Ideologies, qualia, and rhematization: unpacking the semiotic process of experiencing Beijing <i>hutong</i>’s “oldness” quality

Abstract As qualia become an emergent focus in sociolinguistics and linguistic anthropology, this article aims to unpack the semiotic process through which a quality becomes a quale. To achieve this, the article employs a set of conceptual tools around “rhematization” to analyze Hutong Karma , a travel report by American journalist Peter Hessler. The analysis begins with Hessler’s descriptions of hutong architecture, a local McDonald’s, and the inhabitants’ ways of living. It then examines Hessler’s contrast between Oldness and Modernness, his transformation of McDonald’s from an index of fast food into an icon of a slow way of life, and his projection of the contrast between the density of hutong and the wideness of American buildings onto the differences in interpersonal relations between the two countries. Finally, the article discusses these findings through the lens of language ideology, emphasizing how Hessler’s stereotypical representations mediate between the abstract quality of “oldness” associated with Beijing hutong and his embodied, perceived, and instantiated qualia of “old Beijing.”