‘Mask must wear at all times’: top-down and bottom-up multilingual COVID-scape in Hong Kong as a prime site of epidemiological and public health knowledge (re)construction during the COVID-19 pandemic

Abstract

ABSTRACT The Covid-19 pandemic brings to the fore language's primacy in crisis communication. Given our diverse world, how effectively vital information is conveyed multilingually may make or break a place’s anti-Covid battle. In the study, a locale’s Covid-related multilingual landscape (multilingual Covidscape) is conceptualised as a prime multilingual/mediated site of epidemiological and public health knowledge (re)construction, where pandemic-related information is (re)contextualised and communicated multilingually by various agents (including translators). A former British colony and global financial centre, China’s Hong Kong SAR represents a most cosmopolitan and diverse place in Asia, constituting a fertile ground for linguistic landscape (LL) research. Drawing on real-world data, this study explores the multilingual practices enacted in Hong Kong’s multilingual Covidscape. This interdisciplinary study illustrates how multilingual resources and repertoires are brought to bear in a global city’s pandemic communication. Beyond the traditionally ‘choreographed’ LL in Chinese and English, various multilingual practices are discussed at multiple levels.