Exploring spaces in-between

Abstract

This chapter explores how one group of Chinese undergraduate students in a transnational university in China see themselves as HE students and as Chinese youth in a changing political and social landscape, where transnational education is rapidly changing. This chapter is informed by empirical evidence from 31 semi-structured interviews, using an arts-based interview method, with Xi’an Jiaotong-Liverpool University (XJTLU) as the case study. The study is grounded in Critical Discourse Analysis, whereby discursive constructions of students’ identities are analysed and theorised in relation to the articulation between material realities, the students’ personal and cultural values, and their embodied self and agency, with a focus on liminality (in-between spaces) as part of identity constructions and culture negotiation. In the process, a range of potential conflicting forces, for example those related to culture, educational backgrounds and nationality, which are part of students’ identity constructions, were identified. This ongoing process of identity construction may have a profound impact on how these students see themselves and their place in the world into the future, and by extension on the way China as a nation will reimagine itself in its engagement with the rest of the world, in particular in a post-COVID-19 world.