ERIC Number: EJ1471170
Record Type: Journal
Publication Date: 2025-May
Pages: 25
Abstractor: As Provided
ISBN: N/A
ISSN: ISSN-0167-8507
EISSN: EISSN-1613-3684
Available Date: 2025-02-24
Negotiating New Cultured Identities through Stylizing "Wenyan": The Case of Young Chinese in China and the Netherlands
Multilingua: Journal of Cross-Cultural and Interlanguage Communication, v44 n3 p347-371 2025
This article focuses on cultured identity construction via linguistic stylization among young domestic and external Chinese migrants. Based on ethnographic fieldwork in Beijing, China and the Netherlands, this study contends that self-defined "Hanfu" fans stylize the classical "Wenyan" register to invoke and align with a persona who is a member of the socioculturally recognizable Chinese literati. During this process, the use of the "Wenyan" register embodies the higher-order meanings of "cultured," "elegant," and distinctly "Chinese," while "Hanfu" carries the indexical significance of a cultured distinction, distinguishing educated people, who are expected to be familiar with it, from those who are less educated. "Hanfu" fans appropriate these cultured attributes to construct a Cainv (lit. 'talented woman') identity in the Chinese context but a cultured Chinese identity in the Dutch context. These identities render them distinct from other migrants, thereby linking the cultured attribute to a new migratory identity. Linguistic stylization and the pursuit of a cultured identity are ingrained within the mainstream narrative in China while at the same time transnationally reflecting the efforts of young Chinese to resist the marginalizing stereotypes of Chinese migrants.
Descriptors: Foreign Countries, Asians, Self Concept, Cross Cultural Studies, Language Styles, Immigrants, Chinese, Ethnography, Language Variation, Cultural Traits, Asian Culture, Advantaged, Social Differences, Educational Attainment, Cultural Context, Stereotypes, Social Status, Language Usage, Communities of Practice, Diachronic Linguistics, Social Change, Youth, Intercultural Communication, Social Media, Language Attitudes
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Publication Type: Journal Articles; Reports - Research
Education Level: N/A
Audience: N/A
Language: English
Sponsor: N/A
Authoring Institution: N/A
Identifiers - Location: Netherlands; China (Beijing)
Grant or Contract Numbers: N/A
Author Affiliations: 1Department of Literature & Art, Maastricht, The Netherlands; 2Department of Dutch Linguistics, Amsterdam, The Netherlands; 3NL-LAB, Amsterdam, The Netherlands