When modern public space encounters postmodern migration: abnormality and the making of migrant identities

Abstract

This article explores the discursive processes of migrant identity construction through multilingual practices in the context of China’s linguistic diversity and population movement. Drawing on the data from ethnographic observation, interview and document collection, the article demonstrates how small discursive features become emblematic of individual and group identities, and how such identities are negotiated and ratified at various scale levels, particularly in the public and institutional spheres. Using a theoretical framework revolving around indexicality, this article starts with a discussion on the notions – abnormality and modernity – that are essential for data analysis, and presents three examples to demonstrate the discursive processes of migrant identity construction. The article concludes that people invoke general social norms and administrative notions when producing discourses from the public and institutional spheres, and that the identity categories defined and motivated in these discourses are rigid, static and general.