Abstract
Socially constructed and globally propagated East-West binaries have influenced language ideologies about English in the People’s Republic of China (PRC), but they are not hegemonic. This essay explores how East-West language ideologies are reformed in mergers with Mandarin-minority language ideologies. It discusses two separate but similar recent studies of minority language speakers and language ideologies in the PRC, respectively by Grey and Baioud. Each study reveals aspects of how Mandarin and English are being socially constructed as on the same side of a dichotomous and hierarchic linguistic and social order, in contradistinction to minority languages. The essay thus problematizes the construction of English as a Western language and Mandarin as an Eastern language; both in academic discourses and in wider social and political discourses. The essay uses Asif Agha’s theory of “enregisterment” to unify the points drawn from each study. It concludes that the language ideologies and practices/discourses under examination reproduce the displacement of a subaltern status; we describe this process as dynamic, internal Orientalism and “recursive” Orientalism, drawing on foundational theory of language ideologies. This essay paves the way for further studies of recursive Orientalism.
Funding source: Macquarie University Department of Linguistics Research Extension Fund
Award Identifier / Grant number: 5201400089
Funding source: International Macquarie University Research Excellence Scholarship 2014–2017
Funding source: Australia Postgraduate Award 2013–2016
Funding source: University of Sydney Compact Postdoctoral Fellowship 2018–2021
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Research funding: The author Alexandra Grey was supported by Macquarie University Department of Linguistics Research Extension Fund, under the grant 5201400089; Australia Postgraduate Award 2013–2016; and University of Sydney Compact Postdoctoral Fellowship 2018–2021. And the author Gegentuul Baioud was supported by International Macquarie University Research Excellence Scholarship 2014–2017.
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Articles in the same Issue
- Frontmatter
- Ideologies of English in Asia: an editorial
- Constructing a white mask through English: the misrecognized self in Orientalism
- English as Eastern: Zhuang, Mongolian, Mandarin, and English in the linguistic orders of globalized China
- Language ideologies and self-Orientalism: representing English in China Daily travelogues
- Voices of English: language and the construction of religious identity amongst Ismaili Muslims in Pakistan and Tajikistan
- English language education reform in pre-2020 Olympic Japan: educator perspectives on pedagogical change
- Book Review
- Jinhyun Cho: English Language Ideologies in Korea: Interpreting the Past and Present
- Varia
- Disaffiliation amongst academically elite students in Singapore: the role of a non-standard variety of English
- Indexicalidad, gentrificación lingüística y desigualdad social en el proceso de estandarización del gallego
Articles in the same Issue
- Frontmatter
- Ideologies of English in Asia: an editorial
- Constructing a white mask through English: the misrecognized self in Orientalism
- English as Eastern: Zhuang, Mongolian, Mandarin, and English in the linguistic orders of globalized China
- Language ideologies and self-Orientalism: representing English in China Daily travelogues
- Voices of English: language and the construction of religious identity amongst Ismaili Muslims in Pakistan and Tajikistan
- English language education reform in pre-2020 Olympic Japan: educator perspectives on pedagogical change
- Book Review
- Jinhyun Cho: English Language Ideologies in Korea: Interpreting the Past and Present
- Varia
- Disaffiliation amongst academically elite students in Singapore: the role of a non-standard variety of English
- Indexicalidad, gentrificación lingüística y desigualdad social en el proceso de estandarización del gallego