Relationship Development Of Chinese-Westerner Couples In Shanghai-A Qualitative Study

The research on romantic-type intercultural relationships as the most intimate form of intercultural communication is an efficient way to study intercultural interpersonal communication. Chinese-Westerner relationships in China haven't received much academic attention and are often misinterpreted in pop culture. This thesis strives to present an in-depth study of the relational dynamics of Chinese-Westerner couples in Shanghai by using qualitative interview method and making typological study and issue-based analysis. The studied relationships are limited to those relationships between a man and woman from two cultures. They either are married or have moved in with each other with the intention to get married.Attention will be drawn to Chinese men-Western women couples as well Chinese women-Western men matches. Although the sample is relatively small compared to a quantitative one, the in-depth nature of the interviews allowed the author to construct on the deep social psychological of some influential factors in such relationships. This typological study generalizes from concrete cases while still retaining their holistic character. The description of a type suggests that a common core has been identified within a set of particular cases. The issue-based analysis concerns itself with what could be learned about specific issues—or events or process—from respondents.The categories found in this grounded theory study are"previous interculturality"before one Chinese and Western couple meet each other;"attraction"between this couple; and"integration"after they establish their close romantic relationship. Based on these three criteria, a typological analysis was applied to find the types which give full play to the voices of the intercultural respondents. These identified types are the foreign type, the Chinese type and the international integrated type. The issue-based analysis studies the three categories in detail, linking related factors."Previous factors"encompass the themes of globalization, the intercultural partners'adventurousness and open-mindedness, and intercultural competence."Attraction"falls into general cultural attraction and personal attraction. Cultural attraction includes the attraction between Chinese women and Western men and that between Chinese men and Western women. Personal attraction contains those personal traits and factors that attract them to each other. The thesis seeks to discover whether this personal attraction varies from culture to culture. Thirdly, the"post interculturality"category examines how the intercultural relationship participants accommodate to each other and integrate their cultures from the perspectives of communication and such intimate social networks as parents-in-law and friends.