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In the context of globalization, transcultural marriage is becoming more and more common. Take Australia as an example, according to the Australian Bureau of Statistics (2017), in Australia, marriages of people born in different countries accounted for 31.6% of all marriages in 2016 compared with 18.0% in 2006. The partners of transcultural marriage come from different cultural backgrounds and usually face differences in language, values, customs and other aspects. Both parties need to constantly adapt to the cultural differences between them through long-term communication and adjustment. As emphasized by Robinson (2007) and West et al.,(2024), partners gradually form their own transcultural identities through continuous negotiation and cultural adaptation.

In addition, the fusion and conflict between partners in transcultural marriage can provide a unique case for scholars to study transcultural communication, which can help people understand how to effectively communicate in a diverse cultural environment, promote the formation of transcultural identity, and promote cultural integration through appropriate communication strategies.

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This video follows a transcultural married couple as they go from arguing to understanding each other. The woman(Lee) is a designer and blogger from China who shares her daily life, while the man(Garry) is from Germany and they are currently living in Shenzhen. The background of the video is that the couple had an argument while travelling and had to stay in the hotel because of the rain that day, and decided to communicate with each other.

In the video, the woman refers to her parents' upbringing of her, with her words highlighting a more collectivist tendency, compared to her husband's more individualistic tendency. Throughout the video, the two engage in transcultural communication, understand each other's positions, express their love, and ultimately reach reconciliation. This dialogue shows the collision and fusion of Chinese and Western cultural differences in daily life.

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different levels of intercultural communication

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The multi layer model helps better analyse culture as a dynamic process, and focus more on the interaction within different layers (Erez & Gati, 2004). From a macro level, the case indicates Garry and Lee’s different cultural values on the aspect of individualism and collectivism. People who are more individualistic tend to prioritise personal needs and goals, as Garry stated that he tended to prioritize his own needs and thoughts, while Lee considered herself educated to care for people around her more, which showed her collectivistic orientation that they are more aware of how their behaivours impact on the group (Tili & Barker, 2015). However, this doesn't mean their thoughts are static but rather being fluid through negotiation and communication, as culture could be recreated through text, according to Piller (2017).

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Lee and Garry's conversation "Good values can also become shackles"

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From a meso and micro level, the case will be analysed from the lens of face to understand how Lee and Garry negotiated their value differences being a couple. Face is related to identity or self-image of people (Spencer-Oatey, 2010). Face support could be important in addressing conflicts or problems within intercultural marriages  (Tili & Barker, 2015).

According to Spencer-Oatey (2010), rapport management can be affected by three different factors. In terms of face sensitivities in the case, Lee emphasised on maintaining her face to be considerate for Garry and other people, while she also expressed her need for being herself. Garry on the other hand, put importance on prioritising personal need, but also maintained Lee’s face by acknowledging her emotional needs and encouraging her to be herself. From the sociality rights and obligations aspect, Lee reflected on her obligations as different identities as ‘team leader, partner, family member, daughter’ that she needed to consider others first. Garry emphasised on his rights to express his feelings and thinking for himself, but also his obligation to take Lee’s emotional needs into account as her partner. The interactional goals of Lee and Garry are mutual as expressed by them to address the ‘argument’. Lee and Garry used different approaches, as Lee expressed her feelings verbally more, while Garry seeked more body contact with Lee.

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Communication accommodation strategies are used in Lee and Garry’s case for achieving mutual understanding (Spencer-Oatey, 2010). During the conversation, Garry constantly called Lee “Xifuer”(媳妇儿) “Baobao”(宝宝) in Chinese, which are terms sharing mostly the same meaning as ‘Baby’ ‘Dear’ in English. The terms shows his convergent orientation (Spencer-Oatey, 2010) to adapt to Lee’s Chinese speaking background. In addition, he affirmed Lee’s thoughts on being herself, which ultimately made Lee smile saying ‘that's the best solution you find for me.’ and willing to ‘kiss and hug’ Garry again.

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The self-position of identity and power (Bowe et al., 2014) is common in transcultural communication. In this video, we can discover how identity changes in daily life and why through conversations between men and women. Briefly, identity is defined as a product that is reconstructed in response to social context and linguistic negotiation (Bowe et al., 2014). This multiple identity often emerges in interactions as a conflict of values and can be changed by power dynamics (Bowe et al., 2014).

At the same time, transcultural marriage itself is a process of value conflict, which includes traditional family values, the emotional connection model and the concept of husband and wife role reconstruction. This often leads to different shifts in the identities of both parties. This identity shift is not just a clash of cultures, but a negotiation of intimacy and family responsibilities (Robinson, 2007).

Lee pointed out that she has multiple identities. As for value, she said she is ‘ a team leader, a partner, a family member and a daughter’. These identities limited her as a person who needs to ‘consider other people first’. She believes this is why she argued with her husband, because her education allowed her to consider the collective good and the good of others, and her own feelings were expendable in the process. But her husband pays more attention to his own feelings. In this transcultural context, Lee chose to understand her husband and began to consider her own identity. Clearly, her identity has shifted in the interaction (Bowe et al., 2014).

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This text uses rapport management and identity theory to analyze the transcultural conflict in the daily life of a Chinese-German couple from three aspects: macro, meso and micro, from which the complex relationship of transcultural interaction can be reflected. As one of the important means of transcultural communication, transnational marriage provides some insights for transcultural studies, linguistics, and sociology. In this case, Lee and Garry's open communication and empathy for each other can be applied to our academic and workplace environment to help us ease misunderstanding and solve some transcultural communication challenges.

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1. When the values of both parties are in conflict in transcultural communication context, what do you think should be done to resolve the conflict through effective communication skills?

2. How do you think an individual's identity would affect their interpretation of the actions and intentions of others in transcultural relationships?

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Shuai Wei 1450349

Zihan Ye 1522016

Jinchi Liu 1495415

Qingrui Kou 1431757

Yuchuan Lin 1378758

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We welcome your feedback and answers for discussion question~!

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We welcome your feedback and answers for discussion question~!