Multilingualism in the Chinese Diaspora Worldwide

Transnational Connections and Local Social Realities

Li Wei

• Publisher: Routledge
• Year: 2015
• Print ISBN: 9781138794245
• eBook ISBN: 9781317638971
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Languages & Linguistics
• Subtopic: Linguistics
• Index: Languages & Linguistics

In this volume, Li Wei brings together contributions from well-known and emerging scholars in socio- and anthropological linguistics working on different linguistic and communicative aspects of the Chinese diaspora. The project examines the Chinese diasporic experience from a global, comparative perspective, with a particular focus on transnational links, and local social and multilingual realities. Contributors address the emergence of new forms of Chinese in multilingual contexts, family language policy and practice, language socialization and identity development, multilingual creativity, linguistic attitudes and ideologies, and heritage language maintenance, loss, learning and re-learning.

The studies are based on empirical observations and investigations in Chinese communities across the globe, including well-researched (from a sociolinguistic perspective) areas such as North America, Western Europe and Australia, as well as under-explored and under-represented areas such as Africa, Latin America, Central Asia, and the Middle East; the volume also includes detailed ethnographic accounts representing regions with a high concentration of Chinese migration such as Southeast Asia. This volume not only will allow sociolinguists to investigate the link between linguistic phenomena in specific communities and wider socio-cultural processes, but also invites an open dialogue with researchers from other disciplines who are working on migration, diaspora and identity, and those studying other language-based diasporic communities such as the Russian diaspora, the Spanish diaspora, the Portuguese diaspora, and the Arabic diaspora.

Table of contents

• Cover Page
• Half Title Page
• Series Page
• Title Page
• Copyright Page
• Contents
• Figures
• Tables
• 1 Transnational Connections and Multilingual Realities The Chinese Diasporic Experience in a Global Context
• I Emerging Diaspora, Emerging Identities
• 2 Globalization Off the Beaten Track—Chinese Migration to South Africa's Rural Towns
• 3 Polycentric Repertoires Constructing Dutch-Chinese Youth Identities in the Classroom and Online
• 4 Sojourner Tongues Language Practices Among the Chinese of Cairo
• II Changing Times, Changing Languages
• 5 The Dungans of Kazakhstan Old Minority in a New Nation-State
• 6 Chinese-Spanish Contact in Cuba in the 19th Century
• 7 Shifting Identities, Shifting Practices The Chinese-Speaking Communities in Suriname
• 8 Multilingualism and the West Kalimantan Hakka
• 9 Being Chinese Again Learning Mandarin in Post-Suharto Indonesia
• III Transnational Communities, Cultural Mediators
• 10 Multilingualism in the Chinese Community in Japan
• 11 From Monolingualism to Multilingualism The Linguistic Landscape in Kuala Lumpur's Chinatown1
• 12 Grandmother's Tongue Decline of Teochew Language in Singapore
• 13 Multilingual Mediators The (Continuing) Role of the Peranakans in the Contact Dynamics of Singapore
• IV Transnational Families, Transcultural Living
• 14 The Transnational Journey of an Indonesian Chinese Couple in Hong Kong The Story of One Family, Three Places, and Multiple Languages
• 15 Family Language Policy in the Chinese Community in Singapore A Question of Balance?
• 16 Language Maintenance in the Chinese Diaspora in Australia
• 17 Across Generations and Geographies Communication in Chinese Heritage Language Speaking Households
• List of Contributors
• Index