Polycentric repertoires: Constructing Dutch-Chinese youth identities in the classroom and online

in Li, Wei (Ed.) Multilingualism in the Chinese Diaspora Worldwide: Transnational Connections and Local Social Realities (2016)

Dutch–Chinese repertoires and language ausbau in superdiversity: A view from digital media

in Discourse, Context and Media (2014), 3(4-5), 48-61

The Chinese diaspora in the Netherlands is undergoing a dramatic diversification since the 1990s. This is manifested sociolinguistically in a shift from Cantonese and traditional character script to ... [more ▼]

The Chinese diaspora in the Netherlands is undergoing a dramatic diversification since the 1990s. This is manifested sociolinguistically in a shift from Cantonese and traditional character script to Mandarin and simplified characters as default registers of Chinese. Young people of Chinese heritage critically respond to and (re-) position themselves against these changes. This paper explores their identity work and language identifications and adopts a view from digital media to this end. Such a view provides insight into the unstable and shifting conditions and contexts of being, speaking and learning Chinese in the diaspora. Theoretically the paper builds on a view of language as practice, translanguaging, repertoires and linguistic citizenship, and revisits Heinz Kloss' notion of “ausbau” as a concept in language policy and planning. Applied to both language and identity, the revisited notion of ausbau is meant to capture the tension between language/identity as an individual, biographic project involving personal investment and planning, and language/identity as a social, historical project sponsored by nations and states (such as the PRC). In the discussion threads that are presented and analysed, both of these poles provoke critical reflection and stancetaking: critique and resistance to the hegemonic power of the PRC's language ausbau, and self-critique in the form of self-depreciating evaluation of personally accomplished language ausbau. This contribution draws on a recently completed two-year ethnographic study in and around a Chinese complementary school in the Netherlands as part of a larger funded project investigating discourses of inheritance and identities in four multilingual European settings. [less ▲]

Learning and teaching Chinese in the Netherlands: The metapragmatics of a polycentric language

E-print/Working paper (2013)

Contestation as pedagogy in the complementary classroom

in NALDIC Quarterly (2012), 10(1), 25-32

Chinese in a superdiverse world

in de Jong, Nel; Juffermans, Kasper; Keijzer, Merel (Eds.) et al Papers of the Anéla 2012 Applied Linguistics Conference (2012)

On Learning a Language in Transformation: Two final year students’ experiences in Chinese complementary education

E-print/Working paper (2011)

This paper is concerned with Chinese-Dutch children’s experiences with learning Chinese in the Netherlands. The paper presents basic facts about the Chinese language and its changing position in the world ... [more ▼]

This paper is concerned with Chinese-Dutch children’s experiences with learning Chinese in the Netherlands. The paper presents basic facts about the Chinese language and its changing position in the world, a brief history of the Chinese diaspora in the Netherlands and the context of Chinese complementary education. It analyses two written accounts of final year students’ experiences with learning Chinese, focusing on the ways of speaking about Chinese in relation to identity and education. In conclusion, it is argued that the students’ experiences urge us to consider Chinese as a polycentric language – i.e. as a language with multiple and competing centres of gravity – and as a language in transformation. [less ▲]