories well in a language that the West can understand.
Huaqiao UniversityVice PresidentLin Hongyu believes that the title of the book "Returning to China" can be described as a pun: on the surface it can be understood as referring to the talents returning from studying abroad and China's development, but from a deeper meaning, "returning to China" "It can refer to overseas, maritime civilization and Western civilization, and involves broader interactions and cultural exchanges between Chinese and Western civilizations. In Lin Hongyu's view, "returnees" can become a group of excellent explainers and disseminators of China's stories, a unique force in non-governmental diplomacy, and can play a role that official government channels cannot.
Lin Hongyu said that in today's world, exchanges and mutual learning between civilizations face many obstacles, but the more so, the more elite talents are needed to play their role. Over the past 150 years, the number of Chinese students studying abroad has continued to accumulate and now exceeds 10 million. The flow of talents on this scale is a unique phenomenon in human history. It is produced by the continuous exchange and interaction between Chinese civilization and the outside world for thousands of years. It has positive significance for the harmonious symbiosis, destiny and commonality between China and the West, and will help To build an open, inclusive, diverse and harmonious world.
Editor in charge: Chen Xiaoru
Source: China Youth Daily client
