Arabs’ Cross-cultural Adaptation In Shanghai: An Exploratory Study Based On Interviews With Twelve Arab Muslims

Arabs have long been in friendly contact with Chinese most of the time forseveral centuries. In recent decades, the gradual opening up of China, especially itsentry into WTO in2000has largely boosted the intercultural exchange between thetwo regions. Ever since the year of2001, an increasing number of Arab businessmenhave turned their eyes off from US to China and started to dwell in cities likeGuangzhou, Beijing, Yinchuan, Yiwu, and Shanghai for business, study, governmentalassignments, etc.However, this large influx of Arabs into China has seldom aroused the interest ofscholars in the field of intercultural communication. This thesis had recorded theexperience of six Egyptian engineers who came to Shanghai for the first time withlimited cultural knowledge of China to, on the one hand, identify the problemsencountered by Arab Muslim newcomers in the process of cross-cultural adjustment,and on the other, to compare the cultural value differences between China and Islamreflected in their short-term sojourn against the backdrop of the city of Shanghai.In addition, other six Arabs with a longer-term of stay in China had been involvedin the study. Through comparison analysis, it seemed that the younger generation ofArab Muslims, mostly with a more liberal view toward Islam enjoyed the "free"society of Shanghai while the elder ones with short-term stay would express the voidof spirituality and even condemn the "freedom" in Shanghai.As time goes by, initial problems like un-satisfaction with Chinese women’s"revealing" dress, unavailability of halal food gradually faded away. It is found thatArabs with higher education, more social connections with local Chinese havecultivated within themselves a pluralistic view of religion, which left positive impacton their adaptation.