ANN ARBOR, MI — Xingzao “Peter” Zhuang, 21, feels connected to his family in Jinan, China, despite being away from home for nearly eight years.
Zhuang, a senior studying communications and media at the University of Michigan who also attended a Connecticut boarding school, said he can always stay in touch with his family via text and phone.
“Even though I’m far away from home, our heart is connected,” Zhuang said.
Zhuang is one of over 8,000 international students at the Ann Arbor campus, according to a 2025 report from the university’s International Center. Many of the university’s international students will not return home this Thanksgiving, unlike their peers from Michigan and neighboring states.
Reasons for not returning home include the short duration of their school break, distance from their families and flight costs.
Ariel Li, a third-year student studying astronomy and anthropology at UM, said she misses her home in Beijing, China.
Li, 20, said she typically travels outside of Michigan during school breaks but chose to stay this break given her upcoming final examinations and the forthcoming winter break. She last visited China during the summer.
She said although a friend from Boston plans to visit her in Ann Arbor this week, she is afraid the city will be very quiet during the holiday because many restaurants will be closed for the day.
However, Li is excited to practice more with her club basketball team this week when most students are at home away from campus. In addition to basketball, she plans to cook a Thanksgiving dinner with her friend, studying at the UM Hatcher Graduate Library and hanging out with other international students staying in Ann Arbor.
She also mentions the university’s International Center, which provides resources to the international student body. She said she will go to a Thanksgiving lunch event co-organized with the center with other international students.
Zhuang said this Thanksgiving will be his second in Ann Arbor. He previously attended Pennsylvania State University for two years before transferring to UM.
He said he is looking forward to exploring Thanksgiving activities in the city and is still “fascinated” by the city.
“People say traveling is all about, ‘you leave the place that you are born to (go to) the place somebody else is born,’” Zhuang said.
Zhuang plans to do some holiday shopping on Black Friday, going to a farmer’s market and hanging out with his friends.
Last Thanksgiving, he said he had a holiday dinner with six other friends and went on his first trip to Detroit.
Bowei Wu, a senior studying molecular, cellular and development biology at UM, said he is “good” with staying on campus for the holiday this year because he is used to being away from his home in Beijing, China for long periods of time.
Wu, 21, attended boarding school in Beijing before attending college in the United States and said he no longer feels homesick.
Wu, like Zhuang, will spend Thanksgiving in Ann Arbor for a second time. He previously attended University of California-Santa Barbara for two years before transferring to UM.
Wu also said many of his friends are Chinese and speak in Chinese with each other, which reminds him of his home.
He said he plans on driving with several of these friends to a karaoke bar in Lansing this holiday. While in Ann Arbor, Wu said he plans mostly to stay home, play video games and study for his final examinations.
His parents are a phone call away, Wu said, and he can call them whenever he needs them.
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