China-born mathematics major Sheng Li logged in to a Singaporean Internet chat room one day.  He had initially planned for a leisurely session of surfing the Internet, but the things he read left him with a bitter taste in his mouth.

Singaporean netizens were saying that they disliked students from the People’s Republic of China because such students were competing with them for jobs.

“Sometimes I think they really hate us,” said the 21-year-old.

Sheng is perhaps not alone in feeling this way. He is but one of the thousands of students from China who have relocated overseas and are currently based in Singapore.

The figures bear out this fact.

Singapore has embraced the import of foreigners for work or education over the past decade. According to a Straits Times article dated April 1, 2007, the reported number of students from China hit a high of 33,000 that year.

But with more foreigners set to arrive in Singapore in the future, tensions between foreigners and locals might already be rising.

And that is even before competition for employment sets in.

In NUS, the stiffening of competition for good grades has been attributed to the presence
of students from China. These foreign students have gained a reputation over the years of outperforming local students in the engineering and science faculties.

Alicia Tan, a second-year literature major, said she has heard of such competition from her peers.

Tan, who is from the Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences, said, “The resentment is quite strong among the science and engineering faculties.

“My friends complain a lot.”
But it is not as if students from China are here to torment local students by being overachievers.

Instead, they have to push themselves harder because they have more at stake.

Some Chinese students, who are tied to scholarship bonds, are required to work in Singapore for six years upon graduation.

However, the catch is that they can only do so on the condition that they graduate with the minimum university grades – usually a cumulative average point (CAP) score of 3.5 and above.

To compound matters, Chinese students facing difficulty in adopting English as a language of communication, are banking on pulling up their grades so that they have better prospects of employment and career advancement.

“Our seniors told us if we can’t improve our ability of communicating, it will be much harder to find a job when we graduate,” Sheng said.
Even when a job has been secured, it is not simply a fulfilment of scholastic obligations.

It is also often a matter of survival.

Unlike their Singaporean counterparts, Chinese students who have graduated and started working are not allowed to buy residential flats. Instead, they can only rent apartment space.

The lack of a permanent residence and the possibility of being displaced leave them with feelings of uncertainty and insecurity.
“When we want to marry and settle down, there are more issues to worry about,” added Sheng.

Others also feel that the assimilation into Singaporean culture is not easy because the process is fraught with stereotypical views.

Michael Wu, a second-year electrical engineering student from China, said he does not have many Singaporean friends. He attributes this to the way Singaporeans in general have very different perspectives from him.

For example, students from China are perceived to be overly nationalistic and quick to come to the defence of their country, while Singaporeans might be less inclined to identify with the display of such gestures.

Wu, said, “Sometimes I think Singaporeans look down on us.”

To guard against such kinds of negative impressions, some of these students from China are made to feel a need to be even more defensive.

Local student, Jeremy Chan, recounted one such incident in a writing class that he took in his first year at NUS.

The 22-year-old said one of his classmates from China wanted to do an essay on the perception of “study mamas” in Singapore.

“Study mamas” is a colloquial term given to mainland Chinese mothers who accompany their children to study in Singapore. In local parlance, the impression conveyed is usually one that is derogatory.

“She was very opinionated and defensive, and it was unprovoked. I feel that they feel victimised,” said Chan.

Despite these issues, there are some who feel that skirmishes between locals and foreigners are unavoidable. Misunderstandings, and not personal attacks, are the cause of this unhappiness.

China-born civil engineering student Zhang Teng, said, “I think every place will have prejudice. Maybe they just misunderstand people.”

The 24-year-old also said, “It’s up to the individual. Different people have different opinions.”