Xian Zhao
This article explores the experiences of Chinese postgraduate students in a UK university using the lens of rhythmanalysis. This study goes beyond intercultural interactional moments and examines how intercultural experience is organised through temporal, spatial, and emotional rhythms. The data were generated through narrative interviews with four students, and narrative rhythmanalysis was employed for analysis. Findings show that students’ interconnected temporal, spatial, and emotional rhythms shape and regulate their choices regarding participation and exposure to intercultural experiences. This article provides a multi-dimensional rhythm framework consisting of temporal, spatial, and emotional dimensions for analysing how institutional time, lived space, and emotional experiences shape when and how intercultural experience becomes desirable, possible, or less important for students (e.g., students tended to engage in intercultural activities that are more likely to align with these three rhythms). By shifting the focus from the development of intercultural communication competence to the underlying rhythmic conditions that govern participation, this framework explicitly advances critical intercultural paradigms by theorising time, space, and emotion as integrated, dynamic conditions rather than as contextual backdrops. This approach extends existing critical scholarship by arguing that participation is rhythmically negotiated across multiple dimensions, both prior to and beyond interactional moments, offering a distinct analytical lens for understanding and supporting international student experiences. The article concludes by discussing implications for more rhythm-sensitive support structures for international students (e.g., reducing misalignment between institutional and personal rhythms to encourage intercultural participation) and specifying future research directions.