Cultural capital—field connections for three populations of Chinese students: a theoretical framework for empirical research

Abstract

“Cultural capital” and “field” are Pierre Bourdieu’s most popular concepts, applied in sociological research around the world, including China. Yet, Bourdieu’s overarching theory of reproduction in education implicitly bore the imprint of a culture-field connection specific to French schooling and society circa 1960–1980. This essay has two broad aims. First, it sketches a comparative framework for connecting cultural resources to their surrounding fields. Second, it applies that framework to three populations of Chinese students: domestic students in China, Chinese international students in North American universities, and Chinese first generation and immigrants in North America. Those populations are used to illustrate several arguments. First, domestic students in China and their diaspora in North America highlight how rationalized competitions in stratified systems trigger intensive “adaptations.” Second, Chinese immigrants have inadvertently triggered new “valuation contests” in North American education. Third, international Chinese students exemplify emerging transnational strategies of opting out of intensive competitions by switching fields. Future directions for research are discussed.

Notes

1 Khan (2012) provides an updated and American example of rituals in elite schools.

2 Michele Lamont’s Money, Moral and Manners (1992) was a very important effort that chronicled different forms of cultural capital across different regional and national fields. Her work is not reviewed further here since it did not focus directly on education.

3 As discussed further below, Asian immigrant success in education has become a “culture war” issue in the US, particularly when it invokes notions of ethnic-based culture. Some partly attribute that success to cultural values (e.g., Sakamoto and Wang 2021), others to their socioeconomic selectivity (e.g., Lee and Zhou 2015). Advocates of the former position connect education success to longstanding Confucian values, while the advocates of the latter emphasize the roles of social class resources, noting that cultural connections tend to dwindle over successive generations. Some evidence supports the former position. Liu and Xie (2016) find weaker influences of SES on Asian Americans’ behaviors and attitudes compared to those of Whites, which in turn help generate Asians’ premium in achievement among lower SES families. Tian (2023) finds that Asian Americans spend more money on education-related services and goods than do other Americans. For a lucid and research-based discussion of this issue, see Sakamoto and Kim (2018).

4 Chiang (2022) notes that such criteria of “well-roundedness” for educational selection are not the norm in international context.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Scott Davies

Scott Davies is professor of educational leadership and policy and sociology at the University of Toronto. He is also former Canada research chair and an Ontario research chair. He previously taught sociology for twenty years at McMaster University. He has published many articles on educational stratification.