Intercultural Competencies In China

This volume focuses on a market that is one of the world=s economically most important and at the same time one of the most difficult to understand culturally - at least from a Western point of view. China is the world=s second largest economy in terms of nominal GDP and the largest in terms of purchasing power parity. At the same time, China has one of the world=s oldest cultures and was the cradle for extremely influential philosophical approaches that even today continue to have a tremendous impact on every sphere of Chinese society. As a result, business in China is - directly or indirectly - influenced by a distinct Chinese pragmatism, personalized networking (guanxi), the concept of "saving face" and the idea of business as a battlefield. Familiarity with Chinese culture and negotiating practices is a key factor for promoting successful business transactions. In this book, the authors aim to close the gap between publications that are of purely academic interest, on the one hand, and general guidebooks on the other. Intercultural Competencies in China provides a comprehensive selection of topics that are crucial for understanding what lies behind cultural differences - making the book essential reading for business purposes and private contacts in China. Although the book is academically oriented, all of the essays are also accessible for the general reader.

This book calls for a change in the way interculturality is introduced in Chinese language education, while the demand for Chinese language teaching increases around the world. The concept of culture – as in the phrase ‘Chinese culture’ – has often been one of the main emphases of Chinese language education, providing students with facts about China and ‘recipes’ on how to meet Chinese people and how to behave like them. However, Chinese culture, like all cultures, does not constitute a closed system, but is constantly evolving and exchanging with other cultures. This unique volume comprises studies from around the world that promote intercultural awareness, dialogue, and encounters in Chinese language education. Written in a clear and readable style, this book will appeal to a diverse readership, from practising and training teachers of Chinese, to researchers interested in language and intercultural education.

Dr Michael Chu identifies key factors hindering cultural competency and conflict resolution within Chinese Christian communities in Sydney. Intercultural Competence includes practical recommendations for pastoral leaders, theological educators and mission agencies.

This book presents a mixed-methods study that explores the development of intercultural competence among local Chinese students in Chinese universities, using Deardorff’s process model of intercultural competence as a theoretical framework. In the global higher education context, “internationalization at home” is significant in (re)shaping educational practices, especially under the influence of the COVID-19 pandemic. Chinese higher education is also actively engaged in domestic internationalization. Specifically, this book explores the factors that influence Chinese students’ development of intercultural competence and their understanding of it in the context of internationalization at local Chinese universities. The findings suggest that many universities in China are trying to improve domestic students’ intercultural competence through various strategies, such as foreign language learning, extracurricular intercultural communication activities, and international cooperation programs. Notably, the effects are diverse. Based on these findings, this book also discusses the potential theoretical, practical, and policy implications. This book will be an excellent resource for students and scholars in comparative and international education, student development, cultural studies, Chinese studies, and those interested in Chinese higher education.

Document from the year 2012 in the subject Economics - International Economic Relations, grade: 1,3, Humboldt-University of Berlin, language: English, abstract: The number of Western expatriates in China is growing; however, the rate of expatriate failure remains very high. Many multinational enterprises are now providing their expatriates with cross-cultural training (CCT), which many studies suggest is an effective way to improve expatriates’ intercultural competence and their work performance overseas. This study attempts to develop an optimal methodology for CCT in China, based on review of the literature and empirical data of five semi-structured interviews. A seven-step model is developed, and each step is examined for its effectiveness and applicability in a Chinese context. Ultimately, the final model is presented in the Research Summary, and its implications are discussed in detail.

This book provides deep insights into intercultural collaboration among business partners, employees, managers, and entrepreneurs in Chinese-African professional interactions. It presents cultural and theoretical knowledge on Chinese and African management, leadership, and philosophy. Chinese and African scholars and professionals share their insights into how to address intercultural management challenges proactively and successfully. The cases provide insights into a wide variety of industries and offer actual scenarios studied in governmental, parastatal, and private Chinese-owned organizations in twelve African countries. This book will benefit a broad readership including scholars in employment relations and business management as well as African and Chinese collaborators in academia, government, NGOs and industry.

As the number of international students in Chinese higher education increases steadily, this volume is one of the first to focus on their many and varied experiences. With contributions focusing on such topics as intercultural adaptation, soft power and interculturality, language learning strategies and the intercultural, and transformations in perspective, this volume provides the reader with a broad overview of the latest advances in the field of interculturality and study abroad. While the book will appeal to a global audience of researchers, practitioners and students with an interest in Chinese higher education, it will also be of interest to all those who remain intrigued by conceptual and methodological issues of interculturality.

Intercultural competence (IC) is considered as an essential soft skill for successful functioning in the globalized society in the 21st century. However, there is still a lack of culturally appropriate framework and instrument to understand and assess Chinese university students’ IC development. The purpose of this study was to design a valid and reliable scale for assessing Chinese students’ IC. Based on the AAA (Approach-Analyze-Act)-Chinese framework, a 30-item Intercultural Competence Scale-Chinese Version (ICS-CHN) was developed and validated with confirmatory factor analysis. Subsequent multigroup confirmatory factor analysis model further proved the measurement invariance of ICS-CHN in different gender groups. Together with its adequate reliability, convergent and discriminant validity, it is reasonable to conclude that ICS-CHN is a reliable and valid scale, corroborating that IC is a combination of affective/attitudinal, cognitive and behavioral skills and characteristics applied in intercultural encounters. Keywords: intercultural competence, reconceptualization, measurement validation, Chinese university students, 21st century skill