Cross-Scale Acculturation Transmission and Place Attachment of Foreign Students in Guangzhou
CONG Yanguo
LEI Jingyu
ZHOU Chujie
HUANG Jingde
ZHANG Ji
Abstract：Research on the transmission mechanisms of foreign students'place attachment between the campus and city in the context of acculturation not only can enrich interdisciplinary studies but can also help universities and cities pursue more feasible institutional reform and development.Guided by theories of emotional geography,scale jumping,and identity negotiation,a theoretical framework to study place attachment between the campus and city was established.The first-hand data of foreign students'acculturation levels(integration into Chinese culture and retention of home culture),place attachments to campuses and cities,and personal background information were collected via 112 questionnaires to students in five universities in Shipai and Wushan Streets,Tianhe District,Guangzhou,China.Using structural equation modeling(SEM)and hierarchical regression analysis,this study reveals that acculturation significantly enhances campus attachment through functional dependencies(language acquisition,social interaction,and living habits)and thereby indirectly influences city attachment.This study found that:(1)acculturation strengthens practical ways to establish place attachment through functional orientations like language acquisition,social interaction,and adaptation to living habits,and campus attachment lays the foundation for cross-scale transmission of the"campus→ city"through high-frequency interactions(e.g.,"15-minute living circle".(2)Institutional barriers(e.g.,household registration and visa restrictions)and cultural-cognitive discontinuities lead to ruptures in identity transformation from a"student"to a"citizen."Therefore,campus attachment can be transmitted to city attachment only through symbolic identification,while functional dependence fails.This discloses the special dilemma that cross-cultural groups face under institutional exclusion.(3)"Affective threshold effects"are observed in acculturation.After exceeding the critical threshold,place attachment qualitatively shifts from functional dependence to affective identification,thus causing substantial changes.Therefore,universities should optimize campus functional supply and enhance acculturation of foreign students through mixed-dormitory arrangements and other measures,thus enhancing their campus cognition and emotional identification.This lays the foundation for foreign students to explore the city.Cities should relax restrictions on employment visas,create opportunities to promote the citizen rights of foreign students,eliminate their identification challenges,and repair identity ruptures.Only in this way can foreign students gradually acquire the local consciousness that is commensurate with their"citizen"status,thus making it possible to construct and manage global"micro-level"urban spaces.The study on the cross-scale transmission mechanisms of cross-cultural groups'place attachment provides some new theoretical references for immigration policy development and urban space governance.Meanwhile,academia is urged to pay attention to the interactions between the institutional environment and emotional geography.Future studies can strengthen the application and promotional capacity of the model based on a larger sample size.Additionally,studies on multi-scale spatial embedding of the campus-city-country can be carried out.
Keywords：acculturationcross-scaleplace attachmentforeign studentsGuangzhou
Publication Date：2025-08-30
Online Publishing Date：2025-09-09(First online date of this platform, not the publication date of the document)
Pages：10( 21-30 )