Leaving Home With Lots Of "Baggage":Cross-Cultural Adaptation And Identity Of College Exchange Students In The Digital Media Age

At the moment,the college exchange student program has become a frequent and large-scale project in international cooperation,education reform and internationalization of university education,and it has also made mobility a way of life.The exchange process of university exchange students will encounter different cross-cultural adaptation and identity issues from other sojourners.How they adapt to this flow and adopt behavior strategies in cultural exchanges and social interactions,and what kind of changes in cognition and identity are the focus of this study.Based on the background of the rising digital media,this research adopts a qualitative research method based on in-depth interviews and participatory observations.This paper studies the changes of cross-cultural adaptation status and strategies of college exchange students and the change of identity based on self-identity and social identity.The study found that under the background of digital media constructing imagination and support for university exchange students,exchange students’ cross-cultural adaptation will experience a flow state from "fusion" to "separation",the choice of strategies and emotional attitudes of cross-cultural adaptation are also relatively peaceful.There is no fixed time point for the flow of this state,which is the overall trend of the cross-cultural adaptation state of exchange students.The cross-cultural adaptation under the influence of digital media has also promoted the flow of deep identity and produced new changes: In terms of self-identity,university exchange students have demonstrated the strengthening of the identities of "Chinese Mainland Exchange Students","Chinese Mainland Students",and "Asian Cultural Circle People" and the exploration and experience of a few other identities;social identity On the other hand,although the exchange students distinguished between the "Inner group" and the "External group" in the exchange place,they showed insignificance to the "Inner group" and indifference to the "External Group".This study presents a vivid presentation of the cross-cultural adaptation and identity change of exchange students by digital media.When mobility becomes a lifestyle,university exchange students are like a frog jumping out of the "well".They still carry the Chinese mainland’s habituations in their hearts.The "frog at the bottom of the well" has become a "tourist" in Bowman’s mouth,taking the behavior of the "marginal people" in the marginal area as their behavior in the center of the exchange.