Cultural value discrepancies, strategic positioning and integrated identity: American migrants’ experiences of being the Other in mainland China

ABSTRACT

Focusing on 35 American migrants’ experiences in mainland China, this study provides a new conceptual understanding of international migrants’ Other-identity formulated in and through intercultural encounters. Guided by grounded theory, this study demonstrates that American migrants’ Otherness was frequently triggered by their divergences from Chinese cultural values’ emphasis on individuals’ conformity to interdependence, group interests, group cohesiveness, homogeneity and unequally distribution of power and status within a social structure. As the Other in mainland China, American migrants adapted themselves to Chinese society via diverse strategic positioning, which eventually contributed to the differential formation of an integrated identity during immigration.

KEYWORDS:

• Cultural value discrepancies
• differential adaptation
• integrated identity
• American migrants
• Other-identity

Notes on contributors

Yang Liu, PhD. in intercultural communication from University of Oklahoma, Assistant professor at Beijing Foreign Studies University, China. Her research interest includes migrating individuals’ cultural identity change embedded in cross-border migration.

Eric Kramer, PhD, Full Professor and Presidential Professor at the University of Oklahoma, the United States, and the Editor for Oxford Research Encyclopedia of Communication (International Communication). He is devoted to exploring cultural fusion on a global level.