CHAPTER ONE INTRODUCTION

1.1 Research Background

With  the improvem ent  of China’ s  comprehensive  national power and people’ s  increasing disposable income, it is not surprise to find th at a great number of pa rents send their children abroad to pursue further study. However, it is the fast growing number of high school students going abroad to study that catches our attention. 

As  indicated  by Natio nal  Bureau  of  Statistics  China, the urban re sidents’  per capita disposable income have been increasing fast re cent years, which m eans people can afford to go abroad.

A research conducted by Center for China and Globalization（CCG）and Mycos reveals that the proportion of high school students a nd college going abroad for study is going up dramatically.  The research conducted in 2015 s hows  that the proportion of students going abroad to study after high school dropped from 61% to 44% com pared to 2012. While the proportion of students going abroad to study in high school increased  from 17% to 27% the same year, which means most of those students will not participate in the college e ntrance examination or finish high school courses in China.

If  we look back at the history ,  we will no tice  that there were three tim es  that huge number of Chinese students went abroad for  study. The first tim e was after 1894 when  First Sino-Japanese  War  happened, m ost  people went to Japan for study ,  and  some  went  to the United States or Europe; The second tim e happened after May 4th Movem ent, when most people went to United S tates, France and Russia, with others going to Britain, Germ any and Japan. The third time was in 2070s when the reform and open policy was put forward, and the number of people going abroad this tim e was far larger. Even until no w, the number is still increasing rapidly. 

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1.2 Research

Topic As  a result of China' s  growing  participation and impor tance  in the  process  of internationalization  and globalization, a  continuously  rising num ber  of young Chinese students has gone abroad for further study. Up to now, the number of Chinese students abroad made up the lar gest group of international students in the USA. Because of its size and th e growing recognition of China and Chinese culture around the world, research on a wide range of problem areas among Chinese students abroad  has been initiated, esp ecially in the USA. This  research aim s  to investigate the di fficulties  young Chinese students have been encountering  in the process of adjusting to  American  culture. V arious interviews and questionnaire are used in this study to collect information from 30 young Chinese students in the United States.

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CHAPTER TWO LITERATURE REVIEW

2.1 Studies on Cross-cultural Adaptation Abroad

In the end of 19th centuries, cultural adaptation was fi rst brought forward and was used in anthropology, then other disciplin e gradually began to take intere st in it, especially history . The extensive application in social science began in 1930s.  

Studies  on cross-cultural adaptation have  been  increasing since the beginning of  20th century. Cross cultural adaptation,  the core term going through all  over the thesis, is used in broad sense to denote “the entirety of the phenomenon of individuals who, upon relocating to an unfamiliar sociocultural environment, strive to establish and maintain a stable, reciprocal, and  functional relationship  with the environm ent”(Kim,  2005, P .380).  Cross-cultural adaptation means how a sojou rner deal with cultural changes. Begley claims that adaptation encompasses  culture sh ock, assimilation,  adjustment,  acculturation, integration, and coping (p.401). Oberg (1960) classifies cr oss-cultural adaptation into  four stages, honeymoon stage, culture  shock stage, adjustm ent  stage and m aster  stage to describe the process o f cross-cultural  adaptation vividly .  Stage  1 is “the honeym oon”——(initial euphoria/excitement). It excites people by new s ounds, sights, and smells in this stage. They feel that they get along well with the host culture, and are very interested in com paring their own culture and the new one in the similarities and differences. People are highly motivated and  pretty cooperative. They  feel no problem s  in ad justing.  Stage 2 is “culture shock”——irritation/hostility. Since people have been in the new culture for som e time, they start to pay more attention to the discrepancies between the new culture and their own culture. Even  small  differences  or problem s  would fru strate  them. They be come stressed out by challenges  and feel helpless. People m ay  also  feel discrim inated  since stereotypes and prejudices appear to them. They be gin to miss their friends and family far away. Stage 3 is gradual  adjustment,  humor,  and perspective.  People  become  to know m ore  about the new culture and start to adjust. They get used to it, and feel more comfortable, even prefer the new culture to their own. People feel they are m ore involved and delightful. Stage 4 is “f eeling at home”—— adaptation and biculturalism. People have adapt the new culture and feels like at home. Everything seems to be in control. Lots of concepts about culture shock cam e up to enrich and expand this four-stage model of cultural adjustment afterwards.

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2.2 Studies on Chinese Students’ Cross-cultural Adaptation Abroad

Both  China and abroad have studies regardin g  Chinese students’  studying abroad, and the number of the stud ies have been increasing in recent years. Yun Xiao demonstrated in her article that parents sent their children abroad basically based on thr ee reasons: They believe that education abroad is better than China’ s and expect their ch ildren to work abroad after graduation  until they g et  green  card;  They th ink  their children will improve their English greatly, and they can at least find  a job as a translator when they go back to China; They also think that going to American universities will be much easier and it is easy to grad uate. The article notes the fact that there are som e problems that cannot be neglected am ong the young students abroad. For example, they like to present them selves rich—they drive good cars and they buy luxurious goods without considering the price. 

China Youth Research Center has a repor t about young Chinese students abroad. They interviewed students, families, and agencies and conclude that with China’s continuously fast growing economy, people’s income is increasing and their purchasing power is stronger.

Since 2008, we can see an explosive growth  in the number of Chinese students going abroad.  Most of them  are going abroad at  their  own expenses, a nd  at younger age. They analyzes reasons and thinks it is due to parent s’ views on China’s education systems, pressure from College Entrance Exams, or immigrant purposes. It may also have something to do with the  global economic  slowdown, and western count ries  promote their educational econom ic development by expanding China’ s market. The report proposed suggestions as to studying abroad. 

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CHAPTER THREE ............................... 19

3.1 Young Yun Kim’s theory of cross-cultural adaptation ..................... 19

3.1.1 Intercultural competence ..................... 19 

CHAPTER FOUR .................... 25

4.1 Research Hypothesis and Questionnaire Design ...................... 25

4.1.1 Research Hypothesis ......................... 25

CHAPTER FIVE .................... 41

5.1 Summary .............. 41

5.2 Possible conclusions that can be drawn ............................. 42

CHAPTER FOUR RESEARCH PROCESS

4.1 Research Hypothesis and Questionnaire Design

4.1.1 Research Hypothesis

To get to know young Chinese students’ cross-cultural adaptation and fact ors that affect it, questionnaire  is d esigned  including  motivations  and expectations, dem ographics,  length of stay, source of pressure, and so on.

Research hypothesizes are as follows:

1)  Language competence has impact on cross-cultural adaptation.

2)  Different education systems have impact on cross-cultural adaptation.

3)  Personalities  have im pact  on interpersonal  adaptation,  and interpersonal adaptation has impact on cross-cultural adaptation.

4)  Social-cultural environment differences have impact on cross-cultural adaptation.

5)  Length of stay has impact on cross-cultural adaptation.

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CHAPTER FIVE CONCLUDING REMARKS

5.1 Summary

To  summarize, m ost  young students do not ha ve  a clear objective when they go abroad——the most important thing that keep in their mind is that going abroad is better than studying in China. Meanwhile, most of them follow their parents’ mind to go abroad, ignoring or underestimating the difficulties they may encounter in a foreign country. Parents hope their children could make some achievement when they study abroad, but they them selves know little about U.S. 

There are several main factors that m otivates students to go abroad. First, it is due to sociocultural factors. In Chinese culture, it is commonly believed by Chinese that the greatest fulfilment a young people has is in academ ic study. In traditional Chinese culture, scholars enjoy high social status and are respected by all people. Therefore, getting a high degree is not only an honor for him self/herself, but also the honor to the  whole family. Second, people are richer than before. More and more families can afford sending their children abro ad. Third, parents usually entrust their hope  to their children. They regard  their children as part of them and are strict with the child ren. When parents  see their relatives’ or friends’ children going abroad to study, they will send their own children abroad if th ey have enough money. Fourth, young Chinese students would like to enrich thei r life experiences, broaden their eyes and cultivate independent thinking sk ills.  Fifth, some of them m ay go abroad just to avoid the fierce competition of college entrance exam in China. Sixth, it will be much easier for them to be  accepted  by fam ous  universities  in th e  U.S. if they p lan  to s tudy further there. The universities they will go to even ranks higher than Tsinghua University or Peking University. 

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