“Why Doesn’t He Care About Me?” Intercultural Misunderstandings Between Chinese Doctoral Students and Their Malaysian Supervisors

Addressing intercultural misunderstandings has become crucial with the rise in students pursuing doctoral studies overseas. This study examines the factors contributing to intercultural misunderstandings and the processes by which they arise. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with 10 Chinese doctoral students from various disciplines. Through thematic analysis, key factors leading to misunderstandings were gender, language, social culture, research culture, and communication style. Furthermore, guided by expectancy violation theory, the study develops a framework for understanding how misunderstandings arise. It enriches existing literature by examining intercultural misunderstandings in the Asian higher education context and highlights future directions for exploring strategies to mitigate them.