This book investigates why students choose to study in key Asian cities, and how this trend relates to the strategic intent of states and universities to build ‘knowledge economies’ and ‘world-class’ profiles. Drawing on substantial theoretical and empirical research, the authors examine the emotional geographies of East Asian international education, and offer new analytical insights into the relations between emotions, nation and subjectivity. The book challenges Eurocentric views of Asia as a space of volatile nationalist rivalries. By offering richly textured portraits of mobile students, it questions contemporary memes about the utility-maximising Asian learner. This is a thought-provoking text that will appeal to university researchers, academics and students interested in the changing architectures of international education.