A Double-Edged Sword : Examining WeChat’s Role in Chinese Student Sojourners’ Study Abroad Experiences

Abstract

The growing number of Chinese student sojourners (CSS) in the UK and the increasing popularity of social media among international students have received considerable academic attention. Some studies on CSS focused on WeChat (a Chinese multi-purpose platform that enables messaging, social media, and mobile payment), the most ‘favourable’ platform among CSS (Yu et al., 2019). However, few studies were conducted in the UK, especially in the updated context of British higher education impacted by COVID-19. Moreover, the pre-existing studies contradict wider literature and lack depth. Adopting a nuanced and critical stance on international students, this empirical study investigates the role WeChat plays in CSS’ sojourning experiences. Participants are 17 Cross-cultural Communication (CCC) MA students from Mainland China. Research data comprised the Autobiography of Intercultural Encounters (AIE) (Byram et al., 2009), semi-structured interviews, WeChat screenshots, and research field notes. This study employs a qualitative interpretive approach, utilising a hybrid inductive-deductive thematic analysis. The findings reveal that WeChat serves as a double-edged sword in participants’ sojourning lives, facilitating co-national connections and providing sociocultural support but limiting their intercultural ties thereby leading to a lack of independence. WeChat also enables participants to gain timely well-being support though the long-term effect is unknown. Additionally, the intercultural encounter (IE) sense-making process on WeChat was found to be an enriching process of collective learning, with participants enhancing their intercultural communicative competences(ICC) through dialogic reflections. This study supplements the lack of empirical studies on CSS’ social media use and intercultural transition in the UK, enriches understanding of acculturation and ICC theories, contributes to the knowledge of improving methodology rigour, and gives practical insights to international students and the British higher educational institutes. Due to the lack of diversity in research samples, the findings may not apply to other CSS. Future research could benefit from a longitudinal study involving CSS participants from various disciplines. Key Words: social media; WeChat; Chinese student sojourners; acculturation; intercultural encounter