28.98, Review: Discourse Analysis; Historical Ling; Socioling: Lou (2016)

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LINGUIST List: Vol-28-98. Thu Jan 05 2017. ISSN: 1069 - 4875.

Subject: 28.98, Review: Discourse Analysis; Historical Ling; Socioling: Lou (2016)

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Date: Thu, 05 Jan 2017 14:38:02
From: Laura Callahan [Lcallahan at scu.edu]
Subject: The Linguistic Landscape of Chinatown

 
Discuss this message:
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Book announced at http://linguistlist.org/issues/27/27-2268.html

AUTHOR: Jackie Jia  Lou
TITLE: The Linguistic Landscape of Chinatown
SUBTITLE: A Sociolinguistic Ethnography
SERIES TITLE: Encounters
PUBLISHER: Multilingual Matters
YEAR: 2016

REVIEWER: Laura Michele Callahan, City College of New York (CUNY)

Reviews Editor: Helen Aristar-Dry

SUMMARY

The Linguistic Landscape of Chinatown, by Jackie Jia Lou, contains a preface,
six chapters, four appendices, references, and an index. It reports on an
ethnographic investigation of Chinatown in Washington, D.C. (hereafter D.C.).

Chapter 1, “Conceptualizing Linguistic Landscape: Language, Space and Place”,
opens with an anecdote plus the titles of two newspaper articles that call
attention to perceptions of D.C.’s Chinatown as inauthentic. The author then
proceeds to an overview of approaches taken in earlier work on linguistic
landscapes, followed by an exposition of the theories that shaped her own
research design, chiefly from sociolinguistics and linguistic anthropology. 

In the process, Lou references numerous studies including several that predate
the emergence of linguistic landscape as a discipline, highlighting their
potential for contributions to a reconceptualization of the field. Definitions
of space and place from the various perspectives of sociology, anthropology,
and human geography are given. Symbolic (representational) versus material
(physical, economic) forces are often in contention, which later on in the
book the author demonstrates to be true also for D.C.’s Chinatown. 

Geosemiotic framework (Scollon & Scollon 2003) and nexus analysis (Scollon &
Scollon 2004) are two of the theoretical constructs important to this
investigation. Geosemiotic framework is divided into three categories:
interaction order, visual semiotics, and place semiotics. Goffman’s (1981)
production format also plays a role. Lou draws from Kress & van Leeuwen (2001)
to add designer, producer, and distributor to Goffman’s original concepts of
animator, author, and principal. Finally, we are reminded that a consideration
of linguistic and material resources (Blommaert 2005) is essential to the
study of linguistic landscapes, and that such resources imply not only
linguistic skills but also the financial wherewithal to pay for signage.

In Chapter 2, “Approaching Chinatown: Background and Methodology”, the author
first provides historical and demographic information on Chinatown. She then
presents her research design. The methodology includes photography,
ethnographic observation, interviews, maps drawn by interviewees, video
recordings of meetings and events, and document collection. 

Chapter 3, “Chinatown as Heterotopia: Urban Revitalization Through Linguistic
Landscape”, reports on specific features of signage on Chinese and non-Chinese
stores in Chinatown. Lou shows how mandates requiring Chinese signage on all
commercial establishments have resulted in only a superficial homogeneity.
Differences become apparent in code preference (with the preferred language
located above the other one), color scheme (when one language is in a brighter
color than the other), text vectors (whether text is read from top to bottom,
left to right, etc.), symmetrical composition, and emplacement (where on a
building a sign is affixed). These differences in signage make of Chinatown a
heterotopia (Foucault 1986 [1967]), in which one can appreciate “the competing
discourses of preservation, development and revitalization” (p. 58). Lou
argues that “it is more important to recognize its heterogeneous nature than
simply to take it as a lucrative program of urban revitalization without also
recognizing the conflicts and compromises made during the process” (pp.
58-59).

In Chapter 4, “Situating Linguistic Landscape in Time”, the concepts of
timescales (Lemke 2000), nexus analysis (Scollon & Scollon 2004), and mediated
discourse analysis (Scollon 2001) are used to examine “changes in participant
structure, and in material, political and economic resources over time” (p.
60). The timescales range from longer to shorter periods, spanning more than a
century, two decades, or the duration of a community meeting. The author
traces the evolution of Chinatown and its representations, from the first
waves of Chinese immigration to the Western U.S., to the movement of Chinese
laborers to East Coast cities, to the Civil Rights Movement, to downtown
development in Washington, D.C., and finally to newer waves of Chinese
immigration.

Chapter 5, “Situating Linguistic Landscape in Space”, examines “the
juxtaposition of social spaces and places” (p. 88) in D.C.’s Chinatown. The
notion of ritual place is contrasted with that of lived place, and the
features that make this Chinatown more of a ritual place and less of a lived
one are presented. Its Friendship Archway and Chinese street lamps epitomize
Lefebvre’s (1991) concept of monumental space, intended more for tourists than
for area residents. Among ritual celebrations, the Chinese New Year parade is
“a platform event, a type of interaction outlined by Goffman (1983)” (p. 97).
The tourist gaze (Urry 2005) completes the concept of Chinatown as a ritual
place.

The author next contemplates Chinatown as a lived place, using Blommaert et
al.’s (2005a, 2005b) concept of polycentricity and Goffman’s (1983)
interaction order in her analysis. She disproves the popular perception that
D.C.’s Chinatown is a place where no Chinese people actually live. We see maps
drawn by residents of Chinatown and by daily commuters who work there. These
maps and the interviews conducted with the people who drew them show how
Chinatown “is discursively aligned with or against other places on various
spatial scales: specifically, China and the United States on the scale of
nation-state; Washington, DC, on the scale of city; and other American
Chinatowns on the scale of neighborhood” (p. 89). Conflicts between different
interests are revealed, such as the forces that favor commercial development
over preservation of ethnic character.

Chapter 6, “Conclusion and Reflection”, recapitulates the findings reported on
in preceding chapters, and then moves to a consideration of practical
applications. It concludes with a summary of theoretical contributions to
sociolinguistics and linguistic anthropology.

EVALUATION

This book offers both a comprehensive analysis of the linguistic landscape of
Washington, D.C.’s Chinatown and an admirable example of how an integrative
research design can enhance a linguistic landscape study. It is an impeccably
presented piece of research that focuses on one place but at the same time has
clear connections to the wider debates of the discipline.

There are many figures, such as photos, maps, posters, drawings, and excerpts
of documents. These greatly enhance the author’s arguments, despite the fact
that all of the graphics are in black and white and in some cases details are
difficult to see. This limitation is ameliorated by in-text descriptions of
colors and other pertinent aspects.

Parts of the book are less amenable to a non-specialist readership. As can
occur with any theoretically rich exposition, it is not always easy to keep
track of the multitude of terms used. Passages laden with theoretical
terminology may discourage readers who are unfamiliar with the references. A
glossary of terms would be helpful, even though such a feature is admittedly
not the norm for a monograph. In this way the author’s knowledge could go even
further to help less experienced readers navigate the ever-evolving discipline
of linguistic landscapes. This would be especially valuable in light of the
recommendation that the book be read by residents (Stroud, back cover).

Indeed, this book would be of great interest to urban planners and community
activists alike. As the author notes, “[t]he research findings should also
prove useful for practical community-based projects that aim to restore the
discursive equilibrium of the neighborhood” (p. 136). At the very least, Lou’s
work could help residents begin to recognize and disentangle the complex
processes by which, in Lefebvre’s words, “monumental buildings mask the will
to power and the arbitrariness of power beneath signs and surfaces which claim
to express collective will and collective thought” (Lefebvre 1991: 143, quoted
in Lou, p. 94). 

In sum, The Linguistic Landscape of Chinatown: A Sociolinguistic Ethnography
is a valuable contribution to the literature on linguistic landscapes, based
on a meticulous and multifaceted investigation. It will be of interest to
researchers working in the fields of linguistic landscape and discourse
analysis, and it is a text eminently appropriate for graduate level courses. 

REFERENCES 

Blommaert, Jan. 2005. Discourse. A Critical Introduction. Cambridge: Cambridge
University Press.

Blommaert, Jan, James Collins & Stef Slembrouck. 2005a. Polycentricity and
interactional regimes in ‘global neighborhoods’. Ethnography 6(2). 205-235.

Blommaert, Jan, James Collins & Stef Slembrouck. 2005b. Spaces of
multilingualism. Language and Communication 25. 197-216.

Foucault, Michel. 1986 [1967]. Of other spaces, heterotopias. Architecture,
Mouvement, Continuité 5. 

Goffman, Erving. 1981. Footing. In Forms of Talk. Philadelphia: University of
Pennsylvania Press. 124-159.

Goffman, Erving. 1983. The interaction order. American Sociological Review
48(1). 1-17.

Kress, Gunther & Theo van Leeuwen. 2001. Multimodal Discourse: The Modes and
Media of Contemporary Communication. London: Arnold.

Lefebvre, Henri. 1991. The Production of Space. (D. Nicholson-Smith, trans.).
Oxford: Blackwell.

Lemke, Jay L. 2000. Across the scales of time: Artifacts, activities, and
meanings in ecosocial systems. Mind, Culture, and Activity 7(4). 273-290.

Scollon, Ron. 2001. Mediated Discourse: The Nexus of Practice. London:
Routledge.

Scollon, Ron & Suzie Wong Scollon. 2003. Discourses in Place: Language in the
Material World. London: Routledge. 

Scollon, Ron & Suzie Wong Scollon. 2004. Nexus Analysis: Discourse and the
Emerging Internet. London: Routledge.

Urry, John. 2005. The ‘consuming’ of place. In Discourse, Communication and
Tourism, eds. A. Jaworski & A. Pritchard. 19-27. Clevedon: Channel View
Productions.


ABOUT THE REVIEWER

Laura Callahan is currently a Visiting Professor in the Department of Modern
Languages & Literatures at Santa Clara University. Previous appointments
include The City College and Graduate Center of the City University of New
York, Michigan State University, and the University of California, Berkeley.
In addition to linguistic landscapes, her research interests have centered on
codeswitching and other contact phenomena; language, race, and identity;
intercultural communication; and heritage language maintenance. Her recent
publications include an article on Spanish in the linguistic landscape of
museums: Museums as a site for racialization and heritage language
maintenance. Heritage Language Journal. 2014, 11-2: 98-122.





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