Full Description
Challenges simplified discourses that describe Chinese as the next global language.
This book analyzes the multilingual and multidialectal practices of Chinese Americans in Los Angeles, a city with a Chinese diasporic population of around 500,000. It describes the contact between different Chineses in a diasporic setting, illustrating how non-Putonghua features are made use of to form distinct identities and speech communities. It demonstrates that localized conceptions of 'Chineseness' hold greater sociolinguistic significance than the transnational narratives of a unified global Chinese. The author argues that a homogeneous global Chinese is unlikely to arise as, analogous to 'World Englishes', different degrees of divergence are found in Chineses around the world. This book will appeal to scholars interested in Chinese language variation, translanguaging practices, language ideology and identity.
Contents
Chapter 1. Chineses in Los Angeles as a Sociolinguistic Phenomenon
Chapter 2. The Linguistic Landscape of Los Angeles Chinatowns
Chapter 3. Chineses in Everyday Communication: Portraits of Five Chinese Immigrants' Linguistic Trajectories
Chapter 4. Chineses in Los Angeles Chinese Schools
Chapter 5. Chineses in News Media
Chapter 6. Conclusion and Discussion
