| In this project, I examine two main types of public signage in Taipei---one that sports non-Chinese, "vogue display languages" and one that features official signage with varying Romanizations of Chinese---and I investigate ways in which all orthographies employed serve in indexing residents' complex negotiations of local, regional, and (trans)national identities. Using data from an ethnographic study, I first provide an overview of the functional patterns of non-Chinese display languages and describe the local interpretive readings and identities conveyed therein. I also include a semiotic analysis of the prominent role of form of the scripts in the signification of these locally produced meanings.; I then expand the scope of the project to examine the role of systems of Romanization (pinyin) of Chinese language in official signage in the contestation of identities in and of Taiwan. Applying a critical discourse analysis using news articles, web blogs, government websites, academic literature, and informal discussions, I present an analysis of the key social semiotic processes of indexicality and iconicity in language orthographies in the negotiation of residents' local, regional, and (trans)national identities. In this analysis, I compare the highly naturalized meanings of scripts of non-Chinese display languages with the highly contested signification of the competing Romanized scripts used in transliterating Chinese languages. I conclude in noting that all orthographic systems in the multi-script LL of Taipei are ideologically based and serve important functions in the (re)presentation of Taiwanese identities.; Systems of pinyin are important in indexing what it means to be "a Taiwanese" on local, regional and (trans)national levels, and are interpreted within---and contribute to---a shifting, ideologically grounded framework of notions of Chinese and/or Taiwanese ethnic, cultural, political and national identity. Display languages also index what it means to be "a Taiwanese" on local, regional and (trans)national levels, but these are not interpreted within a framework centering on a Taiwanese--Chinese identity continuum. Instead, these scripts are largely interpreted within an economically and ideologically informed framework that centers on a more local--regional--global identity continuum of what it means to be a cosmopolitan elite in East Asia today. |
