Cultural capital—field connections for three populations of Chinese students: a theoretical framework for empirical research

“Cultural capital” and “field” are Pierre Bourdieu’s most popular concepts, applied in sociological research around the world, including China. Yet, Bourdieu’s overarching theory of reproduction in education implicitly bore the imprint of a culture-field connection specific to French schooling and society circa 1960–1980. This essay has two broad aims. First, it sketches a comparative framework for connecting cultural resources to their surrounding fields. Second, it applies that framework to three populations of Chinese students: domestic students in China, Chinese international students in North American universities, and Chinese first generation and immigrants in North America. Those populations are used to illustrate several arguments. First, domestic students in China and their diaspora in North America highlight how rationalized competitions in stratified systems trigger intensive “adaptations.” Second, Chinese immigrants have inadvertently triggered new “valuation contests” in North American education. Third, international Chinese students exemplify emerging transnational strategies of opting out of intensive competitions by switching fields. Future directions for research are discussed.