Understanding and Managing the Belt and Road International Students in China

Abstract

Since the Belt and Road Initiative activated in 2014, international students from the Belt and Road countries increased rapidly, constitutes the majority of international students in China. With great culture differences and limited information of the host country, how are these international students coping with Chinese society and campus life? What are the difficulties and challenges for the Chinese universities that accept these international students? With these questions in mind, this paper tried to build a cultural transition management model from the management angle. By collecting 211 questionnaires from 34 countries, this paper used SPSS and Amos to study the Belt and Road international students' cultural adaptation status as well as their sense of happiness in China. The results show that international students from Asian countries have an even worse cultural adaptation level than students from other continents, which is against the cultural distance theory. International students' cultural adaptation level has positive correlation with their life satisfaction level. The findings also show that international students' Chinese language level, sojourn experience, as well as the country cultural distance are the main influence on their cultural adaptation.