French Connections

Department of French and Francophone Studies Research Seminar Series

Wenzhou Restaurants in Paris’s Chinatowns: A case study of Chinese ethnicity within and beyond the linguistic landscape

Dr Caroline Lipovsky, The University of Sydney

Abstract

This seminar presentation reports the results of two case studies recently conducted in Paris. In light of the large number of Chinese immigrants in Paris originally from the Wenzhou area in the Zhejiang Province of China, this research focuses on Wenzhou restaurants situated in different Parisian Chinatowns. It seeks to identify the ways in which the Wenzhou owners mark their presence in the Parisian linguistic landscape through the signage of their shopfronts and premises. By infusing existing multimodal analysis with ethnographic linguistic landscape analysis (ELLA), this study examines the ways in which two Wenzhou restaurateurs display their specific cultural and ethnic identity in the linguistic landscape. The analysis of the signage of their premises, combined with ethnographic interviews, unveiled the restaurateurs’ strategies to enact their cultural and ethnic Wenzhou identity through their shopfront signs, menus and premises decorations, and differentiate themselves from their other Chinese competitors.

About the speaker

Dr Caroline Lipovsky is a Senior Lecturer in French and Francophone Studies at the University of Sydney. Her recent projects include studies of the linguistic landscape in Catalonia and Paris exploring the place and status of regional and immigrant languages in the public space.

Register

RSVP and sign up to our French Connections mailing list to receive the Zoom invite and updates on our seminars.
Registrations for this seminar close on 22 September 2020.

For more information, contact: Dr Nathalie Ségeral – nathalie.segeral@sydney.edu.au

–––

Social media

Like us on Facebook
Follow us on Twitter
Listen to talks on SoundCloud