Chinese Working Holidaymakers in New Zealand: Adaptation to Work Culture

Abstract

Working holiday schemes have become a popular way among Chinese youth to support their travel by undertaking temporary employment in host countries. Nowadays, young Chinese can participate in the scheme in two countries: New Zealand and Australia. Under this circumstance, this research sets out to address the gap in knowledge by exploring the adaptation of young Chinese to New Zealand work culture through the narratives and story-telling of Chinese working holidaymakers (WHMs) in New Zealand. Drawing on semistructured interviewing, this research interviewed 34 young Chinese who were undertaking or had completed working holidays in the South Island of New Zealand. Three main themes have been developed from analyzing the interview transcriptions, which are: work–life balance, leadership, and equality. The findings of the current research disclose that the adaptation of young Chinese as WHMs to New Zealand work culture was navigated and articulated through the sharp contrast with their previous working experiences, work culture, and working environment in China. These findings also facilitate the understanding of Chinese WHMs who are from a particular social and cultural context. More importantly, this research challenges the prevalence of Western-centric stances within the tourism discourse by incorporating the particular social and cultural context, which extends the research scope towards an underresearched community of Chinese WHMs. This research also offers both theoretical importance and practical implications.