Unpacking Discourses on Chineseness

The Cultural Politics of Language and Identity in Globalizing China

Edited by Shuang Gao, Xuan Wang

Publication date:

09 September 2021

Publisher

Multilingual Matters

Dimensions:

210x148mm
6x8"

ISBN-13: 9781800413825

This book examines the complexity of Chineseness in China and the Chinese diaspora. Using critical sociolinguistic and discourse analytical approaches, the chapters reveal the power dynamics and ideologies underlying the varied ways Chineseness is performed, represented and contested. Together they highlight four perspectives on Chineseness: the multiplicity of Chineseness, aspirational Chineseness, chronotopes of Chineseness and the cultural politics of Chineseness. It is argued that Chineseness is best understood as an ideologically-constructed variable, the articulation of which is deeply embedded within the dynamics of neoliberal globalization, rising nationalism, persistent Western hegemony, and shifting global geopolitics.

Contributors

Chapter 1. Shuang Gao: Introduction: Chineseness as Competing Discourses

Chapter 2. Jing Huang: Chineseness in Diaspora: Multilingualism, Heteroglossia and Fluid Ethnicity

Chapter 3. Luke Lu: When ‘Chineseness’ Is Not Preferred: Accounts of Academically Elite Students from China in Singapore’s Schools

Chapter 4. Elaine Chung and Xuan Wang: Joseonjok YouTubers: Translating Vernacular Chineseness in South Korea

Chapter 5. Jessica Birnie-Smith: Framing Chineseness and Indonesianness on the Periphery

Chapter 6. Eric S. Henry: Narrating the Future Self: Strategic Stylisation and Cosmopolitan Stancetaking in Chinese IELTS Preparation Classes

Chapter 7. Shuang Gao: Coffee, Social Space and Middle-Class Romance: Customer Writings in an Independent Coffee Shop in China

Chapter 8. Mingyi Hou: The Authenticity, Cultural Authority and Credibility of Weibo Public Intellectuals

Chapter 9. Xiaoxiao Chen: ‘Foreigners’ in One’s Own Land: Analysing Touristic Representations of Chineseness in the New York Times

Chapter 10. Lionel Wee: Commentary

Index

At a time when China’s global presence is undoubted, this book reminds us of the imperative urgency for interrogating the notion of Chineseness. What makes this volume important is that it compels us to go beyond discussions on what Chineseness is, towards examination of how it’s done and what it does to whom under which sociopolitical conditions.