I move now to a description of the data analysis, namely, transcription and translation, member checks, categorising, coding and other procedures.

Transcription

Jefferson's (2004) system for transcription was adopted for focus group and interview data in this research. Linguistic features, repetition, overlapping, interruption, incomplete utterances, back-channelling and description of non-verbal sounds such as laughter and sighs were also included. Blog data were, of course, already available in electronic form.

Translation

All the focus groups, interviews and blogs were conducted in Chinese. I translated into English only the parts used as quotes in my research report in order to eliminate unnecessary work. Birch (1996) defines translation as a process of 'cultural transfer' to develop 'an empathy with, if not a practical knowledge of, the cultural practices and linguistic identities of the communities from whom information is sought'. This view is consistent with the post-structuralism framework adopted in my research. Instead of literally translating the primary data, I practised 'intersemiotic translation' (Birch, 1996), highlighting the 'comparability, mutuality, unification of understanding' (p. 15) between two languages and culture. Although my ethnic congruity with the participants was likely to help capture the original nuances, authenticities, and subliminal messages, I was mindful of the dangers (Koga, 2009). One of my supervisors is also a Mandarin speaker and was therefore able to cross-check my translations.

Coding

The data, as suggested by Hesse-Biber and Leavy (2010), were explored and reduced before being analysed. Several thorough readings of the transcriptions helped to familiarise me with the whole text, allowing me to identify coherent and distinct themes (Ratner, 2001).

I coded inductively by constant comparison (Merriam, 1998; Thomas, 2009), guided by Byram and Feng's (2006) five assessments of intercultural experience: (1) interest in knowing other people's way of life and introducing one's own culture to others; (2) ability to change perspective; (3) ability to cope with living in a different culture; (4) knowledge about one's own and others' cultures for intercultural communication; and (5) knowledge about intercultural communication processes.