| The increasing contacts among different cultural groups bring people to face moreconfusion and doubts as to the question “who am I?” and “where do I belong?” Forpeople living or working in an unfamiliar cultural environment, a more clearcognition of their own identity seems urgent and necessary for more effectivecommunication and acculturation. That’s the why identity has been a recurring topicin intercultural studies.Apart from the frequent contact internationally, intercultural communication happensamong co-cultures within China. With the implementation of development strategy byChinese government, southwestern China is soaring in economy and attracting moreand more new comers studying and working here. Yet distinctly different culturalcharacteristics are demonstrated due to historic and geographic reasons. How to betteradapt to local culture and build up their new cultural identity? For the non-natives,this is a question. The author noticed that English learners tend to watch Americansoup operas for the purpose of improving their language competence and culturefamiliarity, so she raised some hypotheses as to the function of dialect programwatching in non-natives’ identity dynamics and acculturation.To probe into the factors influencing the identity status of non-natives inSichuan/Chongqing, the present research focuses on the cultural phenomenon ofdialect TV program, which is popular among not only local people, but alsonon-natives. The research contains two parts: quantitative study and qualitative study.112participants filled the questionnaire and15of them accepted an one-hourinterview in the second part. The author tailored the identity-measuring scaleSL-ASIA by Suinn to better examine the participants’ identity and acculturation statusfrom6aspects. People’s frequency of dialect programs watching, their preference to acertain type of TV program and the degree to which they identify themselves withvalues/lifestyles conveyed in those programs are subsequently proved to be closely related to their identity changes and acculturation effectiveness. Other factors likegender, birth place and the length of stay in local place are also examined. Anin-depth interview is carried out so as to further verify and deepen the conclusionsdrawn in the quantitative study.The result of this research shows correlation among all subscales in SL-ASIA except“geographical history” and that the more participants watch localdialect TV programs,the better they speak local dialect, and the more they tend to identify themselves withlocal culture. Frequency of dialect program watching, their favorite type of dialectprogram and how much they believe in the values and lifestyles in the programs areall related with their identity and acculturation. As to other factors, people born insouth China seem to be better acculturated than those from north China, and femalesbetter than males. No difference is shown between people’s identity and their futureplan of staying here or not. |
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