China English in the world: Media and China English (II): the case of Jeremy LIN

Jeremy Shu-How Lin (1988-), a Harvard graduate as well as an Asian American professional basketball player of NBA, after his eight consecutive winning games, has rocked to be a public figure and in the spotlight of various media. Newspapers, sports magazines and TV commentators, in response to Lin's craze, often make use of "Lin", the athlete's family name, as prefix to create terms like "Lin-sanity", "Lin-credible", "Lin-possible", with www.linsanity.com as his fan page and "To Lin-finity and beyond" as the slogan. Also, the word "Amasian" as a product of complex clipping by compounding the nouns "Amazing" and "Asian" was used to describe Lin in posters, banners and discussion forums. Can such terms by the media be categorized as China English?

Not necessary, if we refer to the definition of China English discussed in part (I). China English refers to the performance variety of English to express terms which meaning are necessarily tied with interpretations or ideologies of a specific Chinese tradition. Also, it should be commonly recognized by and originated from the speech community geographically located in China. On the contrary, the term "Lin-sanity" fails to be attributed to any of the culture but was only devised to depict Lin's popularity in the American community. Similarly, the word "Amasian" refers solely to the stereotype in an American society towards asian while has nothing to do with China Englih or Chinglish.

Academic References

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1. FUNG Yanessa:

" In the face of geographical, language and cultural differences with the West, China strives to bridge the communication in between by adopting English, a well-established lingua franca. In the era of globalization, local features are sometimes diminished or vanish to suit the global trend. However, it is remarkable that China English appears to be combining the standard English with Chinese cultural features and manifests the signs of glocalization.

The spread of China English is also contributed to the West. The western media pay much more attention to China’s political, economic and social development than in the past as they are now increasingly aware of her leading role in the globalized economy. The exclusive description of Chinese conditions in China English shows the recognition of Chinese status and this variety.With the support of Chinese government and western countries, China English is believed to prevail in the world. "

2. LEE Alice:

" Globalization is the process of describing the transformation of local or regional phenomenon into global ones, which does not limit to economic scope, but also political, cultural and every aspect of life. In the age of globalization, together with the rise of China, China English has been widely spread over the world. Western media are keeping up with different issues in China and they even absorb some Chinese phrases into English so as to reflect what is happening in China, at the same time respecting such an important country. Thanks to globalization and technological advancement, local news and culture can spread quickly throughout the world. In this sense, globalization greatly fostered the use of China English. Nowadays, the use of new Chinese terms and phrases does not only restricted in China but soon becomes hot issues on everyone's lips. With China's rising power in the world and the increasing extent of globalization, the gaining popularity of China English can be predicted. "

3. PAU Haley:

" In my opinion, globalization will foster the growth of China English. China English represents things that are unique to China and the Chinese way of thinking so it acts as a bridge for the world to discover the uniqueness of China and for China to know more about the world. Since China is gaining economic and political influence in the world and taking part in various kinds of international cooperation, more people in other countries are interested to learn Chinese culture. If people from abroad understand Chinese culture, they will be able to interpret the meanings of China English’s lexical items which make it easier for users to communicate with the outside world. Furthermore, the rapid flow of information in the Internet facilitates the growth of this variety of world English. In conclusion, I think China English will play a significant role in communication in China and abroad and it will continue to flourish. "

4. WONG Samson:

" While some views with reference to the hagemony of English under globalization posit that based on our pursuit toward speaking normative standard English then China English as a sociolect continnum will be gradually restricted in the future, I think this may be a mistaken piece of opinion.

In LCOM2005 lecture we were shown a case that in a Thai airline which flight attendants were asked so speak more "Ching Mai", going against the prediction that people are going to sound more 'alike' in the face of globalization. It reminds me of the cooking TV show "Yan Can Cook" hosted by Martin Yan who became famous in Canada Food Network due to his unique Canto-stressed English pronunciations.

I tend to agree with the view that even after people are taught proper and standard English, China English can still be retained because people are active users of linguistics resources (degree of Chineseness) around them. "