Mainland Chinese students at an elite Hong Kong university: Habitus-field disjuncture in a transborder context

Mainland Chinese students at an elite Hong Kong university: Habitus-field disjuncture in a transborder context

• Xu, Cora Lingling University of Cambridge

British Journal of Sociology of Education, 38(5), 610-624, 2017

Routledge

2017

• A Human Growth & Development
  • AE Socioeconomic & Cultural Differences, Class & Family Background
• N Students & Student Services
  • NN Overseas Students in Hong Kong
• Q Philosophy of Education, Educational System & School At Different Levels
  • QE Post-Secondary Education

Education Bourdieu Habitus Field Hysteresis Hong Kong Mainland China Privileges Social Capital Higher Education Students Entitlement Valuation Cultural Capital Conversion Articles Disappointment Undergraduate Students Capital Chinese People Ambivalence Ed

• Hong Kong
• China

• 1997.7 onwards

• Post-Secondary Education

Drawing on in-depth interview data from 31 mainland Chinese (MLC) students in a Hong Kong university, this article conceptualises MLC and Hong Kong higher education as two dissonant but interrelated subfields of the Chinese higher education field. The article argues that these MLC students' habitus, one that possesses rich economic, social and cultural capital, prompts a strong sense of entitlement to anticipated privileges. However, this sense of entitlement is disrupted by the differential capital valuations across these fields. There is thus notable habitus-field disjuncture, which, exacerbated by the hysteresis effect, gives rise to a sense of disappointment and ambivalence. This article demonstrates how the Hong Kong education credential, which these students initially set out to pursue as a form of capital, can become a disadvantage at multiple levels; the article illustrates that capital valuation and conversion in a transborder context is not a straightforward, but rather a complicated and sometimes contradictory, process.
[© 2016 Informa UK Limited, trading as Taylor & Francis Group]

• English

Journal Articles

• 01425692

• 10.1080/01425692.2016.1158642

https://bibliography.lib.eduhk.hk/en/bibs/14a961cc

2017-10-09