在美中国低龄留学生的跨文化适应研究

gration, 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