On the Iconization of Simplified Chinese

Abstract

Although iconization is widely recognized as a crucial process through which linguistic differences are accorded social significance, we know little about how iconic linkages travel across time and space. This article highlights the processual nature of iconization and reveals recontextualization as an important mechanism for the transformation of indexical signs into icons. Focusing on a well‐known poem that purportedly encapsulates the defects of the simplified Chinese script used in mainland China, this study shows how its recontextualization in Hong Kong's print and social media between 2000 and 2015 helped construct simplified Chinese as defective and map its “defects” onto mainlanders.