Cover not available

Article published In: X-Scapes: New horizons in Linguistic Landscapes
Edited by Crispin Thurlow and Kellie Gonçalves
[Linguistic Landscape 5:2] 2019
► pp. 160–178

Get fulltext from our e-platform
JBE logo with link
PDF logo with download linkDownload PDF
EPUB logo with download linkDownload EPUB
authorization required

The place/s of Tagalog in Hong Kong’s Central district

Negotiating center-periphery dynamics

 | University of Hong Kong | King’s College London | Southern Luzon State University
Published online: 22 July 2019
DOI logo with link
https://doi.org/10.1075/ll.18024.gui
Abstract
The Central district is the government, financial, and business center of Hong Kong. Yet, on Sundays, it turns temporarily into a space densely occupied by migrant domestic workers from the Philippines. It is then that Tagalog emerges as a valuable linguistic resource in the center of Hong Kong, primarily as it is used on commercial signage as well as by speakers of other languages who see the presence of Filipinos – predominantly female domestic workers – as a business opportunity. Other signs in central Hong Kong that include Tagalog are regulatory, indexing the same Filipinos as low status domestic workers. Using the key concepts of sociolinguistic scales (Blommaert, J. (2007). Sociolinguistic scales. Intercultural pragmatics, 4(1): 1–19. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar) and center-periphery dynamics (Pietikäinen, S. & Kelly-Holmes, H. (Eds.). (2013). Multilingualism and the Periphery. New York, USA: Oxford University Press. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar), I analyze the underlying forces relevant to Tagalog’s (and hence its speakers) symbolic centering and peripheralization in Hong Kong’s semiotic landscape.
Abstract (English)
Sentro ng gobyerno, pananalapi, at negosyo sa Hong Kong ang Central district. Subalit tuwing Linggo, ito ay nagiging pansamantalang pahingahan at pook libangan ng mga nagtatrabaho doong kasambahay mula sa Pilipinas. Mula rito, lumalabas na mahalagang wika rin ang Tagalog sa sentro ng Hong Kong na makikita sa mga patalastas sa mga tindahan at ginagamit ng ilang mga magtitindang nagsasalita ng ibang wika at nakikitang oportunidad sa kanilang negosyo ang pagdagsa ng mga Pilipino roon. Samantala, makikita rin ang Tagalog sa mga babala na tumutukoy sa mga Pilipinang namamalagi roon tuwing linggo bilang mga kasambahay na ibinibilang sa mababang antas ng lipunan. Gamit ang mga susing konsepto na sociolinguistic scales (Blommaert, J. (2007). Sociolinguistic scales. Intercultural pragmatics, 4(1): 1–19. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar) at center-periphery dynamics (Pietikäinen, S. & Kelly-Holmes, H. (Eds.). (2013). Multilingualism and the Periphery. New York, USA: Oxford University Press. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar), bilang balangkas, pinag-aralan ko sa papel na ito ang magka-ugnay na puwersa sa simbolikong pagse-sentro at pagsasa-isang tabi sa Tagalog (at sa mga nagsasalita nito) sa semiotic landscape ng Hong Kong.
Article outline
  • 1.Introduction
  • 2.Filipino domestic workers in Hong Kong: A marginalized migrant labor group?
  • 3.Filipino domestic workers in Central: A contested space
  • 4.The geosemiotics of Central: Sociolinguistic scales and center-periphery dynamics
  • 5.Analysis: Marginalizing and centering Tagalog in Central
    • 5.1Marginalizing Tagalog: Regulatory signage
    • 5.2Centering Tagalog: Commercial signage (and register)
  • 6.Conclusion: The contradictory political economy of Tagalog (speakers)
  • Acknowledgements
  • Notes
  • References
References (53)
References
Aguilar Jr., F. V. (2014). Migration revolution: Philippine Nationhood and Class Relations in a Global Age. Quezon City, Philippines: Ateneo de Manila University Press. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Angermeyer, P. S. (2017). Controlling Roma refugees with ‘Google-Hungarian’: Indexing deviance, contempt, and belonging in Toronto’s linguistic landscape. Language in Society, 461: 159–183. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Asian Migrant Centre. (2001). Baseline Research on Racial and Gender Discrimination Towards Filipino, Indonesian and Thai Domestic Helpers in Hong Kong. Retrieved from [URL]
Blommaert, J. (2007). Sociolinguistic scales. Intercultural pragmatics, 4(1): 1–19. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
(2013). Ethnography, superdiversity and linguistic landscapes: Chronicles of complexity (Vol. 181). Bristol, UK: Multilingual Matters. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Blommaert, J., & Dong, J. (2010). Ethnographic fieldwork: A beginner’s guide. Bristol & Buffalo: Multilingual Matters. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Bradsher, K. (2013, March 26). Hong Kong court denies residency to domestics. The New York Times, p. A4.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Camposano, C. C. (2012). Balikbayan boxes and the performance of intimacy by Filipino migrant women in Hong Kong. Asia Pacific Migration Journal, 21(1): 83–102. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Commission on Filipinos Overseas. (2013). Stock Estimates of Overseas Filipinos (as of December 2013). Manila: Commission on Overseas Filipinos. Retrieved from [URL]
Constable, N. (2007). Maid to order in Hong Kong: Stories of Filipina workers (2nd ed.). Ithaca, USA: Cornell University Press.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
(2009). Migrant workers and the many states of protest in Hong Kong. Critical Asian Studies, 41(1): 143–164. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Del Percio, A., Flubacher, M.-C. & Duchêne, A. (2017). Language and political economy. In O. Garcia, N. Flores, & M. Spotti (Eds.), The Oxford Handbook of Language and Society. New York: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Dwyer, C. (2016). A Sunday ritual for 300000 women. Retrieved 9 October 2018, from British Broadcasting Company [URL]
Gal, S. (2016). Scale-making: Comparison and perspective as ideological projects. In E. S. Carr & M. Lempert (Eds.), Scale: Discourse and dimensions of social life (pp. 91–111). California: University of California Press.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Gonzalez, A. (1998). The language planning situation in the Philippines. Journal of multilingual & multicultural development, 19(5&6): 487–525. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Haarstad, H. & Fløysand, A. (2007). Globalization and the power of rescaled narratives: A case of opposition to mining in Tambogrande, Peru. Political Geography, 261: 289–308. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Heugh, K. (2013). Mobility, migration and sustainability: re-figuring languages in diversity. International Journal of the Sociology of Language, 2013(222): 5–32. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Hong Kong Census and Statistics Department. (2017). 2016 Population By-census: Thematic Report: Ethnic Minorities. Hong Kong: 2016 Population By-census Office Census and Statistics Department. Retrieved from [URL]
. (2018). Foreign domestic helpers by nationality and sex. Retrieved September 11, 2018 [URL]
Hong Kong Federation of Asian Domestic Helpers, & Progressive Labor Union of Domestic Workers in Hong Kong. (2016). Between a rock and a hard place: The charging of illegal agency fees to Filipio domestic workers in the Philippines and Hong Kong. Retrieved from [URL]
Hong Kong Immigration Department. (2015). Standard Employment Contract and Terms of Employment for Helpers. Hong Kong: Hong Kong Immigration Department Retrieved from [URL]
Hong Kong Tourism Commission. (2018). Tourism Performance in 2017. Hong Kong: Hong Kong Tourism Commission Retrieved from [URL]
Hutton, C. (2014). Linguistic landscape, law and reflexive modernity. In A. Wagner & R. K. Sherwin (Eds.), Law, Culture and Visual Studies (pp. 599–613). Netherlands: Springer. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Ingold, T. (1993). The temporality of the landscape. World Geography, 25(2): 152–174.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Irvine, J. T. (2016). Going upscale. In E. S. Carr & M. Lempert (Eds.), Scale: Discourse and dimensions of social life (pp. 213–231). California: University of California Press.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Irvine, J. T. & Gal, S. (2000). Language ideology and linguistic differentiation. In P. V. Kroskitry (Ed.), Regimes of language: Ideologies, polities, and identities (pp. 35–84). Santa Fe: School of American Research Press.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Jaworski, A. (2014). Mobile language in mobile places. International Journal of Bilingualism, 18(5): 524–533. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Jaworski, A. & Thurlow, C. (2013). The (de-)centring spaces of airports: Framing mobility and multilingualism. In S. Pietikäinen & H. Kelly-Holmes (Eds.), Multilingualism and the Periphery. New York, USA: Oxford University Press. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Justice Centre Hong Kong. (2016). Coming clean: The prevalence of forced labour and human trafficking for the purpose of forced labour amongst migrant domestic workers in Hong Kong. Hong Kong.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Kress, G. R. & Van Leeuwen, T. (2006). Reading images: The grammar of visual design. London & New York: Routledge. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Ladegaard, H. J. (2015). Coping with trauma in domestic migrant worker narratives: Linguistic, emotional and psychological perspectives. Journal of Sociolinguistics, 19(2): 189–221. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Lai, M. L. (2013). The linguistic landscape of Hong Kong after the change of sovereignty. International Journal of Multilingualism, 10(3): 251–272. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Law, L. (2001). Home cooking: Filipino women and geographies of the senses in Hong Kong. Ecumene, 8(3): 264–283. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
(2002). Defying disappearance: Cosmopolitan public spaces in Hong Kong. Urban Studies, 39(9): 1625–1645. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Lee Moss, E. (2017, 10 March 2017). ‘That one day is all you have’: how Hong Kong’s domestic workers seized Sunday. The Guardian. Retrieved from [URL]
Legislative Council Research Office. (2017). Foreign domestic helpers and evolving care duties in Hong Kong. Hong Kong: Hong Kong Legislative Council Research Office Retrieved from [URL]
Lemke, J. L. (2000). Across the scales of time: Artifacts, activities, and meanings in ecosocial systems. Mind, Culture, and Activity, 7(4): 273–290. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Lindio-McGovern, L. (2012). Globalization, labor export and resistance: A study of Filipino migrant domestic workers in global cities. London & New York: Routledge.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Lock, G. (2003). Being international, local and Chinese: advertisements on the Hong Kong Mass Transit Railway. Visual Communication, 2(2): 195–214. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Lorente, B. P. (2018). Scripts of Servitude: Language, Labor Migration and Transnational Domestic Work. Bristol, UK: Multilingual Matters.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Otsuji, E. & Pennycook, A. (2010). Metrolingualism: Fixity, fluidity and language in flux. International Journal of Multilingualism, 7(3): 240–254. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Pappenhagen, R., Scarvaglieri, C. & Redder, A. (2016). Expanding the linguistic landscape scenery? Action theory and ‘linguistic soundscaping’. In R. Blackwood, E. Lanza, & H. Woldemariam (Eds.), Negotiating and contesting identities in Linguistic landscapes (pp. 147–162). London: Continuum.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Parreñas, R. S. (2001). Servants of Globalization: Women, Migration, and Domestic Work. Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Pennycook, A. & Otsuji, E. (2014). Metrolingual multitasking and spatial repertoires: ‘Pizza mo two minutes coming’. Journal of Sociolinguistics, 18(2): 161–184. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
(2015). Making scents of the landscape. Linguistic Landscape, 1(3): 191–212. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Peralta-Catipon, T. (2011). Collective occupations among Filipina migrant workers: Bridging disrupted identities. OTJR: Occupation, Participation and Health, 32(2): 14–21. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Pietikäinen, S. & Kelly-Holmes, H. (Eds.). (2013). Multilingualism and the Periphery. New York, USA: Oxford University Press. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Rampton, B. (2007). Neo-Hymesian linguistic ethnography in the United Kingdom. Journal of Sociolinguistics, 11(5): 584–607. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Rodriguez, R. M. (2008). The labor brokerage state and the globalization of Filipina care workers. Signs: Journal of Women in Culture and Society, 33(4). Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Scollon, R. & Wong Scollon, S. (2003). Discourses in place: Language in the material world. London: Routledge.
Simons, G. F., & Fennig, C. D. E. (2018). Ethnologue: Languages of the World, Twenty-first edition. from SIL International [URL]
Thurlow, C. & Jaworski, A. (2010). Borrowed genres and the language market: Trade signs and business cards. In A. Jaworski & C. Thurlow (Eds.), Tourism Discourse: Language and Global Mobility (pp. 49–90). London: Palgrave Macmillan.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Tupas, R. & Lorente, B. P. (2014). A ‘new’ politics of language in the Philippines: Bilingual education and the new challenge of the mother tongues. In P. Sercombe & R. Tupas (Eds.), Language, Education and Nation-building: Assimilation and Shift in Southeast Asia (pp. 165–180). England & New York: Palgrave Macmillan.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Cited by (16)

Cited by 16 other publications

Fong, James
2025. Language Preferences in the Metro Space of Hong Kong: A Study of Borderland Dynamics. Journal of Intercultural Studies ► pp. 1 ff. DOI logo
Gu, Chonglong & Brian Hok-Shing Chan
2025. “Por Favor Use a Máscara”: Unmasking Macao’s Multilingual Translated Top-Down and Bottom-Up Covidscape During Pandemic Communication. In Multilingual Education Yearbook 2025 [Multilingual Education Yearbook, ], ► pp. 181 ff. DOI logo
Kong, Charmaine
2025. “Cleaning up after capitalism”: recentring blue-collar work in the spatial semiotics of waste. Social Semiotics ► pp. 1 ff. DOI logo
Liang, Yuyan & Lydia Catedral
2025. Between silence and voicing out: Migrant organizations navigating online and offline realities. Language in Society ► pp. 1 ff. DOI logo
Gu, Chonglong
2024. ‘Mask must wear at all times’: top-down and bottom-up multilingual COVID-scape in Hong Kong as a prime site of epidemiological and public health knowledge (re)construction during the COVID-19 pandemic. Language and Intercultural Communication 24:3 ► pp. 195 ff. DOI logo
Gu, Chonglong
2025. The (un)making and (re)making of Guangzhou’s ‘Little Africa’: Xiaobei’s linguistic and semiotic landscape explored. Language Policy 24:1 ► pp. 51 ff. DOI logo
Gu, Chonglong
2025. A sociolinguistics of low-end globalization in Guangzhou: multilingualism, semiotics, and translanguaging. International Journal of the Sociology of Language DOI logo
Gu, James Chonglong
2024. Linguistic Landscaping the Discourse of Neoliberalism and Globalisation in Dubai’s Posh JBR and Dubai Marina Areas: Official Policy, Translation, Juggernaut of English, ‘Fake’ Arabic. In Translation and Neoliberalism [New Frontiers in Translation Studies, ], ► pp. 133 ff. DOI logo
Lam, Phoenix W. Y.
2024. A multi‐sited analysis of the linguistic landscape of Hong Kong through a center‐periphery approach. World Englishes 43:1 ► pp. 109 ff. DOI logo
Aguirre, Alwin C.
2023. ‘We also have lives, you know’. Gender and Language 17:4 ► pp. 371 ff. DOI logo
Borlongan, Ariane Macalinga
2023. Migration linguistics. AILA Review 36:1 ► pp. 38 ff. DOI logo
Chesnut, Michael, Nathaniel Ming Curran & Sungwoo Kim
2023. From garbage to COVID-19: theorizing ‘Multilingual Commanding Urgency’ in the linguistic landscape. Multilingua 42:1 ► pp. 25 ff. DOI logo
Huebner, Thom
2021. Diaspora and Asian spaces in a transnational world. Linguistic Landscape. An international journal 7:2 ► pp. 117 ff. DOI logo
Jaworski, Adam
2021. Tourism tensions and sociolinguistic change. Applied Linguistics Review 12:1 ► pp. 153 ff. DOI logo
Gonçalves, Kellie & Anne Schluter
2020. Introduction: Language, inequality and global care work. International Journal of the Sociology of Language 2020:262 ► pp. 1 ff. DOI logo
[no author supplied]
2025. Researching Hong Kong's Multilingual Landscape. In The Handbook of Linguistic Landscapes and Multilingualism, ► pp. 309 ff. DOI logo

This list is based on CrossRef data as of 26 november 2025. Please note that it may not be complete. Sources presented here have been supplied by the respective publishers. Any errors therein should be reported to them.

Mobile Menu Logo with link to supplementary files background Layer 1 prag Twitter_Logo_Blue