Crossing consumption fields: Acculturation and status consumption of Chinese student sojourners attending U.S. universities

By linking sojourners’ consumer cultures to shifts in their social status, as operationalized by Bourdieu’s (1984) theories of capital and field, this study examines the phenomenon of status consumption among Chinese college students during their sojourns in the U.S. The findings illustrate how participants’ consumer patterns are shaped by sociocultural resources connected to the experience of status tension during acculturation, where some participants feel they lack local social and cultural capital in the receiving society. In this context, consumption driven by status loss emerges as a central aspect of their studying abroadexperiences. Through redefining the boundaries of consumption fields, students navigate their social positions with consumption behaviors aimed at reworking the status hierarchy. While participants sought out Western goods as a form of cosmopolitan capital before studying abroad, they turned to Chinese products when faced with status incongruence abroad, engaging in a form of diaspora nationalism and adopting distinct consumer habits to maintain their status.