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

Xu, Cora Lingling

Abstract

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.

Citation

Xu, C. L. (2017). Mainland Chinese students at an elite Hong Kong university: habitus–field disjuncture in a transborder context. British Journal of Sociology of Education, 38(5), 610-624. https://doi.org/10.1080/01425692.2016.1158642

• Journal Article Type: Article
• Acceptance Date: Feb 11, 2016
• Online Publication Date: Apr 7, 2016
• Publication Date: 2017
• Deposit Date: Aug 26, 2020
• Publicly Available Date: Aug 27, 2020
• Journal: British Journal of Sociology of Education
• Print ISSN: 0142-5692
• Electronic ISSN: 1465-3346
• Publisher: Taylor and Francis Group
• Peer Reviewed: Peer Reviewed
• Volume: 38
• Issue: 5
• Pages: 610-624
• DOI: https://doi.org/10.1080/01425692.2016.1158642
• Public URL: https://durham-repository.worktribe.com/output/1293994
• Related Public URLs: https://eprints.keele.ac.uk/2186/