Cantonese learning, investments, and identities: Mainland Chinese university students' experiences during cross-border studies in Hong Kong

Abstract

Abstract This paper investigates a group of mainland Chinese university students' experiences of learning Cantonese during their cross-border studies in Hong Kong, with respect to their investments in Cantonese-mediated practices and their identity negotiations. Findings showed that their language investments appeared to be fraught with challenges, struggles and ambivalences. It was found that the participants not only encountered difficulties in converting their capital into affordances to gain meaningful interactional opportunities, but also struggled to establish legitimacy as speakers of Cantonese and gain acceptance as in-group members of the local community through their attempts to engage in Cantonese-mediated interactions. Findings also revealed that the anti-mainlandisation discourse prevalent in the local community, the institutional language policies, and the standard language ideology held by the participants themselves negatively impacted on their sustained investments in Cantonese-mediated practices. Taken together, the analysis points to the complex interplay of identity, capital and ideology in shaping mainland Chinese university students' investments in Cantonese-mediated practices during their cross-border studies in Hong Kong. The study also calls for more attention to the students' whole linguistic repertoire and the local multilingual language ecology for more nuanced understandings of their learning of Cantonese in the multilingual context.