WEWCEW | 1 points | May 05 2022 17:46:04

https://www.nytimes.com/2017/02/02/magazine/the-parachute-generation.html

&rt;Yang had never traveled outside China. But he had already chosen a new first name for his life in America, Korbin (“That sounds American, right?”), and was daydreaming about the adventure ahead. “It will be magical,” he said. “I’ll make lots of American friends. I’d like to have an American girlfriend. Maybe” — he shot a glance at his father — “I’ll even get a gun.”

&rt;Perhaps his best chance came at the homecoming dance that fall. As he walked across the floor under the spinning lights of a disco ball, Korbin worked up his nerve and asked an American girl to dance. She just laughed. Another girl, another rejection. Finally, the third entreaty succeeded — just as a slow song started up and the dancers turned into a tangle of embracing couples. Korbin’s feet stopped, and his arms locked at his sides. “I totally froze,” he says. The girl drifted off to rejoin her friends, leaving Korbin alone, wondering if a Chinese boy could ever find his footing in America.

&rt;He started lifting weights, thinking he might attract a girlfriend “after I build some muscle.”

&rt;Korbin and Oscar left their host family and moved in with four other Chinese students under the care of a local grandmother. Korbin stopped lifting weights. He no longer wanted an American girlfriend. He barely interacted with American students anyway, because everyone in his college-level classes — the requirement to maintain his visa during his second year — was Chinese.