This phenomenological study investigated the lived experiences of identity development of Chinese graduate students in the United States. Through in-depth interviews with 15 participants at a Midwestern research university, the study found that the majority of Chinese graduate students came with a strong student identity that conflated with personal identity and that they continued to develop their identity in the new environment. They encountered five significant contexts that wove together to form an overall developmental environment, which, along with their prior identity, determined the range, variety, and quality of interactions that they had. As a result, they developed multiple dimensions of identity through a bidirectional movement of identity differentiation and integration. The study identified five themes that represent the significant contexts that coexisted in forming an enmeshed developmental environment for Chinese graduate students. These five themes also represent the identity dimensions that Chinese graduate students commonly developed. The themes include language barrier and language identity, academic adjustment and academic identity, cultural adaptation and cultural identity, social adjustment and social-emotional identity, and managing logistics and logistical identity. The study provided a general contour of Chinese graduate students' identity development to illustrate their overall developmental experiences. It showed that their multiple dimensions of identity gradually differentiated from their personal identity while differentiating identity dimensions integrated into personal identity at the same time. Consequently, they increased the levels of complexity, consistency, and integrity of their identity through a continuing two-directional movement of identity differentiation and integration over a long period of time. They maintained a dynamic interactional relationship among multiple identities that they developed in the process.
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