In Pursuit of the True/Real

Abstract This article investigates the epistemic transformations experienced by Chinese international students during their journeys abroad. Past anthropological studies have examined the cosmopolitan aspirations of student-migrants through the lens of global citizenship, newfound practical competencies, or novel cultural expectations. This article expands the discussion beyond these previous approaches by illustrating how student-migrants’ transformations into cosmopolites might consist of substantively new ways of relating to ‘knowledge’. In some instances, these transmutations have resulted in a wholesale rejection of the truth claims of their upbringing from within the People's Republic of China. Other times, however, they have led to skepticism about the possibility of ‘knowing’ in the first place.