Commodification of place, consumption of identity: The sociolinguistic construction of a ‘global village’ in rural China¹

Abstract

This paper seeks to contribute to the understanding of place as it relates to globalization and mobility by examining the sociolinguistic construction of a tourism site. A former residential neighborhood, West Street in Yangshuo County, China, was gradually transformed into a so‐called ‘global village’ for domestic tourists partly through appropriating English as one semiotic resource. Positioning this place in the global‐national‐local nexus, this study shows that the promotion of West Street as a ‘global village’ is not only driven by globalization or westernization, but more importantly capitalizes on English as a stylistic resource that indexes the modernist aspirations of the Chinese people. This commodified sense of place is nevertheless negotiated by tourists as they activate and (re‐)work the social meaning of place through their discursive practices. This highlights how place is a social construct, constantly transformed in the process of socio‐historical change, and also mediated by people's conceptualization, imagination and experience. 本文从社会语言学角度考察一处旅游景点的建构，旨在增进在全球化和流动时代背景下对‘地域’ (place) 的理解。位于中国阳朔县的西街，通过把英语作为一种符号资源，从一个历史居民街区转变成为所谓的‘地球村’。本研究从全球‐国家‐地方三位连结的框架审视该地域，说明‘地球村’不仅仅是全球化带动下的地方经济发展策略，更重要的是借用了在英语作为一种语言风格资源在中国社会中的作用。然而，这种构建的地域涵义也同时被游客通过不同方式激活和改写。本文提出，地域是社会构建的产物，其涵义随着社会历史的变革，人们对地域的理解，想象和体验，而不断改变。[Chinese]

Crossing borders

“…As one of the earliest attempts to deliberately focus on the linguistic landscapes of rural areas, Kotze and Du Plessis (2010) concluded that the rural space similarly responds to sociopolitical changes such as changes of political regime and commercialisation in the broader society, as in the case of cityscapes. Similarly, Gao (2012) and Pietikäinen (2014) note how processes of globalisation and modernisation have transformed rural and indigenous villages, suggesting that tourism and economic development seem to be major factors shaping the rural landscape. Having said that, rural landscapes could offer more important insights by shifting our perspective from descriptive accounts of multilingualism to the material and affective aspects of linguistic landscapes.…”

Form and Meaning of Ornamental Variety Elements in the Interior Style of Batik Kitchen Café and Restaurant in Cirebon

“…The application of ornamental variety elements in the form of batik in Batik Kitchen Café and Restaurant presents a traditional style in interior design. This traditional style became an identity for Batik Kitchen Café and Restaurant, (Shuang, 2012). With the application of ornamental variety elements in the interior style makes this café and restaurant has a distinctive identity that differs from other cafés and restaurants.…”

Discourses of cultural heritage in times of crisis: The case of the Parthenon Marbles

“… Coming out as a product of the creation of European Independent Nations with specific borders, with minor territorial variations, place becomes ‘both an input and an output of the process of heritage creation’ (Graham, Ashworth and Tunbridge : 4; on the commodification of place and heritage, see e.g. Shuang ). …”