Cover not available
Article published In:
Diaspora and Asian Spaces in a Transnational World
Edited by Thom Huebner
[Linguistic Landscape 7:2] 2021
► pp. 175–203

Change and continuity in Hurstville’s Chinese restaurants

An ethnographic linguistic landscape study in Sydney

ORCID logo | University of Sydney
| University of Sydney

This paper investigates the Linguistic Landscape of Chinese restaurants in Hurstville, a Chinese-concentrated suburb in Sydney, Australia. It draws on Blommaert and Maly’s (2016) Ethnographic Linguistic Landscape Analysis (ELLA) and Scollon and Scollon’s geosemiotics (2003). Our data set consists of photographs, Google Street View archives, and ethnographic fieldwork, in particular in-depth interviews with restaurant owners. This paper adopts a diachronic perspective to compare the restaurant scape between 2009 and 2019 and presents an ELLA case study of a long-standing Chinese restaurant. It aims to unveil the temporal and spatial relationships between signs, agents, and place, that demonstrate how a social and historical perspective in Linguistic Landscape studies of diasporic communities can shed light on the changes in the broader social context.

Keywords: ethnographic linguistic landscape analysis, geosemiotics, Chinese restaurants, Chinese diaspora, social context, historical, change, continuity, Sydney
Article outline
  • 1.Introduction
  • 2.LL studies, ELLA, and geosemiotics
  • 3.Methodology
    • 3.1Introducing the field
    • 3.2Data and methods
  • 4.Restaurant scape in Hurstville: A retrospective comparison
  • 5.Sunny harbour seafood restaurant: An ELLA case study
    • 5.1Signs that point towards the past
    • 5.2Signs that point towards the future
    • 5.3Signs that point towards the present
  • 6.Discussion and conclusion
  • Acknowledgements
  • References
Published online: 1 March 2021
DOI logo
https://doi.org/10.1075/ll.20007.xu
References
Amos, H. W.
(2016) Chinatown by numbers: Defining an ethnic space by empirical linguistic landscape. Linguistic Landscape, 2(2), 127–156. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Australian Bureau of Statistics
(2017a) 2016 Census QuickStats: Hurstville. Retrieved from [URL]
(2017b) Cultural Diversity. 2024.0 – Census of Population and Housing: Australia Revealed, 2016 Retrieved from [URL]
Backhaus, P.
(2006) Multilingualism in Tokyo: A look into the linguistic landscape. International Journal of Multilingualism, 3(1), 52–66. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Barni, M., & Bagna, C.
(2015) The critical turn in LL: New methodologies and new items in LL. Linguistic Landscape, 1(1/2), 6–18. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Bauman, R., & Briggs, C.
(1990) Poetics and performance as critical perspectives on language and social life. Annual Review of Anthropology, 191, 59–88. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Ben-Rafael, E.
(2009) A sociological approach to the study of linguistic landscape. In E. Shohamy & D. Gorter (Eds.), Linguistic landscape: Expanding the scenery (pp. 157–172). New York; Oxford: Routledge. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Ben-Rafael, E., Shohamy, E., Hasan Amara, M., & Trumper-Hecht, N.
(2006) Linguistic landscape as symbolic construction of the public space: The case of Israel. International Journal of Multilingualism, 3(1), 7–30. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Blommaert, J.
(2005) Discourse: A critical introduction. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
(2013) Ethnography, superdiversity and linguistic landscapes: Chronicles of complexity. Bristol: Multilingual Matters. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Blommaert, J., & Maly, I.
(2016) Ethnographic linguistic landscape analysis and social change: A case study. In K. Arnaut, J. Blommaert, B. Rampton, & M. Spotti (Eds.), Language and superdiversity (pp. 197–217). New York: Routledge.Google Scholar
Blommaert, J., & Rampton, B.
(2016) Language and superdiversity. In K. Arnaut, J. Blommaert, B. Rampton, & M. Spotti (Eds.), Language and superdiversity (pp. 21–48). New York: Routledge.Google Scholar
Brennan, R.
(2017) 2016 Australian Census reveals Sydney is now ‘more Asian than European’. The Daily Telegraph. Retrieved from [URL]
Chang, C.
(2019) The rising power of the Chinese-Australian vote. [URL]. Retrieved from [URL]
Cheng, S.
(2018 11 December 2018) Transcript of interview/Interviewer: S. Z. Xu.Google Scholar
Cook, V.
(2015) Meaning and material in the language of the street. Social Semiotics, 25(1), 81–109. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Curtin, M.
(2009) Languages on display: Indexical signs, identities and the linguistic landscape of Taipei. In E. Shohamy & D. Gorter (Eds.), Linguistic landscape: Expanding the scenery (pp. 221–237). New York; Oxford: Routledge. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Dean, K.
(2012) The Daoist difference: Alternatives to imperial power and visions of a unified civilisation. The Asia Pacific Journal of Anthropology, 13(2), 128–141. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Durack, T.
(2010) Sydney’s top 10 yum cha restaurants. The Sydney Morning Herald. Retrieved from [URL]
Georges River Council
(2018) Fact sheet: Building and business identification signage. Retrieved from [URL]
Goffman, E.
(1973) The presentation of self in everyday life. New York: Overlook Press.Google Scholar
Greenwood, H.
(2008) Sunny Harbour Seafood Restaurant. The Sydney Morning Herald. Retrieved from [URL]
Huebner, T.
(2006) Bangkok’s linguistic landscapes: Environmental print, codemixing and language change. International Journal of Multilingualism, 3(1), 31–51. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Inglis, C.
(2011) Chinatown Sydney: A window on the Chinese community. Journal of Chinese Overseas, 7(1), 45–68. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Jaworski, A., & Thurlow, C.
(2010) Introducing semiotic landscapes. In A. Jaworski & C. Thurlow (Eds.), Semiotic landscapes: Language, image, space (pp. 1–40). London: Continuum International Publishing Group.Google Scholar
Jupp, J.
(1995) From ‘White Australia’ to ‘Part of Asia’: Recent shifts in Australian immigration policy towards the region. The International Migration Review, 29(1), 207–228. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Kress, G. R., & Van Leeuwen, T.
(1996) Reading images: The grammar of visual design New York; London: Routledge.Google Scholar
Kwong, P.
(1987) The new Chinatown (1st ed.). New York: Hill and Wang.Google Scholar
Lee, J. W., & Lou, J. J.
(2019) The ordinary semiotic landscape of an unordinary place: Spatiotemporal disjunctures in Incheon’s Chinatown. International Journal of Multilingualism, 16(2), 187–203. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Leeman, J., & Modan, G.
(2009) Commodified language in Chinatown: A contextualized approach to linguistic landscape. Journal of Sociolinguistics, 13(3), 332–362. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Li, W.
(1998) Anatomy of a new ethnic settlement: The Chinese ethnoburb in Los Angeles. Urban Studies, 35(3), 479–501. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Lipovsky, C.
(2019) Belleville’s linguistic heterogeneity viewed from its landscape. International Journal of Multilingualism, 16(3), 244–269. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Lipovsky, C., & Wang, W.
(2019) Wenzhou restaurants in Paris’s Chinatowns. Journal of Chinese Overseas, 15(2), 202–233. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Lou, J. J.
(2012) Chinatown in Washington, DC: The bilingual landscape. World Englishes, 31(1), 34–47. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
(2016) The linguistic landscape of Chinatown: A sociolinguistic ethnography. Bristol: Multilingual Matters. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Mak, A. L.
(2003) Negotiating identity: Ethnicity, tourism and Chinatown. Journal of Australian Studies, 27(77), 93–100. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Malinowski, D.
(2009) Authorship in the linguistic landscape. In E. Shohamy & D. Gorter (Eds.), Linguistic landscape: Expanding the scenery (pp. 107–125). New York; Oxford: Routledge.Google Scholar
Maly, I.
(2016) Detecting social changes in times of superdiversity: An ethnographic linguistic landscape analysis of Ostend in Belgium. Journal of Ethnic and Migration Studies, 42(5), 703–723. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Nichol, B.
(2008) Sweet and sour history: Melbourne’s early Chinese restaurants. Memento (34).Google Scholar
O’Connell, J.
(2017) A timeline of Australian food: From mutton to MasterChef. Australia: NewSouth Publishing.Google Scholar
O’Rourke, J.
(2012) Changing face of a suburb. The Sydney Morning Herald. Retrieved from [URL]
Scollon, R., & Scollon, S. W.
(2003) Discourses in place: Language in the material world. London: Routledge. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Shohamy, E., Ben-Rafael, E., & Barni, M.
(Eds.) (2010) Linguistic landscape in the city. Bristol: Multilingual Matters. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Shohamy, E., & Gorter, D.
(Eds.) (2009) Linguistic landscape: Expanding the scenery. New York; Oxford: Routledge.Google Scholar
Sun, W.
(2019) Chinese social media platform WeChat could be a key battleground in the federal election. The Conversation.Google Scholar
Tran, T. T.
(2019) Pho as the embodiment of Vietnamese national identity in the linguistic landscape of a western Canadian city. International Journal of Multilingualism, 1–17. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Tse, C.
(2015 14 October). The long, slow dimming of a city’s neon glow. The New York Times, p. A9.Google Scholar
Wah, A. S.
(1999) Being Chinese in Australia: A personal journey. In G. Wang & A. S. Wah (Eds.), Imagining the Chinese diaspora: Two Australian perspectives (pp. 19–29). Canberra: Centre for the Study of the Chinese Southern Diaspora, Research School of Pacific and Asian Studies, Australian National University.Google Scholar
Walters, C.
(2015) Hurstville: Sydney’s real Chinatown. The Sydney Morning Herald. Retrieved from [URL]
Wang, X., & Van de Velde, H.
(2015) Constructing identities through multilingualism and multiscriptualism: The linguistic landscape in Dutch and Belgian Chinatowns. Journal of Chinese Overseas, 11(2), 119–145. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Weber, J. J., & Horner, K.
(2012) Introducing multilingualism: A social approach. London: Routledge.Google Scholar
Woo, T. T.-L.
(2010) Chinese popular religion in diaspora: A case study of shrines in Toronto’s Chinatowns. Studies in Religion/Sciences Religieuses, 39(2), 151–177. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Wright, T.
(2016) Federal election 2016: Malcolm Turnbull relaxed as he hoists selfie sticks and granddaughter. The Sydney Morning Herald. Retrieved from [URL]
Wu, D. Y. H.
(2002) Improvising Chinese cuisine overseas. In D. Y. H. Wu & S. C. H. Cheung (Eds.), The globalization of Chinese food (pp. 56–66). Richmond, Surrey: Curzon Press.Google Scholar
Wu, H., Techasan, S., & Huebner, T.
(2020) A new Chinatown? Authenticity and conflicting discourses on Pracha Rat Bamphen Road. Journal of Multilingual and Multicultural Development, 1–19. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Yao, X., & Gruba, P.
(2020) A layered investigation of Chinese in the linguistic landscape: A case study of Box Hill, Melbourne. Australian Review of Applied Linguistics. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Yu, J.
(2017) Sunny Harbour Seafood Restaurant. Time Out Sydney. Retrieved from [URL]
Zhou, M., & Sun, H.
(Eds.) (2004) Language policy in the People’s Republic of China: Theory and practice since 1949. Boston, MA: Springer Netherlands. DOI logoGoogle Scholar