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Abstract

Working holidays have become increasingly popular for young Chinese to gain overseas work and travel experience. Against this background, this research aims to explore the attitudes and perspectives of Chinese parents towards the decision of their children to embark on working holidays in New Zealand and how culture affects these attitudes and perspectives. Through face-to-face interviews, this research recruited 30 Chinese WHMs in New Zealand. Three themes have been developed from analyzing the interview transcripts to uncover the views of their parents, namely, Chinese parents being supportive, Chinese parents urging children to settle down, and Chinese parents not wanting children to undertake “low” jobs. The findings of this research offer a rich and in-depth understanding of how Chinese parents reacted to an unconventional overseas journey. This research advances the academic inquiry into how parents react to their children’s decisions to undertake long-term travel by probing into the conflicting attitudes towards working holidays among Chinese parents. Also, this research advances the individualistic dimension of Chinese culture illustrated by young Chinese independently choosing their life paths rather than following the traditional ones expected by their parents and the society. By considering cultural and social factors of Chinese society, this research further challenges the dominant position of Western-centric perspectives in the current tourism discourse.

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