Consuming English in Rural China

Abstract

This chapter outlines the ethnographic approach taken to language commodification space, more specifically, the approach of ethnographic linguistic landscaping with respect to English in local space. The English text contains a brief but odd-looking commercial slogan: 'warm winter, harm feet'. Based on the above understanding ‒ by placing English within its Chinese context in and for which it was created ‒ one begins to see the linguistic and cultural meanings and functions of its use. 'Balabala' draws attention to an intriguing process of 'enregisterment' of English that is highly specific to margins such as Enshi. The way 'Tedelon' is locally construed as English, however, goes beyond the visual-semiotic play with the materiality of quotidian language contained in commercial signage in the local market. The margin in the case is a nascent consumer market in a small town in rural China where English is beginning to emerge on public signage in local shopping streets.

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