Feature: An uphill struggle: Chinese students' endeavor to fit in on U.S. campus

On a summer day in 2010, 18-year-old Jane Yu quick-stepped through the cool morning wind in Iowa state, central U.S., a backpack over her shoulder. She was a freshman of the Iowa State University.

"Well, I fit in to the new environment quickly. However, sometimes when an 'American joke' popped up during a lecture and the whole class burst into laughter except me, it was a little bit awkward."

"But I would still laugh with them even though I did not quite get it," she joked. "However, it was a bit frustrating then -- seeing myself a cultural outsider on occasions like this when students interact with professors."

To acquaint herself with U.S. pop culture, Jane watched regularly the Daily Show, a satirical news program then hosted by comedian Jon Stewart. "It was one of my favorite news program. I love it because it delivers something very serious through humor."

Fast forward to 2015, Jane is now a graduate of the Columbia University. "If you spent a lot of time to learn American pop culture, you will gradually get these jokes. But these are still my 'blind spots'," she admitted.

Jane's endeavor to navigate through a different culture and her feeling of being an "outsider" is shared by many Chinese students who came to study at American schools over the past few years.

Latest statistics showed that more than 304,000 students from China were studying in U.S. colleges and universities in the 2014-15 academic year, accounting for 31.2 percent of all international students.

A growing middle class in home country and U.S. universities' push for a global education contributed to the influx of international students, particularly from China, analysts said.

However, while American schools go to great lengths to recruit Chinese students, the influx of international students has also left them unprepared in terms of helping them assimilate to local communities.

A recent study found that nearly 40 percent of international students reported having no close American friends. And students from China and elsewhere in East Asia said their efforts to fit in at school is, more or less, a struggle.

"When Chinese international students come to my office, one of the very first questions they have -- rarely an academic one -- is 'how do I make American friends?'," said Sebastian Cherng, assistant professor of international education with the New York University (NYU).

"It is difficult," he said. "We are a very diverse society, but we are also a very segregated society."

There are reasons for concern. Take a stroll on the campus on any given day, one can easily sense the nuanced boundaries: most students are hanging out with schoolmates of their own ethnicity.

Though most American students believe Chinese students are a positive addition to the classroom, making friends with them is a different matter.

To most Chinese students, for all their efforts to mingle, there always seems to be an invisible line.

Ya Lin, an alumna of the New York-based Fordham University, said: "Most Chinese students will actively participate in social networking events, such as happy hour or alumni gathering, but it is hard to maintain and develop the relationship."

Speaking along similar lines, Linda, also a Fordham alumna, said it is easy to make acquaintance with local American students, but very hard to forge closer ties with them.

The tendency to seek for friends with similar backgrounds is one reason, Cherng said.

"Even in place like NYU which is incredibly diverse, people will stick to what they know. Your English sounds different from mine and if I make pop culture inferences, you may not know. We may not watch the same TV shows, we may not like the same food. So to make friends and to cross those borders, it takes efforts."

In his view, the responsibility to cross those boundaries lies in American students. "I think uniformly Chinese international students are very willing to make that effort, I think a lot of responsibility needs to be placed on American students."

Meanwhile, Chergn said he believed universities should offer more programs to both American and international students that facilitate mutual understanding and interaction.

Peter Kwong, professor of urban affairs and planning at Hunter College, also agreed that universities ought to make the efforts to help foreign students fit in U.S. universities.

"But whether they see that as a priority is a different story. The pressure is not there," he said. "They don't see responsibility in terms of bridging cultural gap."

Still, changes are happening.

Many universities are spending considerable time and efforts to attract more international students, as well ensuring they are academically supported, particularly in terms of language, Chergn said.

Jia Wei, an MBA student at NYU's Stern School of Business, told Xinhua: "Stern has some very good program for the orientation, it is called launch. During the two-week activities, there is a lot of interaction between us and other students that will help us adapt to campus life."

"Meanwhile, we have different societies. I am on board of Asian Business Society, and every year we have a 'cultural trek' to Asia. A lot of Americans will subscribe for the trek. They are eager to learn Asian culture through the program."

At NYU which boasts the highest number of international students in the United States, Chergn is currently working with one international graduate student who is designing and running an Intergroup Dialogue course for NYU undergraduates on the topic of race, immigration, and international students.

"Since coming to NYU, I've worked with the Center for Multicultural Education Programs. Part of their mission is to run workshops for both NYU and non-NYU groups that model how to have conversations that are important for both U.S. domestic and international students," he said.

"We need to be better, and we cannot invite so many international students and also not be trained, not to have a conversation about what it looks like when so many classmate are not from your context, not from your country. We cannot just assume that because we are, that all of the relationships can happen," he noted. Enditem