Language, Individual & Society, Volume 16, 2022

Abstract: Kinmen is a small island which belongs to Taiwan. "Kinmen students" refer to the students who have been studying in Kinmen starting from the basic education of the country, until they are transferred to Taiwan or other countries. Because they grew up across the Taiwan Strait, apart from the geographical differences, I found that the students who had lived in Kinmen since childhood, had a longing for Taiwan, so that they had not paid attention to their hometown. After they came to Taiwan to study in universities and lived for a long time, they were willing to start caring for Kinmen. Based on the in-depth interview of qualitative research method, four interviewees who were born and grew up in Kinmen until they graduated from senior high school, then took the main island as its main living area. At the same time as having broken the geographical boundary, it is also the transition from one original culture to another cultural context. How to negotiate the "gap" between the two cultural contexts when entering the culture of "the other", and how to change the place attachment of Kinmen? The study revealed that after having the living experience of the two places, they are gradually perceived of the culture distance. There are obvious differences between the resources, educational environment, pace of life, transportation and interpersonal communication. However, the different from previous studies on cross-cultural adaptation is that Kinmen students do not completely become insiders of the new culture under the new environment, but have a stronger sense of place attachment to the original culture.