Message from Clay Dube

[clay dube]

Hi Adele,

I'm impressed, too, by the many Chinese families who have the wherewithal to send their children to expensive schools in the States. The number of students coming to USC to study as undergrads is rising fast. You're talking though about even younger kids. It is a remarkable trend. For years, though, Taiwanese parents have been buying homes in California and sending their kids to school here. They hire a housekeeper who plays the role of aunt as far as the school authorities are concerned. In some cases this is about escaping the exam culture and in others it is about escaping mandatory military service. These are known as parachute kids.

An article about a worst case story:
1999 http://asianweek.com/070899/news_parachute.html

This article talks about the rise of alternative schools in Taiwan as a way of keeping families from sending kids off:
http://taiwanreview.nat.gov.tw/ct.asp?xitem=99562&ctnode=1359&mp=1

And here's a boarding school that's opened in Massachusetts expressly for Chinese students:
http://www.wbur.org/2009/06/25/mass-intl-academy