This project investigated how multilingualism and linguistic diversity are materialised in urban space in Amdo Tibet (Qinghai–Gansu area), a culturally diverse region in Northwest China inhabited by Tibetans, Han Chinese, Hui, Salar, and Mongolic-speaking communities.
Against the backdrop of language policies, rapid urbanisation, migration, and socio-economic change, the project analyses language use in the linguistic landscape, focusing on the (in)visibility of multilingualism in public signage.
The project pursued four objectives: (1) document and database public signs; (2) analyse local language policies and regulations; (3) examine the informative and symbolic functions of multilingual signage; and (4) investigate language norms and contact phenomena as indicators of power relations and social hierarchies.
The main research site is Rongwo (Longwu), the county seat of Rebgong (Tongren), where Tibetan and Chinese are co-official languages and where intense infrastructural development is reshaping urban space. In addition to Rongwo, the project has also included Xining, the capital of Qinghai, in order to examine language use in urban space. Particular attention has been paid to the informative and symbolic roles of public signs and to the ways in which visual propaganda is adapted to national and local policies as well as to specific urban characteristics.
Situated at the intersection of sociolinguistics, ethnography, linguistics, and urban studies, the project has examined how state policies, sociolinguistic realities, language ideologies, and language contact shape the representation of ethnolinguistic diversity. Its broader aim is to understand language hierarchies, the impact of national and local language policies, and the agency of minority communities in constructing space through language and other semiotic resources.
