Chinese nationals among 'overseas Chinese' in Singapore: The sociolinguistic authentication of Mainland Chinese identities

This dissertation is a sociolinguistic study of the ways in which Mainland Chinese professionals constituting a new group of migrants in Singapore construct and negotiate their Mainland Chinese identities vis-a-vis 'overseas-born' Chinese Singaporeans. This study investigates how Northern Mainland Mandarin features that are rendered 'supra- or non-local' in the local Singaporean linguistic context are used in identity work among Mainland speakers in Singapore, particularly those from Northern China. At the same time, it also explores the social meanings indexed by speakers' use of Singaporean language resources. Using quantitative and qualitative, ethnographic approaches of analysis to investigate the extent to which speakers vary their use of Mainland versus Singaporean language resources in various speech contexts, this study explores the relationship between speakers' range of language behaviors and their negotiation of identities linked with being Mainland Chinese natives living among non-Mainland Chinese (i.e. Chinese Singaporeans).; Many sociolinguistic studies have addressed the linguistic construction of multiple identities; but identities have mostly been treated as discrete. This study addresses the complex, overlapping layers of being Chinese and investigates at what layers these Mainland speakers construct themselves as same or different in relation to Chinese Singaporeans, a group with which the Mainland speakers claim to share certain cultural practices. It examines how speakers' practices are mediated by their ideologies about linguistic and social practices of Chinese Singaporeans. The data analyzed in this study were collected over 16 months of fieldwork in Singapore and consist of over fifty hours of audio-recordings of ethnographic interviews, self-recorded discourse, and participant observations of 21 Mainland Chinese professionals.; This study addresses a growing awareness among anthropologists, economists, and sociologists of the ways in which new global migration patterns have emerged and enabled migrants to maintain strong economic, cultural and emotional ties to their sending countries. Those academic disciplines have, until now, focused on other forms of social practices to grasp how transnationals negotiate the various ways of identifying with their sending and receiving countries. This sociolinguistic study aims to contribute to a more coherent understanding of the workings of such transnational ties in terms of linguistic practices.