Complicating raciolinguistics: Language, Chineseness, and the Sinophone

Abstract

This special issue explores the contested notion of Chineseness through an examination of the language ideologies and practices of those who are arguably on its margins. The six ethnographic cases presented in this issue not only shed light on how language mediates the relationship between race, ethnicity, and nationality, but also reveal the myriad ways in which ideologies of language, race, and nation work together to produce a variety of racial and ethnic subject positions. Expanding the scope of raciolinguistics, they demonstrate why we cannot lose sight of China and Chineseness when studying the relations between language, race, and ethnicity.