Enacting identity and ethnicity in transnational spaces: bilingual practices and positioning of Chinese visiting scholars in America

ABSTRACT

This study explores how a transient community of Chinese visiting scholars in the US negotiates the language norms and identity in the transnational spaces. Transient communities, being different from diasporic stable communities in terms of flexibility and fluidity of movements, are subject to continuous negotiation of social or language norms. With an ethnographic approach, I observed, documented and interviewed Chinese visiting scholars, exploring their negotiation with various groups of interactants from both the host country and the home country. It is found Chinese visiting scholars’ language choices in various interactional contexts are not a priori assignment but the results of constant negotiation within and across contexts. Their multilingual practices or strategies not only enact their identity and ethnicity, but also reflect their implicit power struggle in the transnational space. The Chinese visiting scholars’ language practices and their situated and iterative positioning of themselves helps maximise the benefit of their stay in the host country, thus imposing significant implication for EIL (English as International Language) research.

KEYWORDS:

• Identity
• ethnicity
• Chinese visiting scholars
• transient community
• language practices
• transnational space

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Notes

1 Source: http://www.gov.cn/xinwen/2018-04/01/content_5278951.htm

2 Interview scripts were originally in Chinese. Translation was made by the author for the maximum maintenance of meanings and styles.

3 The email was written by Shang in English, with occasional grammatical errors. It was presented here as it had been originally written.

4 It should be Thousand Oaks.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by MOE Project of Key Research Institute of Humanities and Social Sciences at Universities [grant number 16JJD740006]; Project of Humanities and Social Sciences in Universities and Colleges in Guangdong Province [grant number 2016WTSCX033]; MOE Project of Humanities and Social Sciences for Young Researchers [grant number 16YJC740023].