Haigui

Haigui (simplified Chinese: 海归; traditional Chinese: 海歸; pinyin: hǎiguī) is a Chinese language slang term for Chinese nationals who have returned to mainland China after having studied abroad.[1] The term is a pun on the homophonic hǎiguī (simplified Chinese: 海龟; traditional Chinese: 海龜) meaning "sea turtle".

For the major tropical storm, see Typhoon Haikui (2023).
"Sea turtle" in Chinese (海龟; 海龜) is a homophone of the term for a student returned from study overseas

Graduates from foreign universities used to be highly sought out by employers in China. A 2017 study found that haigui are now less likely to receive a callback from potential employers compared to Chinese students with a Chinese degree.[2] Possible causes of this reversal include the rising quality of Chinese education institutions and the high salary demands of haigui.[3]

Over 800,000 recently graduated haigui returned to China in 2020, an increase of 70% from 2019, largely due to the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic.[4]

Motivations

Some haigui have returned to China due to the late-2000s recession in the U.S. and Europe.[5] According to PRC government statistics, only a quarter of the 1.2 million Chinese people who have gone abroad to study in the past 30 years have returned.[5] As MIT Sloan School of Management professor Yasheng Huang, an American, states:

The Chinese educational system is terrible at producing workers with innovative skills for Chinese economy. It produces people who memorize existing facts rather than discovering new facts; who fish for existing solutions rather than coming up with new ones; who execute orders rather than inventing new ways of doing things. In other words they do not solve problems for their employers.[6]

Etymology and history

The word is a pun, as hai 海 means "ocean" and gui 龟; 龜 is a homophone of gui 归; 歸 meaning "to return". The name was first used by Ren Hong, a young man returning to China as a graduate of Yale University seven years after leaving aboard a tea freighter from Guangzhou to the United States.[7]

Notable haigui

See also

References
  1. Fan, Cindy (March 7, 2010). "Materialism and Social Unrest". New York Times.
  2. Fraiberg, S., Wang, X., & You, X. (2017). Inventing the world grant university: Chinese international students’ mobilities, literacies, and identities. Utah State University Press, An imprint of University Press of Colorado.
  3. "Overseas Chinese Try to Build a Community in Homeland". China Daily.
  4. China's overseas graduates return in record numbers into already crowded domestic job market He Huifeng, South China Morning Post , 21 September 2020
  5. Zhou, Wanfeng (December 17, 2008). "China goes on the road to lure "sea turtles" home". Reuters.
  6. Huang, Yasheng (March 7, 2010). "A Terrible Education System". New York Times.
  7. "Hai Gui: The Sea Turtles Come Marching Home". Asia Pacific Management Forum. Archived from the original on 2013-01-17.
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