Cover not available

Article published In: Linguistic Landscape
Vol. 2:2 (2016) ► pp.127–156

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

Chinatown by numbers

Defining an ethnic space by empirical linguistic landscape

 | University of Liverpool
Published online: 29 September 2016
DOI logo with link
https://doi.org/10.1075/ll.2.2.02amo
This article explores the potential of the LL to evaluate ethnically-defined spaces. Focusing on the area referred to as ‘Chinatown’ in central Liverpool, it examines the relationships between space, representation, and identity. Interviews with actors and passers-by indicate that the location and definition of Chinatown are interpreted inconsistently. As the article argues, however, the LL contains useful information for locating and qualifying the ethnic space. Scrutinizing both interview data and an empirical corpus of all the texts visible in the space, the article aims to define the borders of Chinatown, and the expression of ethnic identity therein. Whilst testifying to the commodification of aesthetic ideals and symbolic imagery, the LL simultaneously reveals an in-group community representative of authentic Chineseness. Exploring the dynamics of linguistic exclusion and accommodation, the data indicate not only that the identity of Chinatown is multi-layered, but also that its borders are subjective and not definable spatially.
References (71)
Appadurai, A. (1990). Disjuncture and difference in the global cultural economy. Theory, Culture and Society, 7(2-3), 295–310. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
. (1997). Modernity at large: Cultural aspects of globalization. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Barni, M., & Bagna, C. (2009). A mapping technique and the linguistic landscape. In E. Shohamy & D. Gorter (Eds.), Linguistic landscape: Expanding the scenery (pp. 126–140). London: Routledge.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
. (2010). Linguistic landscape and language vitality. In E. Shohamy, E. Ben-Rafael, & M. Barni (Eds.), Linguistic landscape in the city (pp. 3–18). Bristol: Multilingual Matters. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Barni, M., & Vedovelli, M. (2012). Linguistic landscapes and language policies. In C. Hélot, M. Barni, R. Janssens, & C. Bagna (Eds.), Linguistic landscapes, multilingualism and social change (pp. 27–38). Frankfurt am Main: Peter Lang. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Ben-Rafael, E., & Ben-Rafael, M. (2012). Le paysage linguistic belge: Un chaos intelligible. In C. Hélot, C. Bagna, R. Janssens, & M. Barni (Eds.), Linguistic landscapes, multilingualism and social change (pp. 69–86). Frankfurt am Main: Peter Lang.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
. (2015). Linguistic landscapes in an Era of multiple globalizations. Linguistic Landscape, 1(1/2), 19–37. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Bever, O. (2014). Linguistic landscapes as multimodal and multilingual phenomena. In M. Laitinenm & A. Zabrodskaja (Eds.), Dimensions of sociolinguistic landscapes in Europe (pp. 233–261). Frankfurt am Main: Peter Lang.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Blackwood, R., Lanza, E., & Woldemariam, H. (Eds.). (2016). Negotiating and contesting identities in linguistic landscapes. London: Bloomsbury.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Blackwood, R., & Tufi, S. (2015). The linguistic landscape of the mediterranean. Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Blommaert, J. (2013). Ethnography, superdiversity and linguistic landscapes: Chronicles of complexity. Bristol: Multilingual Matters. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Blommaert, J., & Maly, I. (2014). Ethnographic linguistic landscape analysis and social change: A case study. Tilburg Papers in Culture Studies, 1001.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Cenoz, J., & Gorter, D. (2006). Linguistic landscape and minority languages. International Journal of Multilingualism, 3(1), 67–80. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Christiansen, T., Petito, F., & Tonra, B. (2000). Fuzzy politics around fuzzy borders: The European Union’s “near abroad.” Cooperation and Conflict, 35(4), 389–415. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Collins, J. (2007). Ethnic precincts as contradictory tourist spaces. In J. Rath (Ed.), Tourism, ethnic diversity and the city (pp. 67–86). London: Routledge. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Collins, P.H. (2010). Like one of the family: Race, ethnicity, and the paradox of US national identity. Ethnic and Racial Studies, 24(1), 3–28. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Cook, V. (2013). The language of the street. Applied Linguistics Review, 4(1), 43–81. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
. (2015). Meaning and material in the language of the street. Social Semiotics, 25(1), 81–109. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Coupland, N., & Garrett, P.D. (2010). Linguistic landscapes, discursive frames and metacultural performance: The case of welsh patagonia. International Journal of the Sociology of Language, 2051, 7–36.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Culture Liverpool. (2015). Plan for “New Chinatown” in Liverpool. [URL]Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Fainstein, S.S. (2001). The city builders: Property development in New York and London 1980-2000, 2nd Edn. Lawrence, KS: University Press of Kansas.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Goffman, E. (1963). Behaviour in public places. New York: Free Press.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
. (1981). Forms of talk. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Gorter, D. (2013). Linguistic landscapes in a multilingual world. Annual Review of Applied Linguistics, 331, 190–212. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Guan, J. (2002). Ethnic conciousness arises on facing spatial threats to the Philadelphia Chinatown. In A. Erdentug & F. Colombijn (Eds.), Urban ethnic encounters: The spatial consequences (pp. 126–141). London: Routledge.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Heller, M. (2003). Globalization, the new economy and the commodification of language and identity. Journal of Sociolinguistics, 7(4), 473–492. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Henderson, J. (2000). Attracting tourists to Singapore’s Chinatown: A case study in conservation and promotion. Tourism Management, 21(5), 525–534. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Isleem, M. (2015). Druze linguistic landscape in Israel: Indexicality of new ethnolinguistic identity boundaries. International Journal of Multilingualism, 12(1), 13–30. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Jordan, K., & Collins, J. (2012). Symbols of ethnicity in a multi-ethnic precinct: Marketing Perth’s Northbridge for cultural consumption. In V. Aytar & J. Rath (Eds.), Selling ethnic neighborhoods: The rise of neighborhoods as places of leisure and consumption (pp. 120–137). New York: Routledge.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Kallen, J.L. (2010). Changing landscapes: Language, space, and policy in the dublin linguistic landscape. In A. Jaworski & C. Thurlow (Eds.), Semiotic landscapes: Language, image, space (pp. 41–59). London: Continuum.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Kelly-Holmes, H., & Pietikäinen, S. (2013). The peripheral multilingualism lens: A fruitful and challenging way forward. In S. Pietikäinen & H. Kelly-Holmes (Eds.), Multilingualism and the periphery (pp. 222–227). Oxford: Oxford University Press. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Klein, N.J., & Zitcer, A. (2012). Everything but the chickens: Cultural authenticity onboard the Chinatown bus. Urban Geography, 33(1), 46–63. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Kostanski, L. (2009). “What”s in a name?’: Place and toponymic attachment, identity and dependence: A case study of the Grampians (Gariwerd) National Park name restoration process. University of Ballarat: PhD Thesis.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Kress, G., & Van Leeuwen, T. (1996). Reading images: The grammar of visual design. London: Routledge.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
. (2001). Multimodal discourse: The modes and media of contemporary communication. London: Hodder Arnold Education.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Laihonen, P. (2015). Linguistic landscapes of a minoritized regional majority: Language ideologies among Hungarians in south-west Slovakia. In M. Laitinen & A. Zabrodskaja (Eds.), Dimensions of sociolinguistic landscapes in Europe (pp. 171–198). Frankfurt am Main: Peter Lang.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Lanza, E., & Woldemariam, H. (2015). Imagined community: The linguistic landscape in a diaspora. Linguistic Landscape, 1(1/2), 172–190. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Leeman, J., & Modan, G. (2009). Commodified language in Chinatown: A contextualized approach to linguistic landscape. Journal of Sociolinguistics, 131, 332–362. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
. (2010). Selling the city: Language, ethnicity and commodified space. In E. Shohamy, E. Ben-Rafael, & M. Barni (Eds.), Linguistic Landscape in the City (pp. 182–197). Bristol: Multilingual Matters. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Li, W. (1998). Anatomy of a New Ethnic Settlement: The Chinese ethnoburb in Los Angeles. Urban Studies, 35(3), 479–501. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Lin, J. (1998). Globalization and the revalorizing of ethnic places in immigration gateway cities. Urban Affairs Review, 34(2), 313–339. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Lou, J.J. (2010). Chinese on the side: The marginalisation of Chinese in the linguistic and social landscapes of Chinatown in Wasington, DC. In E. Shohamy, E. Ben-Rafael, & M. Barni (Eds.), Linguistic landscape in the city (pp. 96–114). Bristol: Multilingual Matters. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Magini, V.P., Miller, T., & Kim, B. (2011). The psychological effects of Foreign-language restaurant signs on potential diners. Journal of Hospitality and Tourism Research, 35(1), 24–44. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Malinowski, D. (2009). Authorship in the linguistic landscape: A multimodal-performative view. In E. Shohamy & D. Gorter (Eds.), Linguistic landscape: Expanding the scenery (pp. 107–126). London: Routledge.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Matras, Y., & Robertson, A. (2015). Multilingualism in a post-industrial city: Policy and practice in Manchester. Current Issues in Language Planning, 16(3), 296–314. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
McLaughlin, F. (2015). Linguistic warscapes of Northern Mali. Linguistic Landscape, 1(3), 213–242. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Office for National Statistics. (2011). Neighbourhood statistics: Ethnic group. [URL]Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
. (2014). Table P5: Population by ethnic group 2011 from [URL]Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Pang, C.L. (2012). Gateways to the urban economy: Chinatowns in Antwerp and Brussels. In V. Aytar & J. Rath (Eds.), Selling ethnic neighborhoods: The rise of neighborhoods as places of leisure and consumption (pp. 52–68). New York: Routledge.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Phinney, J.S., & Ong, A.D. (2007). Conceptualization and measurement of ethnic identity: Current status and future directions. Journal of Counseling Psychology, 54(3), 271–281. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Pine, J.B., & Gilmore, J.H. (1999). The experience economy: Work is theatre and every business is a stage. Boston, MA: Harvard Business School Press.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Portugali, J. (Ed.). (1996). The construction of cognitive maps. Dordrecht: Kluwer Academic. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Reh, M. (2004). Multilingual writing: A reader-oriented typology — with examples from Lira Municipality (Uganda). International Journal of the Sociology of Language, 1701, 1–41. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Schauber, E., & Spolsky, E. (1986). The bounds of interpretation: Linguistic theory and literary text. Stanford: Stanford University Press.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Schiller, N.G., Basch, L., & Blanc-Szanton, C. (1992). Towards a definition of transnationalism. Annals of the New York academy of sciences, 6451, ix–xiv. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Scollon, R., & Scollon, S. (2003). Discourses in place: Language in the material world. New York: Routledge. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Shaw, S.J. (2007). Ethnoscapes as cultural attractions in canadian “World Cities.” In M.K. Smith (Ed.), Tourism, culture and regeneration (pp. 49–58). Wallingford: CABI.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Shaw, S.J., & Bagwell, S. (2012). Ethnic minority restauranteurs and the regeneration of “Banglatown” in London’s east end. In V. Aytar & J. Rath (Eds.), Selling ethnic neighborhoods: The rise of neighborhoods as places of leisure and consumption (pp. 34–51). New York: Routledge.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Shohamy, E., & Ben-Rafael, E. (2015). Linguistic landscape: A new journal. Linguistic Landscape, 1(1/2), 1–5. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Spolsky, B., & Cooper, R.L. (1991). The languages of Jerusalem. Oxford: Clarendon Press.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Vandenbroucke, M. (2015). Language visibility, functionality and meaning across various TimeSpace scales in Brussels’ multilingual landscapes. Journal of Multilingual and Multicultural Development, 36(2), 163–181. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Vertovec, S. (2009). Transnationalism. Milton Park: Routledge. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Visit Liverpool. (2016). Chinese arch. [URL]Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Wang, N. (1999). Rethinking authenticity in tourism experience. Annals of Tourism Research, 26(2), 349–370. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Weber, J.J., & Horner, K. (2012). Introducing multilingualism: A social approach. London: Routledge.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Zukin, S. (1992). The bubbling cauldron: Global and local interactions in New York City Restaurants. In M.P. Smith (Ed.), After modernism: Global restructuring and the changing boundaries of city life (pp. 105–132). New Brunswick (NJ): Transaction Publishers.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
. (1998). Diversity and standardization in spaces of consumption. Urban Studies, 351, 825–839. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Cited by (34)

Cited by 34 other publications

Bhujel, Birendra & Sweta Sinha
2025. Linguistic landscape as a tool of identity negotiation: The case of the Nepali ethnic communities in West Bengal. Ethnicities 25:1 ► pp. 43 ff. DOI logo
Liu, Jia
2025. Space, language and culture: a linguistic landscape case study of a Chinese immigrant-owned ethnic restaurant in Honolulu's Chinatown. Journal of Multilingual and Multicultural Development ► pp. 1 ff. DOI logo
Nambu, Satoshi & Mitsuko Ono
2025. Linguistic landscape of Shin-Ōkubo, Tokyo: a comparative study of Koreatown and Islamic Street. International Journal of Multilingualism 22:2 ► pp. 650 ff. DOI logo
Du, Jinke & Paolo Coluzzi
2024. Linguistic landscape in the Inner Mongolia autonomous region: the case of a multilingual and multi-ethnic region in China. Journal of Multilingual and Multicultural Development ► pp. 1 ff. DOI logo
Karpava, Sviatlana
2024. Linguistic landscape of Pyla, a bi-communal village in Cyprus: multilingualism, ethnolinguistic vitality and internationalisation. Journal of Multilingual and Multicultural Development ► pp. 1 ff. DOI logo
Siziba, Liqhwa & Busani Maseko
2024. Multilingual contestations and the reproduction of English legitimacy in bottom-up linguistic landscape: an analysis of shop signs in Bulawayo. Cogent Arts & Humanities 11:1 DOI logo
Song, Ge
2024. The linguistic landscape of Chinatowns in Canada and the United States: a translational perspective. Journal of Multilingual and Multicultural Development 45:9 ► pp. 3505 ff. DOI logo
Toró, Tibor
2024. Selective bilingualism: official language use and linguistic landscape in Hungarian-Romanian mixed schools in Romania. Journal of Multilingual and Multicultural Development 45:10 ► pp. 4430 ff. DOI logo
Gu, Chonglong
2023. Enacting Chinese-ness on Arab Land: A Case Study of the Linguistic Landscape of an (Emerging) Chinatown in Multilingual and Multicultural Dubai. Sociolinguistica 37:2 ► pp. 201 ff. DOI logo
Gu, Chonglong
2024. Linguistic landscaping in Kathmandu’s Thamel ‘Chinatown’: language as commodity in the construction of a cosmopolitan transnational space. Contemporary South Asia 32:3 ► pp. 360 ff. DOI logo
Tieken-Boon van Ostade, Ingrid, Suze Geuke & Lorenzo Oechies
2023. How Chinese is The Hague’s Chinatown?. Journal of Multilingual and Multicultural Development 44:2 ► pp. 109 ff. DOI logo
Wu, Ying, Rita Elaine Silver & Hui Zhang
2023. Linguistic schoolscapes of an ethnic minority region in the PRC: a university case study. International Journal of Multilingualism 20:3 ► pp. 825 ff. DOI logo
Yao, Xiaofang
2023. Commodification or shared ownership? A case study of Chinese communities in the linguistic landscape of Bendigo. Applied Linguistics Review 14:3 ► pp. 447 ff. DOI logo
Yao, Xiaofang
2023. Face masks, materiality and exclusion in the COVID-19 semiotic landscape. Social Semiotics 33:5 ► pp. 1110 ff. DOI logo
Yusra, Kamaludin, Yuni Budi Lestari & Yulia Juwaeriah
2023. Commodification of English and English-like structures in shop names in Lombok Island, Indonesia. Multilingua 42:2 ► pp. 215 ff. DOI logo
Zhang, Hui, Mark Fifer Seilhamer & Yin Ling Cheung
2023. Identity construction on shop signs in Singapore’s Chinatown: a study of linguistic choices by Chinese Singaporeans and New Chinese immigrants. International Multilingual Research Journal 17:1 ► pp. 15 ff. DOI logo
Alm, Karin, Thomas H. Beery, David Eiblmeier & Tarek Fahmy
2022. Students’ learning sustainability – implicit, explicit or non-existent: a case study approach on students’ key competencies addressing the SDGs in HEI program. International Journal of Sustainability in Higher Education 23:8 ► pp. 60 ff. DOI logo
Álvarez-Mosquera, Pedro & Frieda Coetzee
2022. “A Name That Recognises You”: Local Analysis of Semiotic Dynamics in Semi-Informal Markets in South Africa. Language Matters 53:3 ► pp. 112 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
Leimgruber, Jakob R. E. & Víctor Fernández-Mallat
2021. Language attitudes and identity building in the linguistic landscape of Montreal. Open Linguistics 7:1 ► pp. 406 ff. DOI logo
Ramos Pellicia, Michelle F.
2021. The Escondido swap meet. In Linguistic Landscape in the Spanish-speaking World [Issues in Hispanic and Lusophone Linguistics, 35], ► pp. 183 ff. DOI logo
Xu, Samantha Zhan & Wei Wang
2021. Change and continuity in Hurstville’s Chinese restaurants. Linguistic Landscape. An international journal 7:2 ► pp. 175 ff. DOI logo
Zhao, Fengzhi
2021. Linguistic landscapes as discursive frame. Linguistic Landscape. An international journal 7:2 ► pp. 235 ff. DOI logo
Hornikx, Jos & Frank van Meurs
2020. Extensions and Complexities. In Foreign Languages in Advertising, ► pp. 163 ff. DOI logo
Huang, Li & James Lambert
2020. Another arrow for the quiver: a new methodology for multilingual researchers. Journal of Multilingual and Multicultural Development 41:7 ► pp. 567 ff. DOI logo
Matras, Yaron & Leonie Gaiser
2020. Signage as event. Linguistic Landscape. An international journal 6:2 ► pp. 213 ff. DOI logo
Soukup, Barbara
2020. Survey area selection in Variationist Linguistic Landscape Study (VaLLS). Linguistic Landscape. An international journal 6:1 ► pp. 52 ff. DOI logo
Wu, Hongmei, Sethawut Techasan & Thom Huebner
2020. A new Chinatown? Authenticity and conflicting discourses on Pracha Rat Bamphen Road. Journal of Multilingual and Multicultural Development 41:9 ► pp. 794 ff. DOI logo
Yao, Xiaofang & Paul Gruba
2020. A layered investigation of Chinese in the linguistic landscape. Australian Review of Applied Linguistics 43:3 ► pp. 302 ff. DOI logo
Yao, Xiaofang & Paul Gruba
2022. Power through the semiotic landscape. Journal of Multilingual and Multicultural Development 43:5 ► pp. 373 ff. DOI logo
Malinowski, David
2018. Linguistic Landscape. In The Palgrave Handbook of Applied Linguistics Research Methodology, ► pp. 869 ff. DOI logo
Rasinger, Sebastian M.
2018. Constructing Banglatown. Linguistic Landscape. An international journal 4:1 ► pp. 72 ff. DOI logo
Rubino, Antonia
2018. Multilingualism in the Sydney landscape. In Multilingual Sydney, ► pp. 180 ff. DOI logo
Savela, Timo
2018. The advantages and disadvantages of quantitative methods in schoolscape research. Linguistics and Education 44 ► pp. 31 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