Inauthentic authenticity: Semiotic design and globalization in the margins of China
-
Xuan Wang
Xuan Wang (b. 1976) is a PhD candidate at Tilburg University 〈x.wang@tilburguniversity.edu〉. Her research interests include how language and identity are shaped by processes of globalization and the production of authenticity in the margins of China. Her publications include “Superdiversity on the Internet: A case from China” (with P. Varis, 2011) and “I am not a qualified dialect rapper: Constructing hip-hop authenticity in China” (2012).
Abstract
Drawing on Kress's notion of semiotic design, this paper engages with the issue of authenticity as semiotic processes in the margins of globalization, namely, Enshi, a rural minority area in Central China. Two cases are examined: Internet dialect rap and Tujia heritage tourism, both of which provide new semiotic opportunities during Enshi's processes of globalization as a margin. In both cases, authenticity is a salient imperative of identity making that involves strategic, complex processes of semiotic maneuvering that orients towards multi-scalar, polycentric systems of norm. The outcome of these is “inauthentic authenticity” – semiotic innovation and transformation for translocal mobility.
About the author
Xuan Wang (b. 1976) is a PhD candidate at Tilburg University 〈x.wang@tilburguniversity.edu〉. Her research interests include how language and identity are shaped by processes of globalization and the production of authenticity in the margins of China. Her publications include “Superdiversity on the Internet: A case from China” (with P. Varis, 2011) and “I am not a qualified dialect rapper: Constructing hip-hop authenticity in China” (2012).
©2015 by Walter de Gruyter Berlin/Munich/Boston
Articles in the same Issue
- Frontmatter
- Linguistic and literary aspects of perspectivity
- Introduction: Linguistic and literary aspects of perspectivity
- Context-dependent vantage points in literary narratives: A functional cognitive approach
- Authorial intention and global coherence in fictional text comprehension: A cognitive approach
- The role of perspectives in various forms of language use
- From trace to topical field: Toward a linguistic definition of point of view
- Indexicals, fiction, and perspective
- Why do we accept a narrative discourse ascribed to a “third-person narrator” as true? The classical, and a cognitive approach
- De-essentializing authenticity: A semiotic approach
- Introduction: De-essentializing authenticity: A semiotic approach
- Culture as accent: The cultural logic of hijabistas
- Why X doesn’t always mark the spot: Contested authenticity in Mexican indigenous language politics
- The semiotics and politics of “real selfhood” in the American therapeutic discourse of the World War II era
- Inauthentic authenticity: Semiotic design and globalization in the margins of China
Articles in the same Issue
- Frontmatter
- Linguistic and literary aspects of perspectivity
- Introduction: Linguistic and literary aspects of perspectivity
- Context-dependent vantage points in literary narratives: A functional cognitive approach
- Authorial intention and global coherence in fictional text comprehension: A cognitive approach
- The role of perspectives in various forms of language use
- From trace to topical field: Toward a linguistic definition of point of view
- Indexicals, fiction, and perspective
- Why do we accept a narrative discourse ascribed to a “third-person narrator” as true? The classical, and a cognitive approach
- De-essentializing authenticity: A semiotic approach
- Introduction: De-essentializing authenticity: A semiotic approach
- Culture as accent: The cultural logic of hijabistas
- Why X doesn’t always mark the spot: Contested authenticity in Mexican indigenous language politics
- The semiotics and politics of “real selfhood” in the American therapeutic discourse of the World War II era
- Inauthentic authenticity: Semiotic design and globalization in the margins of China
