Constructing an imagined diaspora: pride and marginalization of Nepali ethnic identity and language in the linguistic landscape of Hong Kong

Abstract Building on “imagined community” (Anderson, Benedict. 2006. Imagined communities: Reflections on the origin and spread of nationalism , 3rd edn. New York: Verso; Woldemariam, Hirut & Elizabeth Lanza. 2015. Imagined community: The linguistic landscape in a diaspora. Linguistic Landscape 1(1–2). 172–190), this study examines the construction of an imagined Nepali diaspora in the linguistic landscape (LL) of Hong Kong. Adopting “walking ethnography” (Ingold, Tim & Jo Lee Vergunst (eds.). 2008. Ways of walking: Ethnography and practice on foot . Farnham, UK: Ashgate), we collected LL photos, street interviews, and field notes from thirteen streets in Hong Kong. A multimodal critical discourse analysis (MCDA) approach was utilized to analyze how meanings in the LL are constructed to serve certain social purposes through the assemblage and orchestration of linguistic texts, color, layout, materiality, texture, foregrounding, and even graphic shape. Our findings show that special branding strategies that communicate both informative and symbolic purposes are employed to construct an imagined Nepali community with a strong link with the homeland, Nepal. In addition, multimodal resources are drawn upon to invite Nepali LL sign readers to negotiate their ethnic identity in the imagined diasporic community in the host society. We also shed light on how diasporic Nepali ethnic identity in the LL is contested against the broader backdrop of social marginalization and commercialization that the Nepali people endure in the city.