‘Mei nu, mei nu, tai gui le!

¹Miss, Miss. That is too expensive!

’: to use or not to use Chinese language in Beijing's Silk Market

Abstract

This article discusses the shopping experience of international language students theorized as an intercultural exchange and encounter in the Silk Street Market, Beijing. In this interaction the bargaining ritual constitutes the core activity. Students perform with varying degrees of success on this bargaining ritual, making use not only of their language knowledge of Chinese but also of their understanding of the language of the marketplace. The marketplace is conceived as a flexi-multilingual and multicultural setting, shaped by the users of the space including vendors and customers. The marketplace generates both misunderstandings and opportunities for students and vendors alike to get engaged in other cultures.

本文探讨外国学生在北京秀水街市场购物所经历的跨文化交流和碰撞。在这种购物互动中讨价还价成为核心内容。学生们运用他们的汉语知识及他们对秀水街市场话语的理解，享受着讨价还价的过程。通过导购和顾客的共同塑造，秀水街成为一个多种语言和多元文化交汇的市场，并为同样想在其他文化中发展的学生和导购创造机会，也可能形成误导。

Keywords:

• China
• international students
• marketplace
• bargaining
• language
• intercultural exchange

Disclosure statement

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

Notes on contributors

Ching Lin Pang (彭静莲) is anthropologist, researching and teaching in the area of interculturalism, migration, and translation at KU Leuven and University of Antwerp. Her research interests include mobility, identity, inter/transcultural and -lingual interactions, and multicultural space(making) in the urban context.

Sara Sterling attended Fordham College in Manhattan before she obtained a Master's and Ph.D. degree in Social and Cultural Anthropology at KU Leuven. She just completed a postdoctoral fellowship at Tsinghua University in Beijing. Her research interest is in mobility, migration, identity, and intercultural and youth urban consumption.

Denggao Long (龙登高) is a Professor of Economics at Tsinghua University, focusing on overseas Chinese Business, the history of market economy including land transaction. He is the Deputy Director of the Institute of Economics, School of Social Sciences, Tsinghua University. He is also the Director of the Tsinghua Center for Chinese Entrepreneur Studies.

Notes

¹ Miss, Miss. That is too expensive!

Additional information

Funding

The research is funded by the KU Leuven-Tsinghua Fund.