Comments on: English in the Global Village

By: Mo | Culture of Candor

Mo | Culture of Candor — Wed, 13 Aug 2014 19:24:24 +0000

[…] English in the Global Village | Language on the Move […]

By: Xiaoxiao Chen

Xiaoxiao Chen — Sun, 29 Jun 2014 03:54:10 +0000

Thanks to Ingrid for sharing this very interesting post! I assume Yangshuo’s case is not rare in global tourism. I’m afraid tourism can hardly promote the use of local ethnic or minority languages in most cases, as observed in my own PhD search. Even if some local languages have been revived by tourism, they are mostly used for authenticating touristic experiences and they are rarely used beyond the sphere of tourism. So, at best, tourism may help preserving local languages to some extent, but it can never play a major role in maintaining and developing local languages. Meanwhile, Yangshuo’s case is also rare in that it is English that becomes “a marker of local authenticity”. Probably that’s where the charm of Yangshuo lies!

By: James

James — Thu, 26 Jun 2014 20:56:39 +0000

Tourism can be a great way to keep a language alive locally. A city with more than one language needs a reason for both languages to exist there. There is a little chance that the native language will die out but the cities second language can be in danger to die out unless there is a need for it. Tourism can be a huge source of revenue so it is clearly important to a city. This is the reason the second language doesn’t die out. It has an important purpose.

By: Shuang Gao

Shuang Gao — Thu, 26 Jun 2014 02:51:35 +0000

Hi, Kimie, thanks very much! I also had much fun analyzing this ‘anti-tourist’.

Business owners are another focus of my research – I learnt so much from them about how their lives and businesses changed during the past three decades. I actually have one whole chapter about them in my thesis. Hope to share with you very soon:)

By: Kimie Takahashi 高橋君江

Kimie Takahashi 高橋君江 — Tue, 24 Jun 2014 01:14:43 +0000

Having read Ingrid’s post, I had to read the original article by Shuang:-) Indeed a fascinating study, and I found the analysis of Brother Big Horse’s data as subversive parodies really, really interesting. On the surface English always seems to be wholeheartedly accepted in many parts of Asia, but it’s never really the case. Btw, it’d have been interesting to read about what the WS business owners had to say in the interviews – maybe in the next paper:-)

By: Li Jia

Li Jia — Mon, 23 Jun 2014 12:22:22 +0000

I remember when I did my BA in Xi’an in the mid 1990s, we had the annual internship working as the English tourist guides at the Emperor Qinshihuang’s Terracotta Warriors and Horses . Every day, thousands of tourists from home and abroad came to visit this Eighth World Wonder. Along with the craze of tourists for the world heritage, a group of local farmers earnestly showed their hospitality selling their products to white faces in English. Now I assume the popularity of English there must be much more prominent than before, and probably those language amateurs also acquire many other foreign languages like the ‘Moon Grannie’ in Yangshuo who could speak 7 foreign languages.

Different from Yangshuo, I’ve been to some tourist destinations in Muse and Namkam at Myanmar-border, Chinese instead of English becomes more profitable language attracting the neighbouring tourists from China and sadly, similar to the destiny of the ethnic languages in Yangshuo, the main ethnic language, Shan, has just disappeared out of the tourist sites even though Muse and Namkam belong to the state of Shan. Based on my observation from field work, the devalued status of ethnic languages in Myanmar is much more severe than that in China.

By: Shuang Gao

Shuang Gao — Mon, 23 Jun 2014 06:20:05 +0000

Thanks, Ingrid, for featuring my research here, and thanks to everyone who’s taken the time to read it.

Thank you Alexandra for your comments. It’s interesting to hear your stories.

In Yangshuo, Zhuang and Mandarin are the two official languages, as everywhere else in Guangxi. And the most widely used Chinese language in Yangshuo is Yangshuo dialect, according to the local statistics in 2003. As to the Zhuang language, its vitality (note that there are different varieties of Zhuang) is debatable and research findings are mixed partly due to its uneven geographical distribution and linguistic diversity. So, what happens in West Street, Yangshuo, is basically re-invention of lingusitic authenticity through appropriating English. But it’s also worth noting that in Yangshuo, Mandarin and other local languages are trying to find their way into the market as well. It’s yet to be seen how exactly…

Thanks again for sharing your stories in the field. Best of luck!

By: Alexandra Grey

Alexandra Grey — Mon, 23 Jun 2014 02:46:20 +0000

Also， I have been to the Yangshuo region myself, including West Street. While I loved the physical landscapes of the region, the linguistic landscape did not jump out at me. I would not say I “just felt no foreignness” or heard lots of fluent English conversations between Chinese and non-Chinese people. Tourist brochure hype!

But the idea of English linguistic landscapes within China being attractive travel sights for Chinese people is really interesting and could use further investigation!

By: Alexandra Grey

Alexandra Grey — Mon, 23 Jun 2014 02:24:39 +0000

What a timely post, Ingrid! I’m doing field work in Guangxi this month. In interviews, I have been asking Zhuang speakers about the prospects for using their language as a tourist attraction or in jobs related to the Guilin-Yangshuo region’s tourism. I suggest the use of Naxi in Linjiang as an example. But people consistently say that has not happened in Guilin-Yangshuo (as you note) and that it is unlikely to happen in the future, for two reasons. 1) The idea of using language in tourism is not strongly developed in Guangxi and 2) the Guilin-Yangshuo region is not predominantly a Zhuang-speaking area. Rather, Cantonese and Mandarin dialects are the home languages. The visitor quoted in Gao (2012), saying “the local dialect just does not work there” may not be referring to Zhuang language at all, but to these dialects. So Zhuang language is even less ‘on the radar’, not even getting an indirect mention.

Guangxi Gov appears to have tried to emulate the minority ethnicity attraction of neighbouring Yunnan with the new Museum of Nationalities. But it’s not hugely popular. Hard to get to except in organised tour groups, as it’s on the outskirts of Nanning and poorly serviced by buses/taxis. While Zhuang technology and history is well explained, neither modern spoke Zhuang language nor the unique, historic written Zhuang were made into visitor attractions. Spoke with a few staff, Zhuang language is not a job requirement or used at work, even in the museum’s mock ethnic village.