Translanguaging as transnational spaces: Chinese visiting scholars’ language practices on WeChat

ABSTRACT

This study examines the language practices of Chinese visiting scholars on WeChat and explores the representational meanings of their translanguaging practices. An ethnographic approach combining with systematic observation, WeChat screenshot data and interviews with Chinese visiting scholars is adopted to get hold of the richness of situated meanings and indexicalities of varied semiotic resources. It is found that translanguaging is often deployed by Chinese visiting scholars during their stay in the host country and it has the following functions: intertextuality of the local voice, construction of identities as language learners and global citizens, and fulfilment as ethnic messengers and cultural brokers. The results indicate that with the many translanguaging practices, Chinese visiting scholars interact with their friends, colleagues and acquaintances back in China, the invisible superintendent from Chinese government and voices of the host country in the transnational spaces. By conceptualising translanguaging (multilingualism) as transnational spaces instead of ‘global discourse’ [Veum, A., & Undrum, L. V. M. (2018). The selfie as a global discourse. Discourse and Society, 29(1), 86–103. doi:10.1177/0957926517725979], I argue that translanguaging is not merely linguistic issues, but concomitant with social, cultural and political issues.

KEYWORDS:

• translanguaging
• language practices
• Chinese visiting scholars
• transnational spaces
• semiotic resources
• WeChat

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.

Notes

1 Source: http://tech.qq.com/a/20170424/004233.htm#p=4.

2 All names are pseudo names and part of the information on screenshots of their posts is made blurry or erased for the sake of privacy protection.

3 https://emojipedia.org/facebook/ provides a full list of Facebook emojis, which doesn’t include this one. My US friends confirm that they haven’t used or seen exactly the same emoji in social networking sites in the US.

4 http://www.moe.edu.cn/ewebeditor/uploadfile/2015/01/13/20150113092346124.pdf.

5 Interview data were originally in Chinese. They were translated by the researcher to maintain accuracy and style.

6 Despair. It was wrongly spelled by Xi.

7 It should be Thomas Fire.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by MOE Project of Humanities and Social Sciences for Young Researchers [grant number 16YJC740023]; project of Humanities and Social Sciences in Universities and Colleges in Guangdong province [grant number 2016WTSCX033]; China Scholarship Council [grant number 201707150004]; MOE Project of Key Research Institute of Humanities and Social Sciences at Universities [grant number 16JJD740006].