Chinese Under Globalization: Emerging Trends In Language Use In China

225 Pages·2010·2.443 MB·

by  Jin Liu, Hongyin Tao

CHINESE UNDER
GLOBALIZATION
Emerging Trends in
Language Use in China
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HINESE NDER
G
LOBALIZATION
Emerging Trends in
Language Use in China
Edited by
Jin Liu
Georgia Institute of Technology, USA
Hongyin Tao
University of California, Los Angeles, USA
World Scientific
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British Library Cataloguing-in-Publication Data
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library.
CHINESE UNDER GLOBALIZATION
Emerging Trends in Language Use in China
Copyright © 2012 by World Scientific Publishing Co. Pte. Ltd.
All rights reserved. This book, or parts thereof, may not be reproduced in any form or by any means,
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ISBN-13 978-981-4350-69-3
ISBN-10 981-4350-69-9
In-house Editor: Dan Jun
Typeset by Stallion Press
Email: [email protected]
Printed in Singapore.
Danjun - Chinese Under Globalization.pmd 1 2/13/2012, 10:25 AM
b1256 Chinese Under Globalization
CONTENTS
Introduction 1
Chapter 1 Synchronic Variation or Diachronic Change: 7
A Sociolinguistic Study of Chinese Internet Language
Liwei Gao
Chapter 2 Th e Metaphorical World of Chinese Online 29
Entertainment News
Chong Han
Chapter 3 Th e Use of Chinese Dialects on the Internet: Youth 59
Language and Local Youth Identity in Urban China
Jin Liu
Chapter 4 “My Turf, I Decide”: Linguistic Circulation 79
in the Emergence of a Chinese Youth Culture
Qing Zhang and Chen-Chun E
Chapter 5 Chinese Via English: A Case Study of “Lettered-Words” 105
As a Way of Integration into Global Communication
Ksenia Kozha
Chapter 6 Learning English to Promote Chinese — A Study of 127
Li Yang’s Crazy English
Amber R Woodward
v
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b1256 Chinese Under Globalization
vi Contents
Chapter 7 More than Errors and Embarrassment: New 145
Approaches to Chinglish
Oliver Radtke
Chapter 8 Writing Cantonese as Everyday Lifestyle in 171
Guangzhou (Canton City)
Jing Yan
Chapter 9 Negotiating Linguistic Identities Under Globalization: 203
Language Use in Contemporary China
Jin Liu and Hongyin Tao
About the Contributors (in order of appearance) 213
Index 217
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b1256 Chinese Under Globalization
INTRODUCTION*
In the history of the Chinese language, there have been numerous instances
where rapid changes took place in the forms of expansion of vocabulary, devel-
opment of new grammatical markers and syntactic structures, appearance of
new phonological features, and emergence of new writing styles. Typically,
these rapid and sometimes radical changes correlate with the heightened
interaction between indigenous and non-Chinese cultural elements. Th us,
during the late Han period (2nd century AD) through the Tang Dynasty
(10th century AD), the introduction of Hindu Buddhism brought to China
not only Buddhist doctrines and practices but also an expanded vocabulary
(such as loanwords from Persian, Sogdian, Sanskrit, Mongolian, Manchu,
and other Asian Languages) (see Gao and Liu, 1958, esp. Chap. 2) and novel
syntactic features (as exemplifi ed by the disposal construction, see Cao and Yu
(2000)). Th e best known example, however, belongs to the period from the
late 19th century to the early 20th century, leading to the May Fourth New
Culture Movement. During this period, severance of ties with traditional
Chinese culture (as represented by the Confucian tradition) along with major
infl uxes of Western ideas and thoughts resulted in a near total reconfi gura-
tion of the landscape of the Chinese language. Not only were writing styles
changed, literary forms invented, and syntaxes increasingly Europeanized but
even some basic vocabulary forms and a large number of neologisms were
* Th e editors wish to acknowledge Jeoff rey Spinoza and Th omas Hazzard for providing
proofreading assistance.
1
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b1256 Chinese Under Globalization
2 Introduction
added (especially Sino–Japanese–European loanwords) (Gunn, 1991; Liu,
1995). In the Mao’s era, partly following the former Soviet Union’s model
in symbolic and ideological control, the Chinese Communist Party (CCP),
after it won power in 1949, launched a massive revolutionary program of
linguistic engineering, formalization, and orthodoxization, which culminated
in the Cultural Revolution (Schoenhals, 1992; Wagner, 1999; Ji, 2004; and
Wang, 2011). Th is seems an especially apt piece of evidence for Bourdieu’s
prediction: political crises are conducive to verbal explosion (Bourdieu, 1977,
p. 663).
Fast-forwarding to the 21st century, we are now at the start of yet another
period of historical signifi cance. As China experiences an unprecedented level
of economic and social transformation since its reform and opening policy in
the early 1980s, and as the world becomes increasingly globalized and inter-
connected through the use of technology, freer fl ows of trade and information,
and the spread of cultural artifacts, language use in China has also undergone
dazzling changes in the past two decades: a global level clash between the
ubiquitous global English and the Chinese native language. Within China
proper, the struggles between the national language and local regional dialects
and ethnic minority languages at multiple levels play out partly as a matter
of nationalization versus the preservation of local heritages. Th ere is also the
emergence of the Internet language, which has become a creative source for
the Chinese youth to construct their distinct youth identity. Moreover, the
Internet language transcends locality and redefi nes key theoretical notions in
sociocultural linguistics such as the speech community (Gumperz, 1968) and
Linguistic Landscape (Landry and Bourhis, 1997).
We are certainly not the fi rst to notice such dramatic linguistic changes
in China, as evidenced by book-length studies on why the Chinese language
is “in crisis” (e.g., Pan, 2008), by widespread media coverage on the need to
preserve local dialects and the associated regional cultural heritages in places
like Shanghai, Hangzhou, and Guangzhou, by offi cially and unoffi cially sanc-
tioned annual selection of Internet/media buzzwords of the year over the past
few years, as well as by government legislation to regulate the use of speech
and orthographic forms.
However, we believe that much needs to be done in terms of document-
ing the emerging trends in China at this important juncture. To begin with,
changes in language use are taking place literally on a daily basis, and there
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b1256 Chinese Under Globalization
Introduction 3
is need for a consistent eff ort in tracking these changes over time. Second,
although individual studies are beginning to appear, very few systematic
studies are available. Last but not least, we need theoretically informed
analysis and not just formal descriptions. How does globalization impact the
Chinese language exactly? What do emerging uses say about Chinese cul-
tures, societies, and identity construction? What do these emerging uses sug-
gest about style, genres, and the future of the Chinese language? Th is volume
can be viewed as one of the initial eff orts to address these questions.
Th e chapters in this volume examine the recent trends in language use in
Mainland China and the associated social, economic, political, and cultural
manifestations. Drawing on their backgrounds in sociolinguistics, linguis-
tic anthropology, and cultural studies, the authors off er interdisciplinary and
critical analysis of linguistic struggles and linguistic politics in China.
Liwei Gao, building on his long-term work in this area, describes one
of the most prolifi c areas of language change: computer-mediated commu-
nication (CMC) in Chinese. He provides comprehensive analyses from lexi-
cal, syntactic, and discourse perspectives. Applying the construct of apparent
time change in sociolinguistics, he predicts that some of the online usages
may further evolve into the core of the Chinese language and signify dia-
chronic linguistic change in progress. His work shows how profound a role
CMC has played in sociolinguistic lives in China.
Chong Han examines metaphors used in entertainment news. After
identifying both the common source domains of metaphors (war, martial
arts, fi re, wind, food, etc.) and target domains (confl ict, celebrity, etc.), she
moves on to discuss the functions of metaphors in media language, high-
lighting the fact that metaphors serve multiple purposes: they can not only
embody abstract concepts but also serve as an ideological tool for describing
and evaluating people and situations in discourse and infl uence the viewers’
perception of the world. Metaphors in use can thus serve as a window into
the changing media ecology in contemporary China.
Jin Liu’s work is on the increasing use of local dialects on the Internet
among the Chinese urban educated youth. While nationalization often
comes as a concomitant phenomenon of globalization, and while local fea-
tures, including local dialect use, tend to be viewed as substratum and low on
the prestige continuum, the increasingly popular association of urban youth
culture with local dialects caught many people off guard. Liu’s close analysis
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