Chineseness in Contemporary Urban China: A Mixed Methods Study of the Linguistic Landscape of the Historic City of Xi’an

This study explores the concept of Chineseness in the context of contemporary urban China by examining the construction and manifestations of Chineseness through linguistic and non-linguistic semiotic resources in public spaces in the northern Chinese city of Xi’an. The linguistic landscape of Xi'an was chosen for this study because the city is known for its rich history, cultural heritage, and rapid modernisation and thus brings together two significant but seemingly conflicting aspects of Chineseness, that is, tradition and modernity. Xi’an’s linguistic landscape is analysed using a sociolinguistics-inspired method that emphasises the importance of indexicality and context in understanding language use. Data collected from multiple sources, including linguistic landscape fieldwork, digital ethnography, online interviews, and discourse analysis, are analysed quantitatively and qualitatively to provide a comprehensive picture of the social significance of semiotic resources in constructing and representing Xi’an as a modern ancient Chinese city. This study examines 1569 signs sampled from 13 publicly accessible sites and multiple domains in Xi'an. It shows that the urban environment of Xi'an does not display a unitary notion of Chineseness as would be expected in this context which has been a long-standing cultural centre of China, predominantly inhabited by the Han Chinese, and known as a birthplace of Chinese civilisation. In contrast, the analysis suggests that Chineseness in Xi’an is constructed as manifold and diverse, using multiple named languages and diversified visualisation of the Chinese language. Discourse analysis of the intralingual diversity in the written medium reveals that the semiotic resources for visualising Chinese are not simply functional options but are indexical of nuanced social meanings in the context of Xi'an. The results reveal that the construction and representation of Xi’an as a modern ancient Chinese city incorporate diverse approaches to the interplay between tradition and modernity. These approaches include preserving the past in its present state, restoring the past to its original condition, utilising historical resources to generate new fashions, and localising nonindigenous resources with Chinese characteristics. Utilising various resources from Xi'an's semiotic repertoires, including traditional ones such as complex Chinese characters, modern ones such as standard Chinese characters, indigenous resources such as Chinese scripts, and non-indigenous resources such as Roman scripts, these approaches offer varying experiences with respect to Chinese tradition and modernity. Additionally, the social significance of these semiotic resources is shaped through an ongoing process of negotiation between their conventional indexical associations and the specific context in which they are used. This study sheds light on intra-lingual diversity and intra-cultural heterogeneity in contemporary urban China. It demonstrates that being Chinese encompasses a wide range of experiences, perspectives, and resources. The discussions challenge the hegemonic and majoritarian understanding of what it means to be Chinese within the framework of essentialist Chineseness, contributing to the understanding of Chineseness and linguistic diversity in China.