| This qualitative research study explores Chinese-speaking Asian international students' experiences in a US public university, with a focus on how their identities are performed, transformed, and re-performed. Viewing identity as an outcome of various constructed repetitive performative acts, this study examines international students' study abroad experiences as a socially constructed performance. Nine international students, from Taiwan or Hong Kong, revisited their classroom and/or daily lives in the US through various Applied Theatre techniques, such as Image Theatre, Playback Theatre, Improvisation, gesture storytelling, games, and writing-in-role. The theatre activities not only assisted international students in reviewing their past experiences, but also allowed the participants to reexamine their identity transformation processes creatively and interactively. Narrative Inquiry is the principle methodology for this study in terms of data collection, analysis and presentation. Narratives were collected as personal stories, letters, artistic works, and improvised scenes and images. Through these various types of performative data, this study not only presents the voices of international students in different types of narratives, including storytelling, poetry, stage play, a dialogue, and personal letters, but also serves as a safe ground for the participants to create their "own" performance as internationals in the US. |
