Last Updated on May 12, 2025 by stlplace
For Chinese (Mandarin) version, you may listen to this podcast (YT Video). Note I didn’t reveal same exact details as below and the YT version may be longer in terms of content as well.
Wide gap between China and the US then
I think in simple terms, I wanted to come to the US and take a look. But there is more than that, because a bystander would ask, if you just want to take a look, you can just come for a visit.
Let me explain to you. I think “take a look” is more than literally “take a look”. It’s somewhat like when one says “check out a girl or a guy” for a date. It’s not actually you go and look at the other person closely. That’s not how it works,. So here a better explanation is “come to the USA, study for a few years” and get a real feel about it. As to why not just visit, or a few visits, not only it’s not practical for most Chinese people like me, due to visa restrictions, economy condition and so on, but also considering my original intent explained above.
Another reason, for me personally at least, “going abroad for study or graduate school” is a sort of dream, somewhat like going to college after high school (this is the blog post I wrote why I went to my college HUST, in Chinese). Not a lot kids in my village elementary school class attended college (in fact only 2 from my understanding, also a girl went to nursing school and become a nurse, she is the girl I liked, I understand it was at elementary school but I can still like somebody right 🙂
Along those lines, I think during the time I applied for graduate school in the USA, going abroad or studying abroad was still considered both an achievement by itself and a worthy cause or endeavor. Again I think this is mainly because China is way behind the west on economy, science and technology. Here is a chart that compares China and the US economy since 1960. If you look at the chart for a bit, in terms of purchasing power (not USD based GDP or something), China’s economy already eclipsed the USA in last few years. That’s one backdrop behind the current USA’s unprovoked trade war (tariffs) against China.
One example was seeing the bridges over the sea in Florida Key West area, in the 1994 movie True Lies. I recall seeing the movie in SH around that time. I want to find it in my own eyes that the things I saw in the movie is real. After coming to this country for almost 28 years, I haven’t made it to the key west bridges yet – but I believe they are real 🙂 A few years ago during pandemic, actually we planned about a vacation to south Florida, I think it was Everglades National Park and Key west. But we cancelled it eventually because of lack of interest for the group: we had 3 families and at the time it seems the interest just was not there.
Offer and visa
This also means usually only the students who received scholarships from the American universities got to come to study at the US then. I vaguely recall I heard from a professor in Rolla in June 1996, via email. Note that time email was still quite new in China. And I had to borrow email account and computer service from a friend in Fudan University at that time. Actually a bunch of my friends used the same email account, and they all got offer before me. And my offer came probably in late June.
During visa application/appointment, I vividly remember the girl who lined up next to me, at the US consulate SH then, and she didn’t have scholarships because she is studying for hospitality. But to her surprise, her visa was approved. I think a possible reason is that day is July 3rd, and the consulate people were happy and in July 4th holiday mood. But again this is rare case – a lot students’ visa application got denied because they are self funded.
I failed when I tried to get into SJTU (twice)
As I wrote in in my other blog post – How I went to the HUST 我为什么去了华中理工大学: I wanted attending the SJTU 上海交通大學 in Shanghai when I graduated from my high school.
And in year 1992/1993, when I had the opportunity to apply for graduate school, which in China is basically mainly done by 研究生入学考试 Graduate Student Entrance Exam, in a way similar to the world famous Gaokao.
Some more background information, in China, back in those days probably only 3 cities are considered top tier, Beijing, Shanghai and Guangzhou. And for people who are from Zhejiang and Jiangsu provinces, I think Shanghai usually has special place in the heart because it’s neighboring both provinces.
But I failed again getting into SJTU in the Graduate Student Entrance Exam in 1993, after failing in 1989 in the Gaokao.
Going aboard is, in a way, best revenge to prove myself, and in many ways, graduate schools in the US at that time late 1990s, including University of Missouri at Rolla (now Missouri University of Science and Technology), are better than most Chinese universities including SJTU.
北漂
This experience also somewhat reminds me of 北漂, Google search 为什么歌手要北漂
胡彦斌答上海歌手为何北漂：没人想舍近求远. Quote:
对于我作为音乐制作人身份来讲，北京职业乐手的选择会比上海多，可以更贴切地选择我想用的乐手来丰富音乐品质。这样可以大大的减少乐手录音的差旅费用而降低制作成本。我在北京有自己的录音棚，可以相对独立地完成音乐创作和制作。而对一般音乐人来说，在北京会有更多的作曲人、填词人、制作人、录音棚、录音师等相关一切的配套选择。
When I first arrived at the apartment at 805 State Street in Rolla, it somewhat reminds me of Shanghainese in Tokyo or Shanghai migrant workers in Japan. It was a bit rough, to say the least. But I know the rent is fairly low or very cheap.
What to write next?
I think I am going to talk more about “my 1st impression of America”, and “how I feel about America now” in my later series on this America topic.