Student Union
- By Qian Chen
Why a BMW Became Newsworthy When Chinese Students Died at USC
After waking up in the morning of April 11, 2012, I turned on my laptop, and suddenly I was shocked by some breaking news – two Chinese students had been shot to death that morning near the campus of the University of Southern California (USC).
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Like me, many Chinese students in the United States were saddened and upset after this unfortunate incident. However, what soon became more upsetting was the media’s focus on the supposed wealth of graduate students Ying Wu and Ming Qu, and how that played into their tragic deaths.
A BMW stirs hate
According to the Associated Press, police said the shooting might have been an attempt to carjack the students’ “dark-colored, $60,000 BMW.” The AP noted, “The types of students who come from abroad typically skew wealthier, because they have to be able to afford a school’s tuition without financial aid.”
In China, this angle became the focus of the story. Many Chinese websites, even including several major online media, rewrote the title of this article as “Two Chinese Students in Los Angeles Were Shot to Death in BMW.”
One netizen even wrote on the Chinese social media site QQ, “Chinese students studying in the U.S. are from rich and powerful families. They use US taxpayers’ money to live luxurious lives and buy expensive BMWs. They deserve to die.”
Later it was clarified that the BMW that Ming Qu was driving was a second-hand car, which had 80,000 miles on it and friends said it only cost him around $10,000.
But the image of the Chinese student in America with his expensive BMW was a powerful one to Chinese netizens.
Why the BMW is important
Without financial aid, college tuition and costs in the United States, especially for a private university like USC, are rarely affordable for a Chinese middle class family. Therefore, many Chinese students studying in the U.S. are labeled as the spoiled wealthy or official second generation.
In addition, with reports in recent years that some corrupt Chinese government officials have laundered their bribery money by sending their children and illegal property abroad, some Chinese tend to move their anger about wealth inequality to Chinese students studying abroad as a whole, because they believe those students are squandering Chinese taxpayers’ money.
The BMW in which these two Chinese students were shot became a symbol of privilege, and of the wealthy flaunting their money as others in China struggle (even though these particular students turned out to have been not that wealthy at all).
Are the stereotypes true?
It’s not just in Chinese media where this image of wealthy Chinese students is propagated, though. Both Chinese and American media talk about how American colleges are pursuing wealthy Chinese students who don't require financial aid, or of how some of them are living luxurious lives in America with their parents' money.
And having spent almost four years in an American college and looking at the Chinese student community around me, I have to admit it is true that there are those Chinese students who are from rich or powerful families.
It is true that there are those Chinese students who are fond of luxurious brands and expensive cars, and that there are those Chinese students who are just here for a U.S. college diploma.
However, as with all generalizations, this image of Chinese students does not represent the whole truth.
The fact is that I know lots of Chinese students who work as hard as possible to make a living and support their education. Another hard fact: I have met lots of Chinese students who stay until midnight in the library to study and get straight A's in their classes. One last hard fact: lots of Chinese students, even those who are from wealthy and rich families, are fighting hard for their dreams and futures.
It takes courage to fly fifteen hours to cross half of the planet, and it’s never easy to say goodbye to our families and friends. Those who make this decision and fight for their dreams deserve to be respected.
Every life matters and every life is valuable, no matter whether he or she dies on a $20 bicycle, or in a $60,000 BMW -- no one “...deserves to die in a BMW.”
R.I.P., Ying Wu and Ming Qu.
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FAFSA Delays Prompt California to Extend Deadline for Financial Aid Applications
The California Legislature on Thursday voted to give prospective college students more time to apply for two of the state's largest financial aid programs after a glitch in the federal government's application system threatened to block up to 100,000 people from getting help.
California had already extended the deadline for its financial aid programs from March 2 to April 2. On Thursday, the state Senate gave final approval to a bill that would extend it again until May 2. The bill now heads to Governor Gavin Newsom.
"Clearly, our students need our help," Assemblymember Sabrina Cervantes, a Democrat from Riverside who authored the bill, told lawmakers during a public hearing earlier this week.
California has multiple programs to help people pay for college. The biggest is the Cal Grant program, which gives money to people who meet certain income requirements. The state also has a Middle Class Scholarship for people with slightly higher incomes.
Students can apply for these state aid programs only if they first complete the Free Application for Federal Student Aid, commonly known as FAFSA.
This year, a computer glitch prevented parents from filling out the form if they did not have a Social Security number. That meant many students who are U.S. citizens or permanent residents but whose parents are not were blocked from completing the form and thus could not apply for California's aid programs.
California has a large population of adults who are living in the country without legal permission. The California Student Aid Commission, the state agency in charge of California's financial aid programs, estimates as many as 100,000 students could be affected by this glitch.
The U.S. Department of Education says it fixed the problem last week, but those families are now a step behind. Democrats in Congress raised alarms last month, noting that the delay could particularly hurt students in states where financial aid is awarded on a first-come, first-served basis, including Illinois, Kentucky, Missouri, Oregon and Texas.
Advocates fear that the chaos of this year's process could deter students from going to college at all, especially those for whom finances are a key part of the decision.
The computer glitch is just one part of larger problems affecting FAFSA.
The notoriously time-consuming form was overhauled in 2020 through a bipartisan bill in Congress. It promised to simplify the form, going from 100 questions to fewer than 40, and it also changed the underlying formula for student aid, promising to expand it to more low-income students.
But the update has been marred by delays, leaving families across the country in limbo as they figure out how much college will cost.
The form is typically available to fill out in October, but the Education Department didn't have it ready until late December. Even then, the agency wasn't ready to begin processing the forms and sending them to states and colleges, which only started to happen this month.
The problems appear to have already reduced California's application numbers. Through March 8, the number of California students who had completed FAFSA was 43% lower than it was at the same time last year.
"The data most concerning me seems to suggest that these drops are more acute at the schools that serve low-income students or large populations of students of color," Jake Brymner, deputy chief of policy and public affairs for the California Student Aid Commission, told lawmakers in a public hearing earlier this week.
The issue has caused problems for colleges and universities, too. The University of California and California State University systems both delayed their admissions deadlines because so many prospective students were having trouble with FAFSA.