The <i>Tuhao</i> and the Bureaucrat: The Qualia of “Quality” in Rural China

Ingebretson, Britta

doi:10.1086/693467

Cited by 23 publications

(7 citation statements)

References 17 publications

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“…Table 1 below summarizes the contrasts identified in this section. Hard/soft emerges as the master trope (Gal & Irvine, 2019) that connects them (see also Gal (2013), Harkness (2013), and Ingebretson (2017) on the renderings of softness and thickness/crudeness across modalities).…”

Section: Politeness Sign Relations and The Axis Of Differentiationmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Such contrast also occurs in the forum data discussing Taiwan's and China's respective strengths, which is explored later in this paper. emerges as the master trope (Gal & Irvine, 2019) that connects them (see also Gal (2013), Harkness (2013), and Ingebretson (2017) on the renderings of softness and thickness/crudeness across modalities). The analysis in this section illustrates how politeness-related phenomena participate in semiotic moves (either successively within one interview or across interviews), through which various contrasts are organized by the hard/soft schema and differentiation between Taiwan and China is discursively and ideologically constructed.…”

Section: Politeness Sign Relations and The Axis Of Differentiationmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Politeness as signs of difference: Semiotic differentiation and identity among Taiwanese in China

2022

Journal of Sociolinguistics

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This study examines a prevalent discourse on Taiwanese politeness as part and parcel of identity and ideological work among Taiwanese residing in China. Using as data spontaneous discussions about politeness in interviews and online forum posts that evaluate politeness, this study explores how politeness is taken up as a sign to index Taiwan-China differences and how identity is simultaneously constructed throughout this ideological work, focusing on the succession of semiotic differentiations within or across talks and texts. Throughout this process, various qualitative contrasts are made and grouped by the soft/hard schema, and differentiation between Taiwan and China is constructed. The study also considers relevant historical and social conditions and explores how the complex Taiwan-China relations may give rise to the prevalence of such a discourse.

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Section: Politeness Sign Relations and The Axis Of Differentiationmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Politeness Sign Relations and The Axis Of Differentiationmentioning

confidence: 99%

Politeness as signs of difference: Semiotic differentiation and identity among Taiwanese in China

2022

Journal of Sociolinguistics

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“…42 In recent years, the directionality of these dichotomies has been muddied as subalterns reject claims of superior suzhi from city-dwellers and the wealthy. 43 Suzhi and the term "civilized-ness" (wenming) often function in parallel. While suzhi reflects a distinctly post-Reform class anxiety, "civilized-ness" has been central to Chinese debates over modernity, development and bodily comportment since the early nineteen hundreds.…”

Section: Quality and Civilized-ness As Skillmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…She finds that high suzhi is embodied through certain kinds of public comportment: holding the door open, speaking quietly in public, and generally being considerate of others. 48 The "coarse" behaviors indicative of low suzhi share the quality of taking up space: being loud, spreading out, eating messily and spitting in the street.…”

Section: Quality and Civilized-ness As Skillmentioning

confidence: 99%

Being a Chinese Passenger: Practicing Quality and Civilization on the Rail

Brady

2021

cultural geographies

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This article examines how everyday practices materialize abstract discourses of social “quality” within the spaces of the Chinese rail system. Rail travel remains a primary mode of transportation in China, competitive on cost and comfort—though not at the same time. This article brings together geographies of skill and mobility to examine how the skilled practice of rail travel produces high and low “quality” bodies and spaces within the rail network. Drawing on Ingold’s “dwelling perspective” to shed light on how movement creates cultural landscape at the national scale, I argue that the growing socio-economic gap within China has led to the emergence of distinct and incompatible traveling practices within the rail ridership. The conflict between a “lacking” ridership relying on mutual tolerance and a “quality” ridership prioritizing self-containment been resolved by the construction of high-speed rail as a separate network, segregating “high” and “low” quality riderships while still serving both.

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“…A significant number of publications this year (e.g., Blum ; Carruthers ; Harkness ; Hoffmann‐Dilloway ; Ingebretson ; Kockelman ; Reyes ; Rodriguez ; Yeh ) draw on the concept of qualia, including articles collected in a special issue of Signs and Society , titled “Qualia and Ontology: Language, Semiotics, and Materiality” (Ball ; Chumley ; Gal ; Harkness ; Reyes ; Roy ). Together, these articles remind us not to take qualia as given but to recognize the situated processes through which they both come to be and come to be perceptible.…”

Section: Presence(s) Contact(s) and Their Alternativesmentioning

confidence: 99%

Linguistic Anthropology in 2017: It Could Be Otherwise

Hoffmann‐Dilloway

2018

American Anthropologist

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In this review, I discuss recent works that embody Monica Heller's (2017, 12) assertion that anthropology is about "imagining alternative worlds." In the first section, "Presence(s), Contact(s), and their Alternatives," I focus on work that refines our analytical grasp of the semiotic processes underlying past, current, and projected realities, possibilities, and engagements. The second section, "Shifting Political Economies," deals with publications that specifically explore how political economic conditions are otherwise than was the case when linguistic anthropologists began formulating approaches to the political economies of language in the immediate post-Cold War period. In a third section, "Evidence and/of Imagination," I examine how linguistic anthropological works published in the period under review have used the terms "imagine/imagined/imaginary" in polyvalent senses when exploring how alternative worlds are conceived and produced, and consider how this nontechnical term can allow scholars to evade or to open up questions of scale and evidence. The final section, "Linguistic Anthropology Could be Otherwise," takes up work in 2017 that asks how the practice of linguistic anthropology itself could be-and should be-otherwise in terms of our engagements outside the field and the scope of our theoretical and political imaginations. [linguistic anthropology, semiotics, alternatives, imagination, political economies]RESUMEN En esta revisión, discuto los trabajos recientes que corporeizan la aserción de Monica Heller (2017, 12) que la antropología es acerca de "imaginarnos mundos alternativos." En la primera sección, "Presencia(s), contacto(s), y sus alternativas", me enfoco en el trabajo que refina nuestra comprensión analítica de los procesos semióticos subyacentes de las realidades, posibilidades y compromisos pasados, actuales y proyectados. La segunda sección, "Economías políticas cambiantes", se ocupa de las publicaciones que exploran específicamente cómo las condiciones económicas políticas son de otra manera de lo que era el caso cuando antropólogos lingüísticos empezaron formulando aproximaciones a las economías políticas del lenguaje en el período inmediato de post-Guerra Fría. En una tercera sección, "Evidencia y/de imaginación," examino cómo los trabajos antropológicos lingüísticos publicados en el período bajo revisión han usado los términos "imaginar/imaginado/imaginario" en sentidos polivalentes cuando exploran cómo mundos alternativos son concebidos y producidos, y consideran cómo este término no técnico puede permitir a los investigadores evadir o abrirse a cuestiones de escala y evidencia. La sección final, "Antropología lingüística podría ser de otra manera", se ocupa de trabajo en el 2017 que interroga cómo la práctica de antropología lingüística en sí misma podría ser -y debería ser-de otra manera en términos de nuestros compromisos por fuera del campo y elámbito de nuestras imaginaciones teóricas y políticas. [antropología lingüística, semiótica, alternativas, imaginación, economías pol...

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The Tuhao and the Bureaucrat: The Qualia of “Quality” in Rural China

Cited by 23 publications

References 17 publications

Politeness as signs of difference: Semiotic differentiation and identity among Taiwanese in China

Politeness as signs of difference: Semiotic differentiation and identity among Taiwanese in China

Being a Chinese Passenger: Practicing Quality and Civilization on the Rail

Linguistic Anthropology in 2017: It Could Be Otherwise

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