This book makes a novel contribution to the sociolinguistics of globalization by examining the dynamics between language and social change in the tourism destination of West Street, Yangshuo, China. The author makes use of multiple sources, including ethnographic interviews, tourist literature, public signage and policy documents, to examine how tourist mobilities are embedded in and interact with historical, geographical, social, cultural, economic and semiotic factors in the creation of a ‘global village’. The transformation of West Street is emblematic of changes in Chinese society under globalization, revealing new subjectivities, tensions and struggles inherent in this ongoing process of social change.
Table of Content
Chapter 1. Introduction
Chapter 2. Approaching the ‘Global Village’
Chapter 3. Commodification of Place, Consumption of Identity: Making ‘Global Village’ a Brand
Chapter 4. Tensions of Space: Living on the Margins of the ‘Global Village’
Chapter 5. Global Village as ‘English Corner’: ‘Enjoy Speaking English All the Time’
Chapter 6. Globalization: A Short Reflection
References
Appendix
About the author
Shuang Gao is a Lecturer in Applied Linguistics at the University of Liverpool, UK. She is the author of Aspiring to be Global: Language and Social Change in a Tourism Village in China (Multilingual Matters, 2019).