Chinese English and Chinglish as a shared translanguaging space: attitudes of young Chinese speakers of English

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ABSTRACT Chinese English is recognised as, potentially, one of the most important developing varieties of English. This paper investigates the attitudes of 18 to 30+ years old English-speaking Chinese nationals towards Chinese English and Chinglish, and analysed a total of 277 questionnaires. Just under half of the respondents (45%) asserted that there are differences between Chinese English and Chinglish, with Chinese English associated with Chinese culture, and Chinglish associated with ungrammatical structures, informality and literal translation. Nevertheless, there was a tendency for most respondents to give examples of ‘so-called’ Chinglish expressions. This suggests that the understanding of Chinese English for some speakers retains its connection with Chinglish, and that among young people it is Chinglish expressions which have tended to become iconised. In this paper, we argue that the terms Chinese English and Chinglish should be conceptualised as part of one Chinese linguistic ecology in a translanguaging space.