The tendency for Taiwanese businesspeople to let their children to study in China has been one of the most significant issues in journalism in recent years. The main contribution of this study is to explore the two factors---competitiveness and character, affecting perceptions of Taiwanese parents in China over their children’s study plan. We approached actual Taiwanese businesspeople, parents, educators, who provided valuable information about competitiveness and character which influenced their perception and decision.
Firstly, when manpower and capital flows are landed in China. The decision of bringing kids to China is not only the concern of family reunion but also the investment of children’s future. Going to China, the children will face more competitive learning environment and more international surroundings such as mass media, teachers and peer groups. It is speculated that the tendency of letting children study in China has been rising under the aroma of China’s emergence. On nearly all of the indicators that we adopted, parents in China are approved of the competitiveness cultivation for their children. Secondly, from educators’ point of view, more and more educators are aware of the education progress of China. Many principals-to-be go to China as a visiting mission to understand the cross strait education present situation. When they visit some local key schools, they are impressed by the Chinese students’ expression ability and hard studying.
The students who study in key schools have quite strong competitiveness to compare with our students. Thirdly, the Taiwanese businesspeople have found the important niche for children to study in China locally is the networks. When the world fixes its eyes upon China, the interaction with the locals is necessary for people from all walks of life to learn. Only when they know how to get together with, they can be able to have opportunities to run a business or invest locally. Especially China has distinctive national feature, particularly networks. Once you have good networking, things will go your way more smoothly. Last but not the least, according to the fieldwork conducted in Shanghai, many Taiwanese students study locally in China have an imperceptible feeling that they don’t want to be left behind. So these students could pay more attention to study when stand on others’ turf. They unconsciously know they have to work harder to stand firmly
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in China. Unlike they study in Taiwan, they are in a comfortable area and do not strive up to go through the simplified character or challenging curriculum problems. Overall, internationalization, competitive studying environment, training up expression ability, building networks and mental influence to work at one’s utmost locally construct these Taiwanese students’ competitiveness that makes parents incline to let children study in China.
Notwithstanding such competitiveness approval of China, parents still concern local living and education environment to have unsupportive influence on their kids’ character and moral personality development. Many Taiwanese businesspeople leave their kids in Taiwan just because of the concern of character cultivation. For most Taiwanese parents, they care more about children’s character and moral personality and present a point that is since there is only one time for kids’ growth, they should put children’s moral personality and character in the first place. In China, the living environment is not satisfying because of the comprehensive quality still needs time to improve. Many behaviors and manners are not that proper from our views since Taiwanese people have gone through the enhancement of civilization. Though there is an advancement gradually but the level still is not as the same as ours. Except for the visual behavior or manners, many Taiwanese parents concern the intuitive ability to know right or wrong. Since China has opened up in 1990s, there is still a lot immature. We share different values in many aspects such as wealth and fame means almost everything to Chinese but not to Taiwanese. Even the scholar Liu Sun-chi, who has devoted to researching Chinese education for more than twenty years, when he is asked if he will send his children to study college in China, he ponders for a while and says no. He says that there is still mist for him to understand local education in China.34 From the fieldwork conducted in Shanghai and Taipei, this paper finds that the parents care more about their children’s character and moral personality cultivation. Our study finds that character is highly correlated with the parents’ decision over their kids’ study plan. Otherwise the parents have to bring their children to China; they will select schools very carefully to safeguard their kids’ character and moral personality degradation.
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As a result, Taiwanese parents in China compromise between competitiveness and character. Combined with the trend of studying in China, the study plan for kids is cautiously arranged. That is, Taiwanese parents bring their kids to study in China but they definitely select schools for their children very carefully, not to let their children blend into local society completely. The study finds the parents would normally choose Taiwanese businessmen’s school, international or private schools. The above mentioned schools guarantee the average economic level classmate that represent the students behave more adequately from Taiwanese people’s point views. Since the elite family creates elite students, the classmates have better backgrounds. As for Taiwanese parents, they rest ease at the condition and are will to let children get in touch with these local students, implying for future networks. Still Taiwanese parents focus greatly on children’s values cultivation by family education in order to ensure their kids moral personality. All in all, Taiwanese parents will pay attention to family education and also school selection to safeguard their children from character and personality degradation.
Education has been identified in sociological research as a catalyst of social, economic and ideational change.35 What implications will the Taiwanese children study in China have on our next generation? From the fieldwork research, this paper find the hedge between Taiwan and China has vanished gradually particularly under the influence of soft medium---education. Taiwanese students to study in China are no more viewed as unusual or minority group. They have the local living experiences to enhance the mutual understanding of Taiwan and China. This experience becomes more prevalent when the group becomes larger. The hedge disappears gradually hence the discrimination towards China lowers slowly. Nowadays when we go into a Starbucks or restaurant in Taipei, we can hear people next to us talk about Shanghai experience; also when we are in Shanghai, we can meet many Taiwanese people who live, work or study locally. The boundary seems to dissolve. Character or competitiveness, the struggle among Taiwanese businessmen’s concerns over their children study plan exists presently. However when the time is spanned, the struggle is not simply a problem for Taiwanese businesspeople over their children’s study plan, but for much of the rest of the Taiwanese society such as economic development and politics condition as well.
35 See note 6.
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