Linguistic Landscape Studies of Global Chinese Living in the Third Space

This volume examines the lived experiences of diverse Global Chinese communities who navigate changing milieus of meanings and ideas about homes, belongings, and boundaries in a transnational world. From the perspective of linguistic landscape studies, it explores how language, ethnicity, culture, and territory intersect in a third space where in-betweenness is incorporated and internalized to form new shades of cultural identities. Chapters address meaning-making practices observed in public, institutional, and private spaces, uncovering the convergences and divergences bound up in the meanings of ‘Chinese’ and ‘Chineseness’. The synergy of the collection reveals the heterogeneity within and across Chinese communities worldwide and traces how transnational and intranational flows of people and language practices reshape identity through spatial and temporal lenses. An essential resource for scholars and researchers in linguistic landscape studies and visual ethnography, the book provides a critical examination of the shifting meanings of ‘Chinese’ and ‘Chineseness’ encountered in daily life.