This paper reconceptualizes international students in China not merely as recipients of cultural education but as "cultural anchors"—mediating subjects who stabilize, embody, and transmit Chinese cultural meaning within transnational social fields. Drawing on the concept of "cultural anchoring objects," theories of cultural capital and transnational social fields, and recent Chinese scholarship on cultural communication, the paper develops a theoretical model that traces how international students acquire, embody, and activate cultural anchoring agency through three interrelated processes: cultural capital accumulation during their sojourn, identity reconstruction as bicultural mediators, and relational network embedding upon return to their home countries. The model extends the existing "cultural anchoring objects" framework from the material to the human domain, arguing that international students function as living, dynamic anchors whose personal authority, embodied experience, and relational positioning enable Chinese cultural meaning to take root in foreign social contexts. A mixed-methods research design combining longitudinal tracking, social network analysis, and in-depth interviews is proposed for empirical validation. The paper contributes to both cultural communication theory and international education policy by articulating a new paradigm for understanding the long-term cultural communication impact of international student mobility.

Jingxuan Miao. International Students as "Cultural Anchors": Mediating Subjects in the International Communication of Chinese Culture. International Journal of Frontiers in Sociology (2026), Vol. 8, Issue 3: 34-44. https://doi.org/10.25236/IJFS.2026.080306.

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