Cross-cultural Adaptation And Influencing Factors Of Taiwanese Student In Xiamen University

Mainland China and Taiwan district have the same origin and share the same culture roots since time immemorial. However, due to the historical and political causation over the last century, barriers keep their apart from politic, economy and society communication, so as the higher education exchange, it was at a standstill once. Along with Taiwan authority announced the lifting of martial law in1987, the communication between mainland China and Taiwan district gradually increased. Thanks to the acknowledgment of mainland China’s university qualification policy in Taiwan, Taiwanese students who choose to study in mainland China accumulate fast particularly. Xiamen University becomes one of the universities which own the maximum volume of Taiwanese students in mainland China because of its location and similar cultural atmosphere to Taiwan. Therefore, the study of cross-cultural adaptation of Taiwanese students in Xiamen University has a typical meaning.The research starts with the daily life of Taiwanese students in order to discover Taiwanese students’ cross-cultural adaptation of Xiamen University in many aspects, such as education, social living environment and interpersonal relationship so as to find out the personal and social environmental influential factors which may affect the Taiwanese students’ adaptation. Drawing on the works in cross-cultural adaptation, this thesis mainly uses qualitative method through study the literature, in-depth interviews and participant observation method.The thesis sought to examine the Taiwanese students’ purpose and motivation of the study in Xiamen University, finds out the attraction and pull factors of Xiamen University so as to pave the way for the following research. By looking into the adaptation status of Taiwanese students in Xiamen University, finds out the stress they have in study and daily life, it mainly reflects in academic adaptation, interpersonal communication, employment and expressions of words, etc. The factors which affect Taiwanese students’ adaptation status are:traditional culture education that Taiwanese students received, national identities’ recognition in the psychological level and cultural regression shock. In the end of the thesis, the author put forward feasible suggestion to Taiwanese students, Xiamen University and Chinese government. First of all, Taiwanese students should be well prepared in psychological level and integrate into the academic and social environment of mainland China. Xiamen University should abandon emphasizing particularly on management, enlarge the Taiwanese students’ social interactions with Chinese students, improve their involvement in Chinese social life and cultural adaptation; meanwhile, provide graduate Taiwanese students’ pointed career guidance. Government may provide appropriate enrollment and employment policy; expand scholarship amount and range, raise the university’s attraction of mainland China for the purpose of making Taiwanese students do more contribution to the economy and culture communication of both sides.