Jack Ma, one of China’s best-known entrepreneurs, thinks business success in China has nothing to do with prestigious foreign degrees: “When you want to judge whether a person . . . is excellent or not don’t look at whether they went to Harvard or Stanford,” he is famous for saying.
中国知名企业家马云(Jack Ma)认为，在中国，经商能否成功与有没有外国名牌大学的文凭无关。他的名言是：“判断一个人、一个公司是不是优秀，不要看他是不是从哈佛(Harvard)或斯坦福(Stanford)毕业的。”
More and more Chinese parents apparently disagree with the co-founder of internet company Alibaba: they are increasingly spending three or four years’ annual family income to send their only child for foreign study. Some are now asking whether it is worth the investment.
对互联网公司阿里巴巴(Alibaba)这位联合创始人的观点，越来越多的中国家长显然无法苟同。他们中越来越多的人会拿出相当于家庭年收入三四倍的钱，送他们唯一的孩子出国留学。如今，一些家长开始质疑这笔投资是否值得。
The number of Chinese studying overseas has more than tripled in the past decade and continues to shoot up. The rise has been particularly dramatic among lower-middle-class families: according to a report from the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, up to the end of 2009 students from such families made up only 2 per cent of all those who studied overseas, but by the end of 2010 the proportion had risen to 34 per cent.
过去10年中，中国留学生的人数已增长逾两倍，而且还在继续增长。来自中产阶级下层家庭的留学生人数增长尤为迅猛：根据中国社科院(Chinese Academy of Social Sciences)的一份报告，2009年底，来自中产阶级下层家庭的留学生人数仅占留学生总人数的2%，但到2010年底，这个比例升到了34%。
For many Chinese families with children overseas, money is no object. But many lower middle-class and working-class families are counting on their only child to support them in their old age.
对于许多送孩子出国留学的中国家庭而言，钱并不是目的。但很多中产阶级下层家庭却是指望靠他们唯一的孩子养老的。
Foreign universities also increasingly rely on fees from Chinese students to boost their income. But is it worth spending Rmb1m-2m ($165,000-$330,00) on preparing for and completing an overseas degree, only to return to a job market where seven million graduates cannot find jobs?
外国的大学也越来越依赖于从中国留学生那里收取费用，以增加收入。但花费100万至200万元人民币(合16.5万至33万美元)去申请和取得一个外国学位，最后却回到一个700万大学毕业生找不到工作的就业市场上，这是否值得？
According to Chinese recruitment agencies and human resources professionals, people who have studied overseas – known as “haigui”, or sea turtles, because they have one foot on land and one in the sea – command little if any salary premium when they start entry-level jobs back in China.
中国招聘机构和人力资源专业人士称，归国留学人士（俗称“海归”或“海龟”，后者是取其海陆两栖之义）受聘做入门级工作时，薪水可能跟本土毕业生一样高、或仅略高一点。
Zong Qinghou, China’s second-richest man, sent his only daughter and heir apparent, Zong Fuli, to study overseas. As a result, he told a recent press conference, the thirtysomething Ms Zong “knows neither the current situation for Chinese enterprises nor the situation abroad”.
中国第二富豪宗庆后曾将他的独女、当然接班人宗馥莉送到海外留学。结果，他最近在一个新闻发布会上表示，现年30多岁的宗馥莉“既不了解中国企业的现状，也不清楚国外情况”。
Jennifer Feng, chief human resources expert at 51job, the leading Chinese employment agency, says there is “no big difference between the starting salaries of those holding overseas or local university degrees”. Gone are the days when an overseas degree ensured a top-paying job.
中国主要招聘机构前程无忧(51job)首席人力资源专家冯丽娟(Jennifer Feng)表示，“拥有海外文凭的求职者和本土大学毕业生的起薪没有很大差别”。拥有海外文凭就能确保获得高薪工作的日子已经一去不复返了。
“The proportion of students studying overseas these days is high and what they study isn’t particularly suitable to the Chinese market,” Ms Feng says, adding that China is no longer sending only its brightest students abroad.
冯丽娟表示：“如今留学生的比例很高，他们所学的知识不是特别适合中国市场。”她补充称，中国不再只是将自己最聪明的学生送到国外了。
These days a big proportion are average or below-average students who failed to gain entry to university in China. But the foreign institutions they attend may not be top-notch either: “Eighty to ninety per cent of the overseas universities that they attend these days, most people in China have never heard of them”, Ms Feng says. Even studying English overseas is no longer so crucial: job recruiters say they can meet their need for English speakers with locally trained graduates.
如今很大一部分留学生成绩中等、甚至中等偏下，当初未能被中国国内的大学录取。不过，他们念的外国大学可能也不是一流的大学。冯丽娟说：“如今留学生念的大学中，有80%至90%是大多数中国人从未听说过的。”甚至在海外学习英语的经历都不再像以往那样重要了。招聘者表示，本土大学毕业生就能满足他们对英语能力的需求。
Liu Yinwei of Jinzun Investment Consulting was inundated with candidates at a recent job fair in Shanghai, but he was not looking for those with foreign degrees. He has sales jobs to fill and the last time he hired a returnee with a UK master's degree, “he thought he knew a lot and therefore . . . he looked down upon clients”.
在上海最近举办的一次招聘会上，金尊投资咨询(Jinzun Investment Consulting)的刘银伟（音译）收到了大量简历，但他想招的不是那些“海归”。他要招聘的职位是销售。上一次他聘用了一位从英国留学回来的硕士，那个人“认为自己懂的很多，因此……看不起客户”。
For Gao Wei, 25, attending the University of Melbourne was not her first choice, but she did not make the cut for a top Chinese university. Four years in Melbourne cost Rmb1m, she says, and paying it was “no big deal” for her parents, businesspeople in the eastern Chinese city of Nanjing. Was it worth it? “It wasn’t my money so I have no views on the return on investment, but I have very beautiful memories of those four years.”
对于25岁的高伟(音译，见右图)而言，攻读墨尔本大学(University of Melbourne)并非第一选择，但谁让她没考上中国国内的一流大学呢？她说，在墨尔本学习4年，花了100万元人民币，这对于她（在华东城市南京经商）的父母而言只是“小菜一碟”。那么，这笔钱花得值得吗？“这不是我的钱，所以我对于投资回报率没有看法，但这四年为我留下了非常美好的回忆。”
Sandra Yoo, 28, took a different approach: she knew her family could not afford a foreign undergraduate degree, so she studied in China first and then went to the University of York for a one-year master’s in public economics. That year cost Rmb260,000, and her starting salary at a Chinese equities firm was Rmb220,000. She wants her child to study in China first too: “If they go abroad too early they lose their connection with classmates,” she says. In China, classmates often form an invaluable network for business.
28岁的Sandra Yoo走的是一条不同的道路：她知道，父母负担不起自己的留学费用，因此她先在中国念完本科，然后赴约克大学(University of York)攻读了一个一年期公共经济学硕士学位。这一年的花费为26万元人民币，而她在中国一家股票公司的起薪是22万元人民币。她也希望她自己的孩子先在中国念完本科。她说：“如果太早出国，他们就会失去大学同学这份人脉。”在中国，同学关系往往会为经商提供非常宝贵的人脉资源。
Gu Huini, 26, spent Rmb500,000 of her parents’ money getting a master’s in journalism from Columbia University. “Going to the US, the expense is like living in a four- or five-star hotel every day,” she says. Ms Gu, an elegant, poised young woman who speaks excellent English, says she was ill-prepared for her course of study and found the experience so distressing that she joined an education consultancy to help families avoid similar mistakes. Agents themselves can be a big part of the cost of overseas study, though: they charge between Rmb30,000 and Rmb300,000 to arrange overseas admission.
26岁的谷慧妮(音译，见右图)花了父母50万元人民币，获得了哥伦比亚大学(Columbia University)的新闻学硕士学位。她说：“在美国读书的花销就像是天天住四星或五星级酒店。”谷慧妮年轻、优雅、镇定自如，操一口流利的英语。她说，她自己对留学准备不足，那段经历让她非常痛苦，因此她加入了一家教育咨询机构，以帮助其他家庭避免类似的错误。不过，留学中介机构本身收取的费用也可能占到海外留学费用的很大一部分。申请人被国外的大学录取后，留学中介会收取3万元至30万元人民币不等的费用。
One of China’s first overseas students, Xia Yingqi, now works with the Beijing government to help attract high-level returnees. Is foreign study worth it for the new generation of sea turtles? “It’s really not just about jobs and salaries: living in a foreign country, the whole country is your university,” he says. “I think it’s a good choice.”
中国第一批海外留学生之一夏颖奇现在在北京市政府工作，帮助吸引高素质留学人员归国。对于新一代“海归”而言，留学是否值得？“留学的意义其实不仅仅在于工作和薪水——住在外国，整个国家都是你的‘大学’。”他说，“我觉得这是个不错的选择。”