Family language policy in multi-ethnic and multilingual villages in Yunnan, China: a comparative case study of Kena village and Anmin village

ABSTRACT

Based on Spolsky’s (2004) tripartite framework for language policy, this study explores language practices, language ideology, and language management in relation to minority languages, Putonghua, and English in ethnic minority families in Yunnan, China. Through observations of and interviews with nine interethnic marriage families in Kena Village and Anmin Village, we found that although people in both villages recognise the value of their native languages in ethnic identification and cultural inheritance, people in Anmin Village make efforts to teach the children Mosuo, while children in Kena Village usually acquire Malimasa naturally. Such differences are associated with sociolinguistic environment and child agency. Meanwhile, Putonghua is widely used in television programmes and smartphone applications and acquired by the young generation due to national policy and the spread of smartphones and television. Families in both villages demonstrated similar aspirations for their children’s English learning, but low socioeconomic status affected their ability to invest in foreign language learning. The results suggest that in the special context of multi-ethnic and multilingual villages in Yunnan the agency of rural parents and grandparents is relatively weak, and family language policies are mainly influenced by meso – (e.g. school) and macro- (e.g. socioeconomic environment, national policy) level factors.

KEYWORDS:

• Family language policy
• ethnic minority group
• China
• minority language

Acknowledgement

We would like to thank Professor Haitao Liu for his valuable advice and Danqi Zhang for her assistance in data analysis.

Disclosure statement

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

Notes

1 Weixi Lisu Autonomous County Overview compilation group (2008). Weixi Lisu Autonomous County Overview. Ethnic Publishing House.

2 Ninglang Yi Autonomous County Overview compilation group (2008). Ninglang Yi Autonomous County Overview. Ethnic Publishing House.

3 Bulletin of the Seventh National Census, http://www.gov.cn/guoqing/2021-05/13/content_5606149.htm

4 Yunnan, the province with the most unique ethnic groups in China, http://www.scio.gov.cn/ztk/xwfb/2013/14/11/Document/1320365/1320365.htm

5 Language, http://yn.gov.cn/yngk/gk/201904/t20190403_96252.html

6 Weixi Lisu Autonomous County Overview, http://weixi.diqing.gov.cn/mlwx/wxgk.html

7 A Brief Introduction of Ninglang Country, http://www.ynnl.gov.cn/xljnlx/c101288/202109/b43cc3fabff74adb9ad5bf907a18d9a1.shtml

8 Weixi Lisu Autonomous County 2020 National Economic and Social Development Statistical Bulletin, http://weixi.diqing.gov.cn/zfxxgk_weixi/fdzdgknr/jjhshfztj/202106/20210620_152220.html

9 WeChat is China’s most popular messaging app. It has many other functions like Moments (a social networking platform similar to Instagram or Facebook), Official Accounts (accounts that can send articles and messages to followers), shopping, and payment. Douyin (Chinese TikTok) allows users to upload and share videos less than one minute long, and tailors content recommendations based on users’ interests and tastes.

Additional information

Funding

This study was funded by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant Nos. 71872165 and 71402163); the Major project of Key Research Base of Humanities, Funding of the Ministry of Education of the People’s Republic of China (Project No. 19JJD740001); the Graduate Education Research Fund of Zhejiang University and the Fundamental Research Funds for the Central Universities. All views expressed are those of the authors and not of the sponsoring organisations.