Affective flows and inequalities of international students’ intercultural communication in the digital era: A Sino-Swedish comparative study

Other conference contribution, 2023

The COVID-19 pandemic has given rise to the wide adoption of online teaching and draws attention to students’ digital literacies and intercultural competence online. Nevertheless, there is a sheer paucity of research on how international students’ intercultural experiences are shaped by their digital practices. Given the distinct digital and linguistic environments in China and Sweden, this study focuses on the two-way flow of international students between Anglo-European countries and China and aims to investigate the affective dimension of their intercultural experiences in the digital era. Drawing on Deleuzian and Guattarian theory of affect (Deleuz & Guattari 1987/2004), we define affective flows as the socio-emotional condition of intercultural communication provisioned by structural and contingent assemblages of human, non-human, and material-semiotic resources. We conducted semi-structured interviews with a total of 12 international students enrolled in English-medium-instruction master’s degree programs, 6 at a Chinese university and 6 at a Swedish university. The participants were also invited to draw out media diagrams and share anonymized social media interaction episodes. The triangulated data analysis reveals that international students in both universities have experienced diverse socio-emotions while being embedded in affective flows at the online-offline nexus. International students have, in general, reported positive emotions by strategically using emojis, memes, stickers, short videos, and linguistics resources to navigate and coordinate multiple social media platforms to maintain social bonding with families, classmates, friends, and professionals across time and space. Meanwhile, affective inequalities exist within and between the two distinct cohorts of international students and are shaped by interacting forces, which are historical, politico-economic, and material-technological. The unequal accessibility to institutional, communal, and linguistic resources also played salient roles in creating individual-specific, emotional challenges in intercultural communication. Practical suggestions are made to incorporate digital intercultural communication education in implementing international EMI programs worldwide.