Closer to the self while far from home

A longitudinal study about Chinese students’ experiences in Germany

by Lili Jiang
Doctoral thesis
Date of Examination:2021-06-18
Date of issue:2022-01-04
Advisor:Prof. Dr. Axel Schneider
Referee:Prof. Dr Axel Schneider
Referee:Prof. Dr. Gabriele Rosenthal
Persistent Address: http://dx.doi.org/10.53846/goediss-8997

 

 

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Abstract

English

This dissertation explores the changing identity and sense of belonging of a group of master’s students from the People’s Republic of China during their stay in Germany. Its main purpose is to understand how the students perceived their attachment to China politically, culturally, and ethnically and how these perceptions gradually changed during their experiences in Germany, where they developed different strategies to negotiate their identity and belonging. The study applied a combination of a longitudinal method and a biographical narrative interview method to track 25 Chinese students’ lived experiences and their change processes from their first semester in Germany until after they graduated, in order to capture critical moments in their transitions. The dissertation provides longitudinal evidence that reveals the complex and multi-layered nature of the changing progress of these students’ identities. It also supports the idea that the students’ transcultural experiences in Germany may have helped them to “unlearn” a normalized concept of “Chineseness,” which was partially imbued by the Patriotic Education Campaign in China from the 1990s, and to go beyond their state-bound national loyalty to postulate a potential transcultural position in today’s world.
Keywords: Chinese Students; identity
 
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