China’s experience with COVID has been marked by extremes. First came months of lockdowns and uncertainty in Wuhan. Then, as COVID spread throughout the world, China battened down the proverbial hatches and successfully achieved “zero COVID”, which saved lives and led to the resumption of normal life—at least as long as someone was within China and willing to endure the testing and surveillance regime. Then came Omicron, which spread fast and led to months of restrictive and disorganized lockdowns, with the most disastrous example occurring in Shanghai. For those of us who work with students from China, what are we to make of these events and their impact? What frameworks and data can we use to plan for the future? Please join us as we discuss the results of a survey of counselors in China, conducted in the weeks prior to EMA and designed to help predict trends and provide you with a sense of how counselors in China are seeing current events impact their own students. The discussion will be lead by two “China Hands” who lived in China for 14+ years, ran a Beijing-based business together, and even raised their own kids in the local Beijing educational system. The emphasis in this session will be translating data and engaging in frank discussion so that all participants will be able to return to their institutions better equipped to engage with students from China who are themselves engaging with a post-COVID world.

• Terry Crawford, Initialview