Being Chinese in Lived Intercultural Experiences: A Discourse Analysis of Chinese Undergraduates’ Perceptions of Chinese Culture

The current study investigates a group of Chinese undergraduates’ perceptions of Chinese culture. It examines the discourses that the students drew on to assign meaning to Chinese culture and how the students used these discourses in constructing their Chinese cultural identity. A qualitative study was conducted collecting written self-reflective reports on critical intercultural incidents from 39 Chinese undergraduates at a university in Beijing. Questions designed to evoke reports from the students had them describe incidents in their past intercultural experiences that made them acutely aware of themselves “being Chinese” and specify aspects of Chinese culture that they felt such awareness could be attributed to. A discourse analysis reveals the multiplicity and contextuality of the students’ notions of Chinese culture. The findings raise important considerations for contemporary Chinese undergraduates’ cultural identity and their much debated “identity crisis.”