This study investigates the cross-cultural adaptation process of Swedish males, grown up with Nordic egalitarianism, who has relocated to their Taiwanese spouse in Taiwan, a society emphasizing Confucian ethics and relationship orientation. While existing scholarship on marriage migration in Asia predominately focuses on Southeast Asian female marriage migrants, this research focus on Swedish males, who despite their privileged gender status, navigate significant structural conflicts within Taiwanese kinship and social structures. Adopting Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis (IPA), interviews were conducted with five Swedish spouses residing in Taiwan through a thorough bottom-up analysis following Yardley’s criteria for validity to ensure research rigor. By integrating phenomenology with C. Wright Mills’ "sociological imagination" as a dual theoretical lens, the results reveal how participants experience structural tensions in the division of domestic labor, filial piety, and parenting. Furthermore, it explores how they reconstruct family roles, negotiate masculinity, and develop unique acculturation strategies regarding cultural conflicts. This research offers empirical insights into family sociology, exploring how Nordic values resonate with Taiwanese family concepts, and contributes to the broader discourse on Global Citizenship and intercultural intelligence.

Authors:
Ya Yu Liu, National Quemoy University, Taiwan
Ng Ka Fai, National Quemoy University, Taiwan
Tawanini Nikie Liu, National Quemoy University, Taiwan
Rachel Cathleen Wijaya Oey, National Quemoy University, Taiwan

About the Presenter(s)
Ya Yu Liu is a Master’s candidate in the EMBA program at the College of Management, National Quemoy University, Taiwan. The project is a master level research paper regarding the cultural integration process of Swedish male spouces in Taiwan.

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