A Qualitative Analysis Of The Adaptive Mentality Of High-level Talents Of Returnees

"Haigui", which can be called "returnee", refers to people who return to their home country after spending years studying or working abroad. With the rapid economic development of China, increasing overseas Chinese decide to come back. Among these returnees, there are a few people with high foreign educational qualification and advanced technology. Because of these specific characteristics, people call them high-level talents of returnees. Their coming back to their homeland has attracted lots of attention and expectation in China. Although there have been a lot of studies conducted on returnees, yet most of them are either simple descriptions of returnees'living situation or general introduction of relevant policies formulated by the government for these returnees. These studies have contributed a great deal to the literature on returnees in China, but at the same time they have ignored some other important facts. First, the high-level talents of returnees possess some specific qualities which other returnees do not have. Second, most of the returnees in this group have spent years in foreign countries. After they came back, unavoidably they experience a period of reverse culture shock. How did they adjust themselves to their native environment and what kind of influence did the reverse culture shock bring to them?This thesis focuses on some of the high-level talents of returnees within Zhejiang province and does a qualitative analysis of their adaptability in the homeland. The current study particularly examines a group of returned high-level talents in Zhejiang province who are either university professors or company managers through in-depth interviews. Based on the returnees' own descriptions of their life, some problems are revealed. In the interviews, some returnees claimed that they could adapt to the native environment relatively easily, but in the conversation they still showed complaints about life after coming back. It was found that in this group of returnees, some of them, though not many could hardly re-adapt to their native environment and even decided to go abroad again. In addition, in the process of overcoming reverse culture shock, different returnees show different attitudes and adopt different living strategies, though they share similar cultural capital. In order to achieve an in-depth analysis of their adaptive mentality and the process of their re-adaptation to native environment, the study employs the concepts of reverse culture shock and cultural capital as well as some relevant key factors of traditional Chinese culture for theoretical support.The aim of the research is not only to help this group of returnees contribute better to their homeland but also to help the relevant institutions and organizations set up more appropriate policies for the high-level talents of returnees who are a great treasure for the modernization of China.