Aspiring to be Global

This book makes a novel contribution to the sociolinguistics of globalization by examining language and social change in the tourism destination of West Street, Yangshuo, China. It explores the contingencies and tensions in the creation of a ‘global village’ and reveals ambivalent struggles inherent in this ongoing process of social change.

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This book makes a novel contribution to the sociolinguistics of globalization by examining the dynamics between language and social change in the tourism destination of West Street, Yangshuo, China. The author makes use of multiple sources, including ethnographic interviews, tourist literature, public signage and policy documents, to examine how tourist mobilities are embedded in and interact with historical, geographical, social, cultural, economic and semiotic factors in the creation of a ‘global village’. The transformation of West Street is emblematic of changes in Chinese society under globalization, revealing new subjectivities, tensions and struggles inherent in this ongoing process of social change.