Li Wei (1995) notes that relatively little sociolinguistic work on bilingualism has attempted to analyze and compare the complex relationships between aspects of language choice and code-switching among subgroups of the same community. This study aims to investigate the co-existence of two structurally different CantoneseϪEnglish code-switching patterns used by two distinctive groups (a returnee and a local group) in a single community: Hong Kong. It focuses on how overseas returning bilinguals negotiate, reposition, and reconstruct their identities through the use of distinctive code-switching styles (Irvine 2001). This paper demonstrates, through a discussion of the tactics of intersubjectivity proposed by Bucholtz and Hall (2005), how the interplay of language, identity and ideology inform the linguistic practices, social networks, and self (re)positioning of these social participants. Specifically, the paper examines how the returnees position and reposition themselves when they are discriminated against as outsiders, and their ethnic and cultural identity as Hong Kong Chinese are deauthenticated and delegitimated. Data include ethnographic interviews, participant observation, and recorded natural conversation.
A penchant for luxury goods, insistence on a boyfriend who pays, and any opportunity to be the center of attention have all been described as characteristic of a ‘Kong Girl’ since the mid-2000s. In this article, we explore the social relevance of the popular stereotype by examining the role of stancetaking in online forum discussions. Focusing on a 2005 incident involving ‘Jenny’, who was later described as the ‘Kong Girl’ prototype, we show how forum participants try to come to terms with the sociohistorical changes in a late modern Hong Kong society by positioning Jenny and themselves within a shifting heterosexual marketplace. The heated controversy reflects changing gender ideologies that are exerting pressure on both men and women and provides the backdrop for the rise of the Kong Girl stereotype, which has its media prime in the years following 2005.
The Kong Girl stereotype has been circulating in the media since the mid-2000s. The indexical process of associating social meanings to the Kong Girl label becomes heightened in situations of uncertainty and change. Kira Hall uses the term ‘indexical dissonance’ to explain the state of identity under globalisation. In this paper, we identify three strategies by which more ‘positive’ representations of Kong Girls emerge: (1) the Kong Girl label shifts in semantic meaning; (2) the specific Kong Girl qualities taken as stance objects shift; and (3) the Kong Girl label is reappropriated. Through these strategies, we show how the meanings associated with a gender stereotype may be co-opted in emerging discourses of social change.
It doesn't matter how you deal with them, it doesn't matter who you are, keisat (actually) the way that you present yourself by lei go (your) language jiging beizo jatzung (already give people an) arrogant ge gamgok bei keoidei la
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