Journal of Higher Education Research

In an era characterized by globalization and multiculturalism, almost Chinese university students are obligated to expose the cross-cultural situation in academic and professional domains. In fact, it is momentous to improve cross-cultural competence to communicate diversity among people from different countries and establish a harmonious world. So, having cross-cultural competence is extremely important for Chinese students. There is no doubt that the basic of the cross-cultural competence is having a relative high level of learning a foreign language. In China, almost all students should learn English, as English is the most used language. However, the author has found a very interesting phenomenon: some Chinese university students who can get a high score in the English exam actually don’t have a strong ability to communicate effectively with foreigners, which is an important indicator for evaluating cross-cultural competence. And these students also have a tendency toward strong rejection in Western culture. The recognition of culture to a certain degree reflects the emotional recognition of the society. Based on this situation, the author supposed that the ability to accept the Western culture, in other words, emotional identification, will affect the cross-cultural ability, and they have a positive correlation. In conclusion, this article aims to study the relationship between emotional identity in the West and cross-cultural competence of Chinese college students from the perspective of social identity theory and explore ways to break the barricades through questionnaires and observations.