American Students in China: A Comprehensive and Regional Analysis Based on Google Trends Data

Zai Liang , State University of New York at Albany
Yang Zhou, Xi;an Jiaotong University

At a time when China-U.S. relations are strained, international students from both countries play a crucial role as practitioners and facilitators of the "soft landing" of bilateral relations, and they hold strategic importance for public diplomacy and humanistic exchanges between the two nations. Much has been written about Chinese students in the United States, the current study focuses instead on American students studying in China. Drawing on several sources of data, we describe the characteristics and trends of American students in China, and examine a variety of issues including their fields of study, scholarship support, and future aspirations. We further explore possible factors behind these patterns. Based on the results from our time series model, we argue that the most important driving forces behind the trend of Americans studying in China are China's economic trajectory and interest in Chinese language learning. The last part of the paper addresses shifts in American users' Google search behavior related to studying in China and entertains some policy discussions.

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 Presented in Session 59. Digitalisation, Intergenerational Relations and Wellbeing in Later Life