Case Study On Reverse Culture Shock Of Returnees In China

With the rapid development of China’s economy, in recent years, a great number of overseas Chinese returned to work and live in China. Nowadays, the phrase "Hai Gui" which means the returned Chinese has become a buzzword in China. The latest statistics shows that the number of Chinese students of all types studying abroad from1978to the end of2010totaled1,905,400, out of whom632,200came back home after study. And the number of the Chinese returnees is still on the rise. To attract and encourage overseas Chinese to come back has great significance in China’s modernization. So a comfortable life and working experience in China would be an important guarantee and also the premise for Chinese returnees better contribute to the country’s construction.Since coming home was considered as returning to a place familiar, seldom would the readaptation difficulties be expected by the returnees. However, it is convinced by foreign cross-culture research that most expatriates find readjusting back home, commonly known as reverse culture shock, even more difficult and stressful than adjusting overseas, partly due to incorrect expectations and lack of preparation.The primary objective of this thesis is to study the relation between the variables of reverse culture shock and the major difficulties encountered by Chinese returnees through case study. To assure the validity of the research, Asuncion-Lande’s (1976) and Judith Martin’s (1984) related perceptions were referred. The variables studied in this thesis include:gender, age, sojourn duration, returning time, academic level, their experience abroad, sympathetic support at home and their readiness to return. And the difficulties encountered by the subjects were classified into four categories: difficulties in environment readaptation, difficulties in work, difficulties in interpersonal relationship and difficulties in culture readaptation.Both the variables and the difficulties were quantified to facilitate the present study. Many findings were drawn through the data. The findings in this thesis mainly refer to the relation between particular variable of readaptation and particular difficulty in readaptation. The author hopes the findings in this study can help Chinese returnees better predict the coming reverse culture shock they about to face according to their particular profiles. Once returnees have an accurate expectation about readaptation difficulties and once they could accept those difficulties they face as normal, the readaptation process will be smoother and desirably shorter.Although it is far from enough to take these20subjects in the cases to represent the whole Chinese returnees group, the situation they were in can reflect that of the whole Chinese returnees group to some degree. It is my hope that more attention can be drawn to the issue of Chinese returnees’reverse culture shock, and more customized help can be given to them to facilitate their readaptation and in the end to make them the more valuable international talents.