Theorizing vernacular discourse in Sinophone transnational space: on Namewee’s YouTube music videos

ABSTRACT

This article expands Ono and Sloop’s conceptualization of vernacular discourse in a transnational social media space; namely, YouTube. This article showcases how the YouTube music videos of Namewee, a Malaysian Sinophone musician, construct various identities through working with other oppressed voices in the Sinophone transnational space. Two of Namewee’s musical works featuring Taiwanese YouTubers are particularly examined to explore the concepts of “linguistic minorities,” “place-basedness,” and “vernacular collaboration.” By analyzing the horizontal relationships among minority groups across national borders, this case study elicits further conceptualization of what “vernacular discourses” entail beyond the American English-speaking context.

KEYWORDS:

• Vernacular discourse
• Sinophone
• linguistic minority
• YouTube
• transnationalism

Notes on contributor

Hsin-I Sydney Yueh is an associate professor of communication studies at Northeastern State University. She received her Ph.D. from The University of Iowa. Her research and teaching are centered in intercultural communication, gender and language, ethnography of communication and East Asian popular culture.