ESWN has translated a post on ChineseNewsNet about the existential crisis of a mainland Chinese doctoral student at the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology.

Here's the ending:

"This problem had been present a long time ago, but it only manifested itself much too late.  I believe that this problem is shared by my fellow students.  I believe that Tsinghua has many students like me now.  When I read their naive discussions; GRE 2***, TOEFL 6**, GPA*, School Rank Top **, it seemed that their efforts over several years were about some numbers and their lives were about being able to go abroad.  I have to worry about them.  This is the major reason why I wrote this essay.  Many people do not have a genuine interest in getting into research, but they expend all their efforts to get an opportunity to do research overseas.  In their unbridled enthusiasm, they have no real plans for their lives and they have no idea what their genuine interests are.  They want to go overseas in order to go overseas.  Then that will be the beginning of their problems after they bid farewell to their families."

See here for the full post.