Come From Away: Chinese International Students Are Navigating New York City As Well As Their Fellow New Yorkers
From dance studios to the exhibition rooms, gain insight into how Chinese international students transform into New Yorkers.
Brick-red wall, full-length mirrors, Ariana Grande’s “yes, and?” plays on the speakers. Following the teacher’s loud “five, six, seven, eight!” the students dance to the choreography one last time for the night. Among the crowd is Jiaying Li, a graduate student at Columbia University, who always celebrates her TGIFs at Peridance Center, a dance studio in East Village, New York.
After sweating indoors from an hour and a half’s intense dance training, Jiaying feels the night air’s chill as she pushes open the door to 13th Street and frisks towards Union Square, where the subway will take her back to her apartment near Times Square, followed by a good night’s rest and a weekend’s relaxation before another busy week begins.
Born and raised in China, Jiaying spent two years in London, where she earned her bachelor’s degree at the London School of Economics and Political Science before coming to study at Columbia University as one of the 6,880 Chinese international students enrolled in Fall 2023.
She’s not alone. In the 2022/23 academic year, Chinese students made up the largest contingent (27.4%) of the 1,057,188 international students in the U.S.. In fact, China has been the leading country of origin for 14 years. Meanwhile, 38.2% of the international students in the State of New York are Chinese.
They stand next to you at the subway station anxiously waiting for a delayed train; they sit across the table from you in class; you hear them chatting with their friends at a downtown restaurant; and they wait behind you in line for a Broadway show on a Friday night. Despite coming from another culture and country of the world, Chinese international students are just like everybody else, each of them blending into the rhythm of the Big Apple while carving out their own way of exploration and adaptation.
Living in New York is not much different from writing a book. Just like the many themes and genres there are, each international student chooses a distinct throughline that they follow to pinpoint and grow their life abroad. They navigate the city the same way as any other New Yorker does — through a hobby or a profession.
For Jiaying, it all started when a friend who taught at a dance studio in London invited her to attend a lesson. Despite being a complete rookie in dancing, Jiaying found the class entertaining and the exercise energizing — a great way to take a fresh breath from the more serious, stressful school work. Since then, taking dance lessons has become part of Jiaying’s weekly routine. As she moved to New York, she brought the passion along with her, and dance studios in NYC formed the dots on the map that led her to explore this new city that she was to call home.
After settling down in her midtown apartment, Jiaying began searching for local dance studio recommendations on the Chinese social media application, Xiaohongshu, also known as RED. International students use the app extensively. From restaurant reviews and travel tips to tutorials on visa application, RED covers almost any topic that one can think of. After typing “dance studio New York midtown” in the search bar, Jiaying came across posts about Broadway Dance Center (BDC), a studio located close to where she lives.
“I looked up their Instagram account and saw videos of their classes. I learned jazz-funk before, so if someone teaches jazz-funk, I will check out that teacher’s choreography and see if I like it. That’s how I decided to visit BDC,” said Jiaying. “But I was unaware of the level of difficulty for classes there.”
Jiaying enrolled in an intermediate class at BDC, the same level that she had been signing up for in London. However, the definition of “intermediate” in New York seemed different from that in London.
While the London studio featured mostly amateurs, Jiaying found herself surrounded by a group of professional dancers in BDC, who took the classes to prepare for auditions. The pace of class was fast as the other students were able to digest the movements without much need for step-by-step breakdown. But it was not the case for Jiaying, who left the class shocked and confounded.
“It was my first class in New York and it felt so strange. It was very difficult to catch up,” said Jiaying. “Maybe when I reach a certain level in the future I will take a class there [at BDC] again. But until then, I won’t.”
However, ruling out the wrong choice is also part of the navigating experience. Jiaying went on to take classes at various studios, which brought her to different parts of New York City, such as PMT House of Dance in the Flatiron District and PJM Dance NYC in Queens. She follows a list of studios and dancers on Instagram after first learning about them through posts on RED. So whenever Jiaying sees a choreography that she is interested in, she will check the dancer’s teaching schedule, sign up for the class and show up.
By far, Jiaying’s go-to studio is Peridance Center near Union Square. Its location is convenient to access — multiple subway lines take Jiaying there directly. The rooms are spacious, allowing students to stretch freely without fearing to bump into each other.
“The classes are also more beginner-friendly,” said Jiaying. “The teachers will adjust their pace based on the day’s cohort’s condition, so the tutorial is more elaborate and easier to follow.”
As Jiaying began to frequent Peridance Center, she started to unlock its neighborhood on the map, too. After dance classes, she would have dinner with friends at restaurants nearby, such as Soothr on the next block and Hou Hot Pot which reminds her of home. Sometimes she would also have a cup of coffee at Maman before going to class. Visiting Peridance was what first introduced Jiaying to Union Square. Now, the area has become one of her comfort zones in the city.
While it took Jiaying an exploration of dance studios to become familiar with Union Square, it is the place to start with for many international students — such is the case for Sentao Chen, who studies Interior Design at Parsons School of Design.
“The most special thing about New York is that I get to see the paintings and artworks that used to only exist in textbooks,” said Sentao. Prestigious museums like MoMA and MET are not enough. Sentao spends much of his leisure time visiting galleries in Chelsea. For him, this is the area where “the best artists put on exhibitions.”
Since the galleries are close to each other, Sentao does not plan out which ones to visit ahead of time. Rather, he goes with the flow, picking somewhere to start with and then letting himself wander within the area, walking into any place that attracts him with its window display, sign, or simply the vibe. Galleries he had discovered through this method include Gagosian, Lisson, and David Zwirner.
“There [at the galleries] I see what is trending, what is selling, and it’s beneficial for my own art and designs,” said Sentao.
While appreciating works of fellow artists is certainly enlightening, sometimes life imitates art, and the spark of inspiration can dawn upon you as easy as this: on a Monday inside a green line subway car, Sentao suddenly found himself to be so insignificant being a tiny human in the concrete jungle of skyscrapers and fast-advancing technology. The thought led to his interactive art installation project, “Weaving Modernity.”
“Every day I leave home and take the subway to school, my life is all about these three dots on one line like I’m just a ring in the gigantic net of capitalism that the city is weaving. I see so many people on the subway, on the road, in the cars, who go to work and do all sorts of things just to keep the city running,” said Sentao. “Everybody works to sustain the systematic construction of the city, so I created this project that imitates weaving.”
New York gave birth to the initial idea, another metropolitan city, Guangzhou, China, where Sentao grew up, witnessed the maturity of “Weaving Modernity.” In summer 2023, Sentao went back to Guangzhou and started two months of drafting, programming, shooting and video editing. Eventually, he completed the project the day before his flight back to New York with the help of his father and two high school friends under the 104℉ summer heat.
“You don’t just finish an assignment for the sake of finishing it. You also find joy in that process,” said Sentao, reflecting on the completion of “Weaving Modernity.” “I find a sense of peace and an outlet to express myself through art. No matter if you’re a designer or an artist, it’s important for people to hear your voice and know your experience.”
Another aspiring artist, Tianxiao Wang, who studies jazz guitar at the New School, is also trying to make himself heard through the flickering of his guitar strings. From busking at Washington Square Park and Columbus Circle to performing at Bar Bayeux in Brooklyn and the Roost in East Village, music has been guiding Tianxiao to different corners of the city and the audience there.
Looking back, Tianxiao will always remember how it all started, when getting gigs used to be the goal of a Chinese boy in his freshman year in New York — now he lives a busy yet fulfilling life of performance opportunities and musical passion.
“The more I learn about jazz music, and about New York City, and jazz in New York City, the more I was like, ‘I really should come here.’ And I’m fortunate that I picked the right place,” said Tianxiao, who chose to attend the New School over other offers he received, including those from USC and Berklee.
This June, Tianxiao is bringing it home: he will embark on a tour with his quartet members in southern China, putting on six shows in Guangzhou and his hometown Shenzhen. “There will be a little standard, a little Wayne, a little Kurt Rosenwinkel and some Mark Turner as well,” said Tianxiao, excited to share the news with his friends at home. “I look forward to seeing people there and passing on this beautiful music.”
Sentao navigates New York through art, Tianxiao through music, and River Zhang, a graduate student at NYU’s Arthur L. Carter Journalism Institute, navigates the city through documentary. In the past two semesters, River has covered trash issue in Sunset Park, Brooklyn, reported on greenness in “Guardians of the Urban Canopy,” which involved traveling as far as Westchester County, and is currently working with a transgender couple who live in Queens.
“New York is just the place where you can find all kinds of people and stories. It’s for sure the best place to be at as a student who does documentary or journalism, because you can always find things that interest you that give you more perspectives on life. You learn from them while fulfilling your curriculum,” said Zhang.
River visited Inwood Hill Park for the production of “Guardians,” a trip that took her to the end of the A train where she followed staff members from NYC Parks who were handling invasive species.
“This is my first time going so far as the end of a train route and going to this new park which is very beautiful. But I would never consider going there if it was not for this project. And yes, it definitely pushed me to explore New York a lot more and find different corners that I may not explore or find by myself otherwise,” said River.
Currently, River is working as a graduate career assistant at Wasserman Center for Career Development at NYU, where she provides career advice for undergraduate students. With an apparent Chinese last name “Zhang,” River noticed that around a quarter of her weekly appointments are scheduled by international, if not Chinese, students.
One time a girl from China came to River’s appointment. After going through her resume and holding a career-related discussion, they switched to Mandarin and started talking about lives in general. Having the option to speak Mandarin made the girl feel more comfortable about opening up.
“In the end, she gave me the feedback that she was glad that I worked there, that I would relate more with her problems and issues. I do appreciate that I can provide more help,” said River. “I’ve also gotten questions on OPT, Visa, and when to apply for those, and I can give you a confident response that not all the career coaches can, because I’ve gone through that as well.”
Christine Hu, one of the 46 college leaders at NYU College of Arts & Science, has a similar experience. For some of the Chinese students in her First-Year Seminar cohort last Fall semester, it was their first time in the U.S. and they were unfamiliar with many things, including writing emails.
“They didn’t know how to write an email at all. Not only in terms of grammar but also in terms of format and etiquette,” marked Christine, recalling a Chinese student who wanted to express that her session was engaging but mistakenly wrote “you are very attractive” instead. “If it wasn’t that I’m Chinese and I understood what he actually intended to say, there would’ve been a misunderstanding for sure.”
Misunderstandings did happen, mainly in the form of miscommunication between professors and international students due to the latter’s lack of proficiency in using English. That’s when Christine is needed to step in and mediate.
Research shows that “although the number of Chinese international students in the United States […] surged in the past decades, the overarching challenges, or difficulties, or stressors posed to Chinese international students still involve academic English communication competency.”
Therefore, Christine made sure to inform her international student-heavy cohort of essential skills like how to write academic emails, how to understand the F-1 Student Visa, and what are the STEM majors that can give them a 2-year OPT extension.
Outside the cohort, Christine works as the Vice President of the NYU International Student Council(ISC). The organization holds events like the DIY Mooncake Party for the Mid-Autumn Festival that support the Chinese community by helping them foster a sense of belonging and a home away from home. The Chinese Students and Scholars Association(CSSA) also celebrates these traditional festivals through events like the Spring Festival Gala on Chinese New Year, but that is only the tip of the iceberg.
The CSSAs at each university host a wide range of events to help Chinese students integrate into life in the city. There are campus tours, career fairs and networking events throughout the year. In April, NYU CSSA held a spring getaway where students were invited to play frisbee and board games at Sheep Meadow in Central Park.
One annual event held by the CSSAs is the in-person meet-and-greet for new and incoming students. It takes place during the summer break in major cities in China, such as Beijing, Shanghai and Guangzhou, with the aim to help students prepare for life in New York. Current students and alumni would share tips on various topics from course registration to finding apartments. Individual booths run by sponsors are also present at the venue, such as banks that provide overseas student account service and telecom companies that offer SIM cards with U.S. numbers ready for use as soon as the students land in New York.
“They can solve most of the problems they had in mind through the meet-and-greet before they arrive in New York,” said Millie Wang, the co-president of Columbia University CSSA. “It lets them know what to expect in New York City so they can fit in the community better when they’re actually here.”
Those who are yet to arrive wonder. Those who are here sometimes get anxious, too. When we enjoy the city, we tend to forget about the possibility of ever leaving — it is just too scary.
“As an international student, especially when you feel like you have a life here and you want to have the option to stay here, there will be so many layers of problems that you have to think about,” said River. “You know that you’ll want to stay, but it will depend on whether you can stay right now.”
But at least we have New York for the present. Jiaying will pull open the door of Peridance Center and walk in. Through the window of the practice room in which she’s warming up we’ll see Sentao on his way to the Union Square subway station. Maybe he has an exhibition in mind to visit. Maybe it will just be another day of wandering around Chelsea, and at some corner he will turn and there will be Tianxiao busking with his friends. We’ll see River recording the band’s performance with her camera, ready to work on another documentary about the lovely New Yorkers.
