Researching Chinese English: A Meta-analysis of Chinese Scholarship on Chinese English Research

Abstract

Research on Chinese English started in late 1970s when Chinese scholars were trying to make a distinction between what they named as ‘China English’ and Chinglish. Since then, there has been an increasing body of research on Chinese English. Thanks to the databases of Chinese journal articles, abundant bibliographical materials have become available to researchers. However, since the majority of Chinese scholars publish their research in Chinese academic journals, scholarship on Chinese English has long been a ‘blind spot’ for researchers outside China. For this chapter, I have accessed the China Knowledge Resource Integrated Database, known as China National Knowledge Infrastructure (CNKI), and retrieved, identified and selected 100 research articles on Chinese English, published between 1980 and 2013. I have conducted a meta-analysis on all the selected articles. I report the major themes that have emerged from the selected articles; I also review the research findings within each of the major themes. The main purpose of this chapter is to provide a state-of-the-art review of the Chinese English research in China in order for researchers to have an ongoing dialogue in relation to researching Chinese English as a developing variety of World Englishes.