Translingual strategies as consumer design: A case study of multilingual linguistic landscapes of urban China

Abstract

AbstractTaking a photo-studio brand namedNaive Blue(天真蓝) as a case study, this article seeks to contribute to the understanding of translingual practices as stylistic strategies for commercial purposes in the era of globalization. Sociolinguistic analysis of the brand logo, shop signs and social media promotional practices shows that translingual practices have been mobilized as generative and interactive strategies of consumer design. First, translingual strategies help construct a discursive world not available in monolingual uses of either English or Chinese and position the brand’s target consumers as self-assertive, individualistic, and sharing a taste of distinction. Second, translingual strategies are embodied and metalinguistically conscious practices (expected to be) shared by both the brand’s social-media content manager and his interactants and followers in general. The findings also suggest that translingual practices are part of an emergent register indexing an emergent social class that is tentatively labeled ‘young urban elites’ in contemporary China.