Chinese ‘Parachute Kid’ Immigrants Dream For Further Education Turns Into A Nightmare

'Parachute kids' are the under-aged foreign students who are sent to live and study in the US without close parental supervision, these students stay with host families while their parents remain in China. They are often not much older than 13, but some can be as young as eight.

Many Chinese parents view sending their young children to a foreign country alone without their physical and emotional support, as a chance to learn a new language and culture and to escape the country's ultracompetitive college-entrance exams, as stated in a South China Post.

 It's one of the Traditional Asian Beliefs that emphasizing education is the key to social mobility, success, and distinction according to Research Gate.

Being unattended can put these kids prone at risk of isolation, increased anxiety and depression or even leads to prison.

In February 2016, three Chinese students jailed over brutal bullying attack of fellow 'parachute kid'.

According to LAtimes , a group of so-called parachute kids attacked the victim, stripping her naked, kicking her with high-heeled shoes, slapping her and burning her with cigarettes.

Three students including Yuhan "Coco" Yang, 19, Yunyao Zhai, 18 and male co-defendant Xinlei Zhang, 19, who pleaded guilty to assault, serving prison terms, ranging from six to 13 years for the attack on the woman.

Yang was in a strange mindset and expressed herself "impulsively and stupidly" as she told The Times.

Before she came to the U.S. for high school, Yang remembers wanting to "fly away" from her life in China, where school began at the crack of dawn and lasted until the sky went dark.

Every year, more Chinese students like Yang arrive in American schools, dreaming of a different future than China allowed them.

As a growing number leave the Chinese system even earlier problems of alienation and loneliness have grown. In the last decade, the number of Chinese students in U.S. high schools and middle schools has jumped from 1,200 to 52,000.

Chinese tradition values split into two at odds: family and education because of Globalization and rapid wealth creation. More parents are willing to split their families apart and send their children alone for studies.

"The parents sacrifice a lot, but they may not remember that the child is also sacrificing a lot." said by Professor Yuying Tsong.