Investigation On Overseas Students' Chinese Cultural Identity

The issue of identity is a hot issue in the field of intercultural communication,which has aroused great concern of scholars both at home and abroad.With the development of globalization,the most salient type of identity in intercultural communication study is probably cultural identity.Overseas students as a special group create a bridge between China and other countries in intercultural communication and can promote the dissemination of Chinese culture.With the continuous development of Gansu,the golden section of the Silk Road in recent years,more and more students from other countries have come to Gansu for further study.Lanzhou,in Gansu province,one of the most important central cities in the western region of China,is an important node city in the Silk Road Economic Belt.And it has been attracting a large number of international friends from various continents.Thus,based on cultural identity theory,this thesis makes an investigation on cultural identity of overseas students in 4 universities in Lanzhou: Lanzhou University(985/211University),Lanzhou University of Technology(Provincial University),Lanzhou Jiao Tong University(Provincial University),and Northwest Normal University(Provincial university).Through questionnaires and interviews,in the Chinese context,overseas students' Chinese cultural identification and cultural identity changes were studied and analyzed.The results show as the following:(1)From the perspective of Chinese cultural identification,overseas students have higher degree of Chinese cultural identification after coming to China.There are variations on cultural dimensions: values are the highest,followed by language,cultural behavior and social norms.The overseas students have the relatively high identification of filial piety,modesty,diligence and frugality in Chinese values.(2)Variations on cultural identification can be found on such demographic variables as age,college major,time of learning Chinese,distribution of nationality and Chinese proficiency;however,variations can't be found on gender,ethnic Chinese or not,time of staying in China and educational background.Age,college major and time of learning Chinese have significant effects on the identity of language and cultural behavior.Distribution of nationality has significant effects on language,cultural behavior and values.Chineseproficiency has a significant effect on value.(3)From the perspective of cultural identity changes,overseas students have undergone obvious productive change and additive change in the Chinese context.Productive change is the highest.The next is additive change.(4)Overseas students' gender,age,distribution of nationality,ethnicity Chinese or not,Chinese proficiency,time of staying in China and time of learning Chinese have a significant impact on some aspects of cultural identity changes;college major and educational background have no significant effect on cultural identity change.Cultural identity change is a complex process,and it is the result of a combination of multiple factors.(5)The Chinese cultural identification of foreign students directly affects their cultural identity change,and there is a positive correlation between them.Among them,Chinese cultural identification has the highest correlation with productive and additional changes.