There were more than 46,000 Chinese studying in American high schools in 2015, up from just 637 a decade prior. The New York Times Magazine called them China’s “parachute generation”; in Chinese, they’re known as the “little study abroad-ers.” But for all the enthusiasm for overseas education among Chinese families, we still know very little about these students’ lives.

Tu Siqi, a postdoctoral researcher at NYU Shanghai and the author of the forthcoming “Destination Diploma: How Chinese Upper-Middle Class families ‘Outsource’ Secondary Education to the United States,” has conducted over 100 in-depth interviews with Chinese parents, students, and educational consultants. Starting with a discussion of the 2017 documentary “Maineland,” Tu will share her perspective on Chinese families’ experiences of life between the U.S. and China, the aspirations and trajectories of parachute kids, and the rise of alternative options for transnational education, including Thailand and Malaysia.

This English-language talk will be held at 2 p.m. on June 18 at Duoyun Books · Theater Store, located at 398 Changle Road, Shanghai. Tickets are 40 yuan apiece. (The full ticket price will be refunded as a coupon to the Duoyun cafe.) Register by scanning the WeChat QR code below. Unfortunately, it is limited to in-person attendance only.

Tu Siqi is a postdoctoral research fellow at the Center for Applied Social and Economic Research at NYU Shanghai and was a postdoctoral research fellow at the Department of Ethics, Law, and Politics of the Max Planck Institute for the Study of Religious and Ethnic Diversity. Her work focuses on issues of global citizenship, elite education, international (im)mobility, migration, and the political economy of global cities.

Sixth Tone Agora is a series of public events, including lectures and expert roundtables, organized by Sixth Tone. It is an opportunity to meet and engage with some of contemporary China’s most interesting and innovative thinkers, academics, and writers.