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Language ideologies and self-Orientalism: representing English in China Daily travelogues

  • Xiaoxiao Chen EMAIL logo
Published/Copyright: June 8, 2021
International Journal of the Sociology of Language
From the journal International Journal of the Sociology of Language Volume 2021 Issue 271

Abstract

While there is plenty of scholarship on the spread and study of English in China, scarce attention has been paid to representations of English in tourism discourses about China. This article aims to explore language ideologies undergirding representations of English language use in 253 travelogues from China Daily published since 2000. Findings show that most prominently in China Daily “standard” English was represented as a lingua franca for travel in China, a language of prestige, and a means of Othering. Some places are demarcated from others due to the lack of English-language services. Chinese people’s way of using English was reduced to Chinglish, a pejorative term indicating inappropriate or incorrect usage of English. Chinese use of English was thus ridiculed as an inferior Other. This critical discourse analysis of tourism discourses about China emanating from within the country demonstrates one facet of Orientalism – self-orientalism. CD’s self-orientalist strategies were embedded in oppositional East-West ideologies that set an inferior China against a superior West.

摘要

英语在中国的传播和学习一直是语言学界的热门话题, 而没有研究关注过中国的英文旅游文本对这种英语现象的展示。这篇论文从批评话语分析的角度研究《中国日报》自2000年以来253篇旅游文章如何展示英语在中国的使用, 旨在探讨这种展示后面支撑的语言意识形态。研究发现《中国日报》旅游文章中最显著的主题是‘标准’英语被描述成在中国旅游的通用语, 享有至尊地位的语言和展现他者的手段。是否缺乏英语语言服务成为旅游地的身份标识物。而中国人使用英语的各种现象都被缩简成中式英语, 这是用来描述不恰当或不准确的英语用法的专用词。中国人使用英语的各种现象被嘲讽为低等的他者。该研究表明, 源于中国本土的旅游话语对英语的展示折射出东方主义的一个维度—自我东方主义。《中国日报》的自我东方主义的策略植根于把低等的中国和优越的西方对立的东西方意识形态。

Keywords: China; English; language ideologies; self-orientalism; travelogues
Corresponding author: Xiaoxiao Chen, Renmin University of China, Beijing, China. E-mail:

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Received: 2020-06-30
Accepted: 2021-03-15
Published Online: 2021-06-08
Published in Print: 2021-09-27

© 2021 Walter de Gruyter GmbH, Berlin/Boston

Articles in the same Issue

  1. Frontmatter
  2. Ideologies of English in Asia: an editorial
  3. Constructing a white mask through English: the misrecognized self in Orientalism
  4. English as Eastern: Zhuang, Mongolian, Mandarin, and English in the linguistic orders of globalized China
  5. Language ideologies and self-Orientalism: representing English in China Daily travelogues
  6. Voices of English: language and the construction of religious identity amongst Ismaili Muslims in Pakistan and Tajikistan
  7. English language education reform in pre-2020 Olympic Japan: educator perspectives on pedagogical change
  8. Book Review
  9. Jinhyun Cho: English Language Ideologies in Korea: Interpreting the Past and Present
  10. Varia
  11. Disaffiliation amongst academically elite students in Singapore: the role of a non-standard variety of English
  12. Indexicalidad, gentrificación lingüística y desigualdad social en el proceso de estandarización del gallego
https://doi.org/10.1515/ijsl-2020-0043
Keywords for this article
China; English; language ideologies; self-orientalism; travelogues

Articles in the same Issue

  1. Frontmatter
  2. Ideologies of English in Asia: an editorial
  3. Constructing a white mask through English: the misrecognized self in Orientalism
  4. English as Eastern: Zhuang, Mongolian, Mandarin, and English in the linguistic orders of globalized China
  5. Language ideologies and self-Orientalism: representing English in China Daily travelogues
  6. Voices of English: language and the construction of religious identity amongst Ismaili Muslims in Pakistan and Tajikistan
  7. English language education reform in pre-2020 Olympic Japan: educator perspectives on pedagogical change
  8. Book Review
  9. Jinhyun Cho: English Language Ideologies in Korea: Interpreting the Past and Present
  10. Varia
  11. Disaffiliation amongst academically elite students in Singapore: the role of a non-standard variety of English
  12. Indexicalidad, gentrificación lingüística y desigualdad social en el proceso de estandarización del gallego
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