Acculturation of Chinese Students in the U.S.: Un-abandoned Chinese Identity and Intra-ethnic Communication

Abstract

Two theoretical perspectives have been adopted by the scholarly exploration of acculturation. The first is the unidirectional perspective, which is represented by cross-cultural adaptation theory. The other is the non-unidirectional perspective which is reflected by cultural fusion theory. Focusing on Chinese students’ acculturation in the United States, this research compared these two theoretical perspectives in general, and cross-cultural adaptation theory and cultural fusion theory in particular. Through conducting in-depth interviews with 25 Chinese students studying in an American public university, this research revealed that these migrating individuals from China were still attached to their Chinese identity and embraced interaction with other Chinese people to varying degrees during their acculturation. Their acculturation experiences supported cultural fusion theory, which argues that acculturation is an additive and integrated process rather than a zero-sum closed system.

Keywords

Cultural fusion / Chinese identity / intra-ethnic communication / acculturation

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