Investigation On The Influence Of Cultural Identity And Self-construal On Reverse Culture Shock And Cultural Re-adaptation Of Chinese Overseas Returnees

With the continuous change of the world economic pattern and the continuous improvement of China's comprehensive national strength,more and more overseas students choose to return home for employment,and they are given a specific nameoverseas returnees.Researches have shown that overseas returnees may experience a process of “cultural re-adaptation” after returning home.In this process,they may show various psychological or physiological in-adaptations,which was named by Scheuts(1944)as the “reverse culture shock”.Foreign studies have shown that the phenomenon of “reverse culture shock" is prevalent among overseas returnees in the West.Moreover,compared with “culture shock”,it will bring more pain to people.However,although the number of overseas returnees in China is increasing year by year,there are relatively few studies on the re-adaptation of returnees and the “reverse culture shock”(Yin Shi,2008).In a small number of domestic studies on the cultural re-adaptation of overseas returnees,many researchers believe that all the processes and mechanisms of cultural adaptation are similar,so they simply use the theory of intercultural adaptation to study the process of “cultural re-adaptation” of overseas returnees.For Sussman(2000),self-construal and shifts in cultural identity throughout the intercultural adaptation process are critical factors in explaining and predicting cultural re-adaptation.Therefore,based on the particularity of cultural re-adaptation,from the perspective of social cognition,this study adopts Sussman's(2000)Cultural Identity Model as well as Markus and Kitayama's(1994)perceptions on culture and the self,and tries to explore cultural re-adaptation of overseas returnees in the Chinese environment,and the influence of cultural identity and self-contrual on “reverse culture shock”.The research subjects are overseas returnees from the UK,the United States,Australia and Canada.Online survey was carried out.The results show that: firstly,reverse culture shock is widespread among Chinese overseas returnees,but the overall life satisfaction of overseas returnees is high after returning home,and there is no correlation between overall life satisfaction and reverse culture shock.Secondly,self-construal can influence the degree of reverse culture shock.Most overseas returnees tend to have independent self-construal,and independent self-construal strengthens reverse culture shock,while the interdependent self-construal has no effect on reverse culture shock.Thirdly,shift in cultural identity of overseas returnees is prominent,and they on the whole have global cultural identity.In addition,host culture identity positively strengthens reverse culture shock,while home culture identity weakens reverse culture shock.Fourthly,self-construal is the mediator between cultural identity and reverse culture shock.