Home-in-language: examining Tibetan migrants’ narratives of homeplace amid China’s urbanization

ABSTRACT

This study examines Tibetan migrants’ well-being by exploring their understanding of home and how they remake its meaning in the middle of a migration into intensive urbanization in China. We look at outmigration as a language-learning and -imposing process. Grounding Heidegger’s notion of home-in-language in Tibet and its people, this study found: (a) Tibetan language speaks of a geo-cultural home; (b) a shared language and language alienation both bring home near, even as it is still far away in reality; and (c) language remakes home as auspicious connections arises among Heidegger’s four elements of earth, sky, mortals and divinities.

སྐད་བརྡ་ཁྲོད་ཀྱི་ཁྱིམ། ཀྲོང་གོའི་གྲོང་ཁྱེར་ཅན་དུ་འགྱུར་བའི་འཕེལ་རིམ་ཁྲོད་བོད་རིགས་ཡུལ་མི་གནས་སྤོར་བའི་ཁྱིམ་སྐོར་གྱི་ཞིབ་བརྗོད་བྱེད་སྟངས་ལ་དཔྱད་པ།

ཞིབ་འཇུག་འདི་ལས་བོད་གནས་སྤོར་ཡུལ་མི་རྣམས་ཀྱིས་ཕ་ཡུལ་སྐོར་གྱི་འདུ་ཤེས་དང་། ཧའེ་ཏེ་ཀེར་གྱི་སྐད་བརྡའི་ཁྲོད་ཀྱི་ཁྱིམ་ཅེས་པའི་རིགས་པའི་གཞུང་ལུགས་དེ་བོད་ལྗོངས་དང་བོད་མིའི་གནས་ཚུལ་ལ་སྦྱར་ནས། རྩོམ་པ་པོ་ཚོས་དཔྱད་རྩོམ་འདི་བརྒྱུད་གཏོང་སྦྱོར་རིག་པ། གནས་སྤོར་ཞིབ་འཇུག་དང་སྐད་ཡིག་སྲིད་ཇུས་ཞིབ་འཇུག་ལ་འཚོ་བ་དངོས་ཀྱི་ལག་ལེན་ཉེར་སྤྱོད་དང་གོ་རྟོགས་གསར་བ་འདོན།

KEYWORDS:

• Home-in-language
• Heidegger
• Tibetan migrants
• language education
• urbanization

Acknowledgements

We would like to thank our Philosophy colleagues – Drs Kevin Aho and Carolyn Culbertson for the helpful conversations about Heidegger and providing editorial support on refining our interpretations on Heidegger. We also want to acknowledge the tremendous support that we received from our incredible Tibetan friends Dak Lhagyal, Dr Thinley Wangmo, and Dr Tashi Namgyal.

Disclosure statement

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

Notes

1 Even the language is called Daohua in Chinese, it is most likely rTa’u, a rGyalrongic language that seems “mixed” (see Tunzhi et al., 2019).

2 A tangka is a Tibetan Buddhist painting on cotton or silk, depicting a Buddhist deity or story.

 

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Dongjing Kang

Dongjing Kang (PhD, Ohio University) is an assistant professor in the Department of Communication and Philosophy at Florida Gulf Coast University. Her research lies in the intersection of (inter)cultural communication, organizational communication, and development communication. She has explored dialogical theory across cultures, technological organizing in Tibet, international ethnographic methods, and cultural heritage preservation in the global south. Her publications have appeared in Journal of International and Intercultural Communication, Qualitative Inquiry, and Chinese Journal of Communication.

Zhou Li

Zhou Li (PhD, Ohio University) is an associate professor in the School of Foreign Languages, Southwest Jiaotong University (Chengdu, China). Her research examines the multiple networks in identity construction to unravel the systematic oppression that Chinese, especially Chinese women, have been through with the goal of a liberatory politics. Her publications have appeared in Critical Discourse Studies, Chinese Journal of Communication, and Critical Studies in Media Communication. She also hosts a project funded by the National Social Science Fund of China.