"Fran Martin describes with great sensitivity and empathy how it feels to be a 'Chinese international student' in a Western metropolis and how their 'dreams of flight'-away from the strictures of neotraditional femininity and toward an aspired mobile, cosmopolitan self-must navigate the impositions of family, gender, race, and nation. In a time of rising tensions between China and the West, Dreams of Flight reminds us of the human ordinariness and heterogeneity of people who are all-too-easily homogenized and ostracized as 'the Chinese.'"
Ien Ang, author of, On Not Speaking Chinese: Living between Asia and the West
"Dreams of Flight exemplifies the best in theoretically engaged ethnography. It tells the stories of the research participants in a beautiful, lyrical way while making nuanced and sophisticated theoretical arguments based on their experiences. It also offers a deeper understanding of Chinese students in Australia, a country that is understudied in the literature on transnational Chinese students, most of which focuses on the United States and the United Kingdom. Specialists in China studies, migration studies, international education, anthropology, and sociology will all welcome this outstanding work."
Vanessa L. Fong, author of, Paradise Redefined: Transnational Chinese Students and the Quest for Flexible Citizenship in the Developed World
