Intercultural Experience and Identity

1. Front Matter

   Pages i-xi

   PDF

2. Setting the Scene for the Narratives to Follow

   • Lily Lei Ye

   Pages 1-37

3. The Story of Researching Chinese International Doctoral Students’ Identity

   • Lily Lei Ye

   Pages 39-55

4. Engaging with the Existing Stories

   • Lily Lei Ye

   Pages 57-94

5. Exploring the Self Through Giddens and Bourdieu

   • Lily Lei Ye

   Pages 95-122

6. A Dialogue with the Past: Thinking Through Lifestyle Choices

   • Lily Lei Ye

   Pages 123-145

7. Surviving and Thriving in the New Field: Keeping the Narrative Going

   • Lily Lei Ye

   Pages 147-185

8. Growing and Becoming: The Expanded Self

   • Lily Lei Ye

   Pages 187-207

9. Bringing the Future into the Present: Thinking Through Imagined Future Trajectories

   • Lily Lei Ye

   Pages 209-222

10. Learning from the Narratives

    • Lily Lei Ye

    Pages 223-238

11. Back Matter

    Pages 239-281

    PDF

This book examines the identity formation and negotiation of Chinese doctoral students in the UK, and the opportunity for self-transformation this experience offers. As the largest group of international students in the English-speaking world, Mainland Chinese students encounter a range of difficulties and prospects that may be relevant to the wider international student community. Using extensive qualitative and empirical data, the author explores the narratives of eleven Chinese doctoral students at two British universities through a sociological perspective. Balancing analysis with solid theoretical framework and the voices of the students themselves, the author moves away from essentialism and ‘othering’, instead shining a light on the effects of globalisation, internationalisation and recent policy strategies. This volume will be of interest and value to students and scholars of comparative and international education, identity formation, intercultural communication, the sociologyof education and study abroad.

• Chinese doctoral students
• International doctoral students
• Narratives of PhDs
• Intercultural experience and learning
• Chinese intercultural learning
• Chinese doctoral students in the UK
• Study abroad

“The burgeoning literature on Chinese international students is dominated by writers and researchers from host institutions who inevitably present issues through the prism of their own experience. Lily Ye, in contrast is one of a small but growing generation of Chinese writers who have received their post-graduate education in the English-speaking world and are thus able to draw both on the perspectives of fellow students and on their own lived experience. Dr Ye’s use of Giddens’ project of the reflective self to interpret the narratives of Chinese PhD students is original, exciting, challenging and illuminating. Participants emerge not as passive victims of a system where they often face multiple disadvantages, but as active agents who mould their international experiences in ways which mirror their aspirations.” (Professor Viv Edwards, University of Reading, UK)

• Beijing Institute of Fashion Technology, Beijing, China

  Lily Lei Ye

Lily Lei Ye is Associate Professor in the School of Language and Culture at the Beijing Institute of Fashion Technology, China. Her research interests include culture studies, the sociology of education, comparative and international education, applied linguistics, intercultural communication and the sociology of fashion. 

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