Female returnee: Date job, date man

Gu Weiqi ready for the graduation ceremony of London Business School (LBS), July 16, 2016. [Photo provided to chinadaily.com.cn]

Traditional Chinese parents are generally pushy when it comes to their children's marriage. Even living far away from home and studying abroad is no escape. On the contrary, the distance makes the parents more anxious who keep urging their children to go on blind dates.

"In my opinion, marriage is the biggest reason why so many students from abroad decide to come back, especially female students," said Gu Weiqi, a 28-year-old MBA graduate of London Business School (LBS).

In the eyes of many parents, it's more important for children to get married than to pursue their dreams when they reach the so-called right age.

"Most MBA students are in their 30s as they attend the program after working for several years. So sometimes it's an awkward situation for us: we have to struggle between parents' expectations and our own wishes," said Gu.

To fulfill her parents' expectation, she decided to find a job at the beginning of her foreign study. For job preparation, she even sought internship with an investment bank at home.

"What I most liked about MBA program of LBS was that it offered me many possibilities to try out, through which it helped me identify what kind of job or profession was best suited to my personality," said Gu.

After the summer internship, she found investment bank not as attractive as she had thought, so she decided to cancel her plan of attending exchange program in the US and focused on job seeking in the autumn semester of 2015.