The study of China’s “study-abroad fever” contributes to anthropological theories of cultural change. This article exploresthe Chinese middle-class families’ motivations for pursuing overseas education for their children. This study finds that the desire to realize traditional values of familism, nationalism and altruism as fully as possible drives the Chinese families to engage in overseas education. Despite being a relatively new practice, Chinese families’ pursuit of overseas education is primarily culturally driven, as it reproduces traditional cultural understandings in contemporary society. That said, the new practice is unable to resolve value conflicts resulting from competing traditional values in post-reform China, ultimately leading to changes in value orders and ways of life. In dialogue with Joel Robbins’ recent work on the theories of cultural change, I suggest that apart from the adoption of new values, change can also result from fluid value hierarchies between competing traditional values.