2024/10/17 by Dennis Chau · 1 voice
Social Sciences · Arts and Humanities · #Multilingual Education and Policy #Language, Discourse, Communication Strategies #Discourse Analysis in Language Studies
paper · pdf · doi:10.1017/s0047404524000691
openalex publication_date 2024/10/17 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/06/19
Abstract This article examines the online reaction to the linguistic performance of a pro-China Hong Kong singer-actor in a commercial where he speaks Hong Kong English. Paradoxically, the posters criticizing his English are Hongkongers themselves, while those showing admiration are mainland Chinese. Understanding this paradox requires an appreciation of the multiple and complex orders of indexicality through which the variety is evaluated and of the increasing use of linguistic evaluations as a proxy for political judgements in a society undergoing significant changes. An analysis of online comments and remixes associated with the commercial shows that Hong Kong social media users attribute a range of different indexical meanings to the celebrity's English to shame him for his perceived ‘betrayal’ and to reclaim a sense of social superiority over mainlanders in the face of unease about Hongkongers’ cultural distinctiveness. It unpacks complexities surrounding the deployment of language ideologies in societies experiencing sociopolitical upheavals. (Language ideologies, linguistic ridicule, orders of indexicality, polycentricity, social media, Hong Kong)*