Dear colleagues,
I am reaching out to invite presenters for an upcoming panel on "Linguistic Landscapes of Chinatowns and Chinese Diaspora."
This panel aims to problematize the nomenclature of "Chinatown" as a colonial and racialized concept through the lens of linguistic landscapes. Landry and Bourhis (1997) define linguistic landscape as the visibility and prominence of languages on public and commercial signs in a specific area or region. Chinatowns have been a popular subject of investigation in linguistic landscape research.
However, this field has so far unapologetically referred to "Chinatowns", despite the vastly different histories of Chinese settlement, gentrification of neighbourhoods, and tourism commodification in such places across different national and geographical contexts. The use of alternative concepts such as ethnic enclaves (Portes & Manning, 1986), ethnoburbs (Li, 1997), and ethnic space (Lou, 2024) carries significant implications for how we conceptualize the spatial boundaries of Chinatowns (Amos, 2016). Specifically, these frameworks prompt critical questions about where and how we draw the line between the so-called "Chinatowns" and the broader urban space.
I welcome proposals that engage with these themes, particularly those that examine the linguistic/semiotic, cultural, and spatio-temporal dimensions of Chinatowns, Chinese diaspora or more specific ethnic urban spaces (e.g., Chinese restaurants, Chinese festivals, Chinese cemeteries, etc.). Please submit your abstracts or inquiries by 31 July via email to xiaofang.yao@hku.hk. Please also feel free to pass this message onto colleagues who might be interested.
Best wishes,
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Dr Xiaofang Yao
Assistant Professor
The University of Hong Kong
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