English in the linguistic landscape of the Palace Museum: a field-based sociolinguistic approach

ABSTRACT

Adopting a sociolinguistic approach to linguistic landscape study, this article is based on fieldwork conducted in the Palace Museum in Beijing, China, with special attention paid to the local perception and the dynamic feature of English semiotic resources onsite. Research data were derived from a variety of sources including digital photographs of displayed texts, questionnaire survey and interviews with tourists and service workers. Results show that despite Chinese dominance, there was a significant amount of English in the Palace Museum, offering public services and basic touristic introductory information to international tourists. This approach to data analysis which combines qualitative interviews and quantitative statistical analysis provides a means to understand English language display as dynamic social practices from both temporal and spatial perspectives. Based on the findings, it is proposed that the prevalence and distribution of English language in the Palace Museum is a result of joint action between multiple forces, among which the market factors, the original linguascape, government policies, and natural environments are the major ones.

KEYWORDS:

• English
• linguistic landscape
• Palace Museum
• China
• sociolinguistic approach

Acknowledgements

We extend our thanks to the Department of Publicity and Education in the Palace Museum for their generous support during the fieldwork and allowing us to use the signs collected for academic purposes.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Notes

1 The number is expected to rise to 85% by 2025, on the 100th anniversary of the Palace Museum, according to a museum blueprint approved by the State Administration of Cultural Heritage (Duan and Wang 2017).

2 While this study categorizes the signage into four major types, it should be noted that the categorization here arises mainly from a specific consideration of the roles that the signage plays on site and is only adopted as convenient terms for the purpose of data analysis and discussion. It is not meant to be exhaustive nor is it as straightforward as it appears.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Rong Xiao

Rong Xiao is a post-doctoral fellow at the Department of Foreign Languages, National University of Defense Technology. Her research interests include sociolinguistics, linguistic landscape study and tourism discourse analysis. Her recent publications include journal articles and book chapters on Chinese tourism linguistic landscape study and the discursive construction of Chinese identities in tourism context.

Carmen Lee

Carmen Lee is an associate professor in the Department of English, Chinese University of Hong Kong. She is the author of Multilingualism Online, and has published a number of journal articles and book chapters on sociolinguistics, language on the internet, and literacy studies.