A sociolinguistics of low-end globalization in Guangzhou: multilingualism, semiotics, and translanguaging

Abstract Chinese cities Guangzhou and Yiwu have established themselves as major trade hubs and important nodes of “low-end” globalization. In particular, Guangzhou in Southern China has been an important port of the modern-day belt and road initiative in the 21st century, contributing to the global flows of people, goods, and ideas at a grass-roots level and attracting traders and businessmen from Africa, the Middle East, South Asia and beyond from a superdiverse range of sociolinguistic and religious backgrounds. Despite its fundamental role in the very making of globalization, language is less explored in globalization literature overall. In particular, the (socio)linguistic aspects remain significantly under-researched in low-end globalization or globalization from below (which stands in contrast to the fancy and sophisticated high-end globalization operated by national governments and transnational corporations). The increasingly multilingual and complex world we are in highlights the pertinent issues of grass-roots communication in low-end globalization. In this article, using Guangzhou as a case study, we explore the sociolinguistic aspects of low-end globalization on the ground, highlighting how multilingual signs (e.g. Arabic, Hindi, Bengali, Urdu, Russian, French, Swahili and Twi), various semiotic materials, and dynamic and hybridised communication practices (e.g. translanguaging) effectively serve as the “language” of low-end globalization at a grass-roots level in a context of superdiversity and mobility. The article also points to the emergence of an English-based trade pidgin in the city as a result of language contact.