Discourse, Identity, and China's Internal Migration: The Long March to the City (Encounters, 1) - Hardcover

Jie, Dong

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 1847694209 ISBN 13: 9781847694201

Verlag: Multilingual Matters, 2011

Inhaltsangabe

Rural-urban migration has been going on in China since the early 1980s, resulting in complicated sociolinguistic environments. Migrant workers are the backbone of China's fast growing economy, and yet little is known about their and their children’s identities – who they are, who they think they are, and who they are becoming. The study of their linguistic practice can reveal a lot about their identity construction as well as about transitions in Chinese society and the (re)formation of social structure at the macro level. In this book, Dong Jie presents a wide range of ethnographic data which are organised around a scalar framework. She argues that three scales – linguistic communication, metapragmatic discourse, and public discourse – interact in complex and multiple ways.

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Über die Autorinnen und Autoren

Dong Jie completed her PhD at Tilburg University in 2009. She is a linguistic anthropologist at the Babylon Center and the Department of Languages and Cultures, Tilburg University. Her publications include Ethnographic Fieldwork: A Beginner's Guide (2010, with Jan Blommaert).

Dong Jie completed her PhD at Tilburg University in 2009. She is a linguistic anthropologist at the Babylon Center and the Department of Languages and Cultures, Tilburg University. Her publications include Ethnographic Fieldwork: A Beginnerâs Guide (2010, with Jan Blommaert).

Dong Jie completed her PhD at Tilburg University in 2009. She is a linguistic anthropologist at the Babylon Center and the Department of Languages and Cultures, Tilburg University. Her publications include Ethnographic Fieldwork: A Beginnerâ??s Guide (2010, with Jan Blommaert).

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Discourse, Identity, and China's Internal Migration

The Long March to the City

By Dong Jie

Multilingual Matters

Copyright © 2011 Dong Jie
All rights reserved.

ISBN: 978-1-84769-420-1

Contents

Acknowledgements, 
Transcription Symbols and Conventions, 
1 Introduction: The Long March to the City: An Ethnography of Discourse and Layered Identities among China's Internal Migrants, 
2 A Roadmap into the Issue, 
3 Scale 1: Interaction, 
4 Scale 2: Metapragmatic Discourses, 
5 Scale 3: Institutions, 
6 Conclusions and Reflections, 
Appendix 1: Overview of Data Collection, 
Appendix 2: Chinese Texts and Pinyin Transcripts of Examples, 
References, 
Index, 

CHAPTER 1

Introduction: The Long March to the City: An Ethnography of Discourse and Layered Identities among China's Internal Migrants

Identities and Coca-Cola Cans

'Identity' is the focus of this research. Identity-making discourses such as 'he is a Dutchman' and 'she is a teacher' frequently circulate in our daily lives. In conferences we wear a badge with our names so that our interlocutors have an idea of whom they are talking to; while travelling abroad, people should remember to carry their ID, that is, passports or identification cards, and be prepared for potential police inspection – this can be crucial for groups such as Turks and Africans in some of the Western European metropolises; on meeting new colleagues we often exchange information on where we come from, our nationalities, what jobs did we do before. And as a Chinese, I find myself engaged in a constant task of explaining my name: which is my given name, which is my surname and in what circumstances I would rather use an English name.

Indeed, we are involved in identity rituals around every corner of our life. The question it raises – the question of 'who am I' – often touches something dearest to our hearts, something we hold fast, whereas a challenge of it by others can easily offend us. Identity means different things on different occasions – 'who I am' depends on whom I am talking to, in what circumstances and from what perspectives. Let me illustrate this point with a metaphor (see Figure 1.1a, b and c).

Figure 1.1a gives a front view of a Coca-Cola can and shows some of its defining features: its cylinder shape, its easily recognisable logo, trademark and so forth. It can be seen as a 'normal' view of a Coca-Cola can – a view that fits in with the stereotype we usually have. However, if we look at the can again from a lower angle (Figure 1.1b), we get a rather different picture: its cylinder shape is distorted, some features are exaggerated, such as the initial 'C' of the logo, while other features fall out of sight. An even more unusual picture is the one shown in Figure 1.1c – the same can be observed from the top. At this level, the distinguishing details of a Coca-Cola can (the logo, the design, etc.) are replaced by a set of more abstract features – metal, with an opening ring, and a sentence urging the consumer to recycle the can. It could be a Pepsi can or a beer can. Observing the can from this angle, one could not tell whether the rest of the can – its cylinder-shaped body – exists or not.

Each time it is the can; the can is all of that. It is still the same can, but we end up with different descriptions observing it from different positions; the positions are vertically ordered: observed from a lower angle (Figure 1.1b), some details of the can are distorted, exaggerated or neglected whereas enough features remain for us to tell what it is. Our gaze then is moved upwards and we obtain a 'normal' stereotypical view (Figure 1.1a) that fits in with our expected image of a Coca-Cola can. On a higher scale when we look down from the top (Figure 1.1c), the defining details disappear, and what we see are some abstract and rigid features of any metal can. Each observation is partially similar and partially different and none of it shows a picture of the whole can – every description is conditioned by the position from which we observe it. There are an infinite number of scale levels that we may consider observing. I have taken three scales to demonstrate that one scale is not enough and a full analysis involves taking into account various scales. I could focus on more scales, but chose three so that we could more clearly see that a social phenomenon at one scale is different at another scale.

The examination of identity construction is of little difference from observing a Coca-Cola can. Focusing solely on lower level observation – the level of local interaction – we may obtain detailed yet distorted understandings of identity. Analysing only the 'normal' view – the level of people's discursive evaluation on their own and others' identities – we risk overlooking the 'not-so-normal' views of identity making. Positioning ourselves at the top level – the level of administrative realities – identity categorisation becomes rigid and abstract. None of the current paradigms in identity studies from a single level – whatever level that is – is sufficient, because social phenomena such as identity making are never singular and homogeneous, but are always layered and multifaceted, and all aspects have to be described and analysed comprehensively. What we need is a more sophisticated approach that revolves around an image of social reality as structured into different scales, which attends to the rules and conventions that operate at the different scale levels, and which uncovers the interplay and collaboration of different scales in one situated event.

There are compelling reasons to develop such an approach, and perhaps the most compelling one is the ever-increasing complexity of discursive processes of identity construction in the context of rapid linguistic and cultural exchanges among various communities as a result of transnational as well as intra-national migrations – what we usually call 'globalisation'. The empirical data of this book have been collected in China, where intense rural – urban migration has been going on since the early 1980s. The rural – urban migration, also known as 'internal' migration, results in complicated sociolinguistic environments in which regional accents and dialects become salient markers of identity, projecting prestige and opportunity, or stigma and social inequality. The phenomenal rural – urban migration in China offers an enormously rich research potential in the discursive processes of identity construction; yet, there has been limited research focused on this field so far (but see Dong, 2009; Dong & Blommaert, 2009).

This book is therefore a contribution to filling this gap through a close look at the discursive processes of identity construction among Chinese internal migrants. There are two objectives in the present study. First, I propose and argue for a three-scale theoretical framework, a scalar structure that organises various levels and facets of identity making practice in the context of migration and globalisation. It is a selection of discursive scales indeed, but a salient selection of which all three scale-levels articulate different types of identity building discourses. We see more elaboration on this point in section 'A n Alternative Approach'. My broader purpose, related to the first one, is to draw attention to a series of social processes through which we are able to gain an insight into transitions in Chinese...

Details zur Ausgabe

• Verlag: Multilingual Matters
• Erscheinungsdatum: 2011
• Sprache: Englisch
• ISBN 10: 1847694209
• ISBN 13: 9781847694201
• Einband: Gebundene Ausgabe
• Anzahl der Seiten: 156
• Kontakt zum Hersteller: Nicht verfügbar
• Verantwortliche Person: Nicht verfügbar