The Construction Of Intercultural Relations By Cultural Sojourners

The "cultural sojourner" is treated as a type of sociological form of the "stranger", specific to an international migrants group that travels all over the world with the purpose of communicating between different cultures. They attempt to bring their identities and cultures to the community in which they sojourn, simultaneously becoming deeply involved in local social and cultural life. They are unwilling to assimilate others, and others can barely assimilate them. The essential character of the cultural sojourner is that he is free to go anywhere, and his manner of staying is uncertain; he embraces difference, and produces difference; even if he is influenced by a certain culture, there is always the possibility of change. He is an independent individual, but with the co-cultural tendency he owns, he is very likely to gather with others by the cultural symbols they share, and construct intercultural relations with others through these common things.The study of the construction of intercultural relations by cultural sojourners is a study that pays close attention to the social interaction of the cultural transnationalization by international migrants in the context of globalization. Based on traditional migration studies, this study further explores how people from different countries, cultures, races and religions communicate and interact with each other. Instead of the perspective of assimilation, this study addresses the interculturality, the things between different cultures, and how people share meanings and construct relations through mutual understandings, negotiations and cooperation.Methodologically, two major approaches were used in this study. The researcher, on the one hand, became deeply involved in the sub-cultural scene, touring with those western musicians, observing their behaviors and communication process with Chinese whom they met during their sojourn. On the other hand, the researcher attempted to enter their inner world through face-to-face talking and in-depth interviews.Cultural cognition of the sojourners is a process though which symbols get stored and cumulated, corrected, supplemented and extended in their sojourn and communication process. The first part of this paper examines the cognition of the cultural sojourners on three levels. First, how they built their cognition system before coming to China, then how the stereotype faded or weakened to some degree during their sojourns. The second level explores the cultural distance and psychological barrier between the western sojourners and Chinese. In addition, cognition of a specific culture, the music sub-cultural scene in China as an example, is discussed in the last level.The storage of knowledge is the basis of intercultural communication, however, a more crucial element is the attitude of the cultural sojourners and their abilities to adjust it. The second part of this paper explores the affective perspective of cultural sojourners, identifying which attitudes are helpful for constructing these intercultural relations, and which sentiments may be negative; furthermore, the cultural empathy ability of the western sojourners is discussed as a crucial component.Cognition is the foundation of intercultural communication, while attitudes is the instruction. Besides these, we also need to seek out techniques to master the "toolbox of culture". The last part of this paper investigates strategies used by western cultural sojourners to communicate and build relationships with Chinese, how they use language and non-verbal symbols to communicate, and how they adjust their behaviors in the face of problems and difficulties.Results and discussions are in light of ground theory, and conducted in the cognitive, affective and behavioral dimensions on how the western cultural sojourners build intercultural relations with Chinese.