Abstract
This paper, with the audience theory as its theoretical guide and by taking a case study on Bilingual traffic Public Signs in Xi’an, especially on bilingual station names of Xi’an Metro Line 2, first briefly discusses how an important role city traffic public signs play in serving the audience, facilitating tourism as well as disseminating Chinese culture through the international audience. Second, it analyzes the problems existing in the present bilingual public signs in China and the counter-productive effects they are likely to bring about. And finally proposal for a new system of bilingual station names of Xi’an Metro Line 2 is put forward, which, the author believes, will not only offer the exact information wanted but make the audience abroad feel at home.
Highlights
Standard bilingual public signs, practical texts applied in public places, are widely believed as a kind of bilingual landscape (Wang, 2013) which symbolizes how open-minded a city is to the outside world and how well it internationalizes
Investigation including questionnaires, interviews and relevant information searched from the internet has been made about currently used bilingual station names of Xi’an Metro Line 2. 5000 electronic questionnaires have been released through email to local college teachers and students from Class 2010 to Class 2012 including foreign teachers and foreign students, and 4143 of which were responded. 1500 paper questionnaires have been released to the passengers on Xi’an Metro Line 2, and all of them got immediate response. 1000 native passengers and 300 foreign passengers on Xi’an Metro Line 2 were effectively interviewed
From the case study of city traffic public signs in Xi’an,especially traffic station names of Xi’an Metro Line 2, bilingual public signs will function as a window of a city to display its local and distinctive culture and a bridge between the city and the outside world if they are completed in the way which can be acceptable to the audience abroad and at home
Summary
Standard bilingual (both Chinese and English) public signs, practical texts applied in public places, are widely believed as a kind of bilingual landscape (Wang, 2013) which symbolizes how open-minded a city is to the outside world and how well it internationalizes. They function as passing on information such as information of direction guide, reminders, introductions, warnings and ads. City traffic signs including subway station names both in Chinese and English are essential part of bilingual public signs. Its bilingual station names, especially its English equivalents, since the first day they were released to public, have always been the focus and attracting hot discussion among the audience both abroad and at home
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