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How Do Language Rights Affect Minority Languages in China? an Ethnographic Investigation of the Zhuang Minority Language Under Conditions of Rapid Social Change

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How Do Language Rights Affect Minority Languages in China? an Ethnographic Investigation of the Zhuang Minority Language Under Conditions of Rapid Social Change How do language rights affect minority languages in China? An ethnographic investigation of the Zhuang minority language under conditions of rapid social change. Ms Alexandra Grey (MAppLing, PGDip AppLing, GDip Legal Practice, LLB, BA) Department of Linguistics, Faculty of Human Sciences, Macquarie University, Australia This thesis is presented for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy, 25 January 2017. 1 Table of Contents How do language rights affect minority languages in China? ............................................. 1 An ethnographic investigation of the Zhuang minority language under conditions of rapid social change. .................................................................................................................. 1 Table of Contents ..................................................................................................................... 2 Tables of Figures ...................................................................................................................... 6 Table of Tables ....................................................................................................................... 10 Summary ................................................................................................................................. 11 Statement of Candidate ......................................................................................................... 13 Acknowledgments .................................................................................................................. 14 Glossary .................................................................................................................................. 17 1. Abbreviations .............................................................................................................. 17 2. Chinese and Zhuang terms ........................................................................................ 18 3. Notes on terminology .................................................................................................. 20 4. Notes on transcription ................................................................................................ 22 Chapter One: Introduction ................................................................................................... 24 1.1 Journey to the South: development of a research problem ................................. 24 1.2 Globalisation and nationalisation .......................................................................... 32 1.3 Minorities and migration ........................................................................................ 34 1.4 Legal transformations ............................................................................................. 37 1.5 Sociolinguistic tensions ........................................................................................... 38 1.6 Overview of the thesis ............................................................................................. 39 Chapter Two: Literature Review ......................................................................................... 42 2.1 Introduction ............................................................................................................. 42 2.2 Critical sociolinguistic approaches to law ............................................................. 42 2.3 Emerging focuses in language rights and LPP literatures .................................. 46 2.3.1 Critical language rights studies and post-rights perspectives ............................ 46 2.3.2 Situated LPP studies .......................................................................................... 57 2.3.3 Critical sociolinguistics in China ....................................................................... 67 2.4 Zhuang studies ......................................................................................................... 81 2.4.1 Reasons for focusing on Zhuang ........................................................................ 81 2.4.2 Background literature on Zhuang ...................................................................... 88 2.5 Research problem and questions ......................................................................... 103 Chapter Three: Methodology ............................................................................................. 106 3.1 Introduction ........................................................................................................... 106 3.2 A qualitative approach.......................................................................................... 106 3.3 Data collection ....................................................................................................... 110 3.3.1 Reconnaissance ................................................................................................ 110 3.3.2 Fieldwork ......................................................................................................... 111 3.3.3 Facilitators........................................................................................................ 113 2 3.3.4 Participant recruitment ..................................................................................... 114 3.3.5 Ethical considerations ...................................................................................... 126 3.3.6 Researcher Positionality................................................................................... 129 3.4 Participants ............................................................................................................ 130 3.4.1 Students ............................................................................................................ 130 3.4.2 Language Leaders ............................................................................................ 133 3.5 Data ......................................................................................................................... 134 3.5.1 Overview .......................................................................................................... 134 3.5.2 LPP data ........................................................................................................... 134 3.5.3 Interview data................................................................................................... 136 3.5.4 Observation ...................................................................................................... 141 3.6 Methods of analysis ............................................................................................... 148 3.6.1 Critical sociolinguistic ethnography of LPP .................................................... 148 3.6.2 The legal lens ................................................................................................... 153 3.6.3 The linguistic landscape lens ........................................................................... 155 3.6.4 The perceptions lens ........................................................................................ 157 3.7 Limitations ............................................................................................................. 160 3.7.1 Research validity .............................................................................................. 160 3.7.2 Language limitations ........................................................................................ 163 3.8 Summary ................................................................................................................ 164 Chapter Four. The Zhuang LPP Environment ................................................................. 165 4.1 Introduction ........................................................................................................... 165 4.2 The governance framework.................................................................................. 166 4.2.1 Government and Party organisations ............................................................... 166 4.2.2 Defined groups: the Zhuangzu ......................................................................... 171 4.2.3 Autonomous regional governments ................................................................. 177 4.2.4 Language governance in GZAR ...................................................................... 189 4.3 Minority language rights ...................................................................................... 194 4.3.1 The Constitution and its context ...................................................................... 194 4.3.2 National laws ................................................................................................... 200 4.3.3 Case law ........................................................................................................... 211 4.3.4 Regional laws ................................................................................................... 215 4.4 Discussion and summary ...................................................................................... 230 4.4.1 Boundaries in LPP ........................................................................................... 230 4.4.2 Normative orientation of LPP .......................................................................... 231 4.4.3 Discursive tensions .......................................................................................... 232 4.4.4 Summary .........................................................................................................
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