Chineses in the Diaspora - (Encounters) by Feiyang Tian (Hardcover)

About the Book

This book analyzes the multilingual and multidialectal practices of Chinese Americans in Los Angeles, describing the interaction of distinct Chineses in a diasporic setting. It demonstrates how ethnolinguistic repertoires are used to form localized Chinese identities and world Chineses with different degrees of divergence from standard Putonghua.

Book Synopsis

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.

Review Quotes

The main aim of a sociolinguistics of globalization is to understand the complexity that emerges when people make meaning in times of mobility and change. Feiyang Tian's meticulous analysis of the multilingual reality in the superdiverse Chinese population of Los Angels convincingly shows how sociolinguistic patterns correlate with geopolitical and social transformations and how they index diaspora discourses and identities.-- "Sjaak Kroon, Tilburg University, The Netherlands"

Global variation in the Chinese language has attracted considerable attention in recent years. However, this monograph stands out for its comprehensive examination of a Chinese variety within a concentrated field site (Los Angeles), its meticulous fieldwork and data collection, and its insightful analysis of emerging trends in diaspora language varieties in contact. This work should appeal to a wide range of readers interested in the Chinese language in a global context.-- "Hongyin Tao, University of California, Los Angeles, USA"

About the Author

Feiyang Tian is an English Instructor at Beihang University, Beijing, China, and Adjunct Researcher with the Language and Science Laboratory of Jiangsu Normal University (Humanities and Social Sciences Laboratory of Jiangsu Province). Her research focuses on language and culture from a sociolinguistics of globalization perspective.