This paper investigates the ways languages are used in Philadelphia Chinatown through qualitative content analysis of 330 photos. Examining the linguistic landscape of public spaces exposes issues of linguistic tensions, language vitality, and language shift in multilingual settings. While Chinese in the form of Mandarin is highly publicized, thereby placing disproportionate emphasis upon one language over others, Philadelphia Chinatown shows diversity, coexistence, and creative uses of multiple Chinese languages alongside English. The signage suggests linguistic rescaling connecting real and imagined audiences, conforming to broader ‘Chinese’ linguistic norms while localized to connect to a range of Chineses. We show how linguistic and cultural pluralism of ‘Chinese’ have always existed – and continue to exist – and the importance of developing socially sensitive literacy pedagogy, especially when there is a mismatch between the informal, community-level signage and what is formally taught in ‘Chinese’ language classrooms in the U.S. Keywords: linguistic landscape; Chinatown; Chinese languages; literacy education; heritage language; education
Cited by (35)
Cited by 35 other publications
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2025. Communication across time and space: chronotope in the linguistic landscape of a concession area. Journal of Multilingual and Multicultural Development► pp. 1 ff.
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2025. Critical Collaborative Reflection With Linguistic Landscapes and Material Culture in Teacher Preparation. TESOL Journal 16:1
Chao, Xia & Hao Wang
2024. Africatown in Guangzhou as geosemiotic assemblage: connecting multilingualism, store signs, and chronotopes. Applied Linguistics Review 15:6 ► pp. 2565 ff.
Han, Yanmei & Guowen Shang
2024. Valorizing Cantonese in the Linguistic Landscape: Mobility, Complexity and Unpredictability. In The Linguistic Landscape in China, ► pp. 125 ff.
殷, 鸯
2024. The Cultivation of Critical Thinking Skills Based on Linguistic Landscape. Advances in Social Sciences 13:05 ► pp. 220 ff.
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2025. Integrating Bilingual Landscape into Foreign Language Teaching at Local Universities: An Insider Action Research. Advances in Social Sciences 14:02 ► pp. 604 ff.
Imran, Muhammad & Norah Almusharraf
2023. Language teaching in the linguistic landscape: Mobilizing pedagogy in public space. The Social Science Journal► pp. 1 ff.
Kumagai, Yuri
2023. Critical literacies in East Asian languages: examples from Japanese in foreign language education. In International Encyclopedia of Education(Fourth Edition), ► pp. 112 ff.
Panuelos, Rogelio P.
2023. Translanguaging in Transgressive Schoolscapes in the Philippines. In Translanguaging for Empowerment and Equity, ► pp. 103 ff.
Sekerina, Irina A. & Patricia J. Brooks
2023. Multilingual Linguistic Landscapes of New York City as a Pedagogical Tool in a Psychology Classroom. In Spatializing Language Studies [Educational Linguistics, 62], ► pp. 199 ff.
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.
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.
Feick, Diana & Petra Knorr
2021. Developing Multilingual Awareness Through German-English Online Collaboration. In Language Learning in Anglophone Countries, ► pp. 331 ff.
2021. “Maybe useful to the future generation but not my own”: How “useful” is Mandarin really for contemporary Hoisan-heritage Chinese Americans in the San Francisco Bay Area?. Language & Communication 76 ► pp. 121 ff.
Lomicka, Lara & Lara Ducate
2021. Using technology, reflection, and noticing to promote intercultural learning during short-term study abroad. Computer Assisted Language Learning 34:1-2 ► pp. 35 ff.
2020. The Cambridge Introduction to Applied Linguistics,
Conrad, Susan, Alissa J. Hartig & Lynn Santelmann
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Cowal, Janet & Genevieve Leung
2020. Activist Applied Linguistics. In The Cambridge Introduction to Applied Linguistics, ► pp. 308 ff.
Lee, Hakyoon & Bumyong Choi
2020. A Geolocative Linguistic Landscape Project in Korean as Foreign Language Education. In Language Teaching in the Linguistic Landscape [Educational Linguistics, 49], ► pp. 183 ff.
Malinowski, David, Hiram H. Maxim & Sébastien Dubreil
2020. Introduction. In Language Teaching in the Linguistic Landscape [Educational Linguistics, 49], ► pp. 1 ff.
2014. Drive-thru linguistic landscaping: Constructing a linguistically dominant place in a bilingual space. International Journal of Bilingualism 18:5 ► pp. 507 ff.
[no author supplied]
2025. Linguistic Landscape Studies as a Reflection of Multilingualism in the United States. In The Handbook of Linguistic Landscapes and Multilingualism, ► pp. 375 ff.
[no author supplied]
2025. Schoolscapes: A Linguistic Landscape Approach to Learning Environments. In The Handbook of Linguistic Landscapes and Multilingualism, ► pp. 519 ff.
[no author supplied]
2025. Ephemeral, Mobile, and Multilingual Signs in Public Space: A Pedagogic Case Study of Stickers. In The Handbook of Linguistic Landscapes and Multilingualism, ► pp. 591 ff.
[no author supplied]
2025. Linguistic Landscape for (Foreign) Language Learning. In The Handbook of Linguistic Landscapes and Multilingualism, ► pp. 501 ff.
This list is based on CrossRef data as of 24 november 2025. Please note that it may not be complete. Sources presented here have been supplied by the respective publishers.
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