Chiu Chow
Language and Identity
Language use and identity has always been linked up by people. People recognized one’s identity with the language he or she speaks or by the accents he or she carries. According to Fishman (1991), “the destruction of a language is the destruction of a rooted identity”. It is shown that use of the language have a positive relation with the construction of the identity and this is related to the social identity which the society has given us individually.
Social Identity
When we use language, we do so as individuals with social histories. Our histories are defined in part by our membership in a range of social groups into which we are born such as gender, social class, religion and race. Apart from the assorted identities that we are born in which could not be changed easily, we appropriate a second layer of identities developed through our involvement in the various activities of the social institutions that comprise our communities such as school, church, family and the workplace. Social identity encompasses participant roles, positions, relationships, reputations, and other dimensions of social personae, which are conventionally linked to epistemic and affective stances (Ochs, 1996:424). In other words, the historically grounded, socially constituted knowledge, skills, beliefs, and attitudes comprising our various social identities.
From the six interviews conducted between the three communities: Chiu Chow family, restaurant, and church, all of the interviewees admitted that they are Chiu Chow people and all of them know how to speak in Chiu Chow language. This might due to the social identity of Chiu Chow people which they have taken since birth. As social identity and role is to a great extent shaped by the groups and communities to which they belong, they as individual agents also play a role in shaping them. Concluded by most of the people that language is the most representable feature of one’s identity, it is obvious for people to link the ability to speak in Chiu Chow language to the Chiu Chow people. Under the pressure of the Chiu Chow identity, all of the interviewees might have learn at least some phrases of Chiu Chow to construct the Chiu Chow identity with the expectation of the society.
Contextual Relevancy of Social Identity
Yet, people do not only acquire one social identity, but multiple and intersecting social identities in the reality. The social identities relevance is dynamic and responsive to contextual conditions. In other words, people approach their communicative encounters differently with various identities. Particular identity is chosen under certain contextual conditions (Philipsen, 1992). From our six interviewees, five out of six of them answered that they will disclose their Chiu Chow identity once they first meet a person, others would introduce themselves as Hong Kong people instead. This might cause by the contextual relevance of social identity. As the six interviewees are living in Hong Kong for a long period of time, Chiu Chow is more distant to them and the different geographical regions may triggered their social identity. Their national identity (ie Hong Konger) might be more relevant to the origin identities (ie Chiu Chow people). On the other hand, Hong Kong is an international city and due to the pride of her economy, the national identities may be more relevant to the origin identities in the sense of benefiting their careers path and future prospects. The pride of Hong Kong identity may be due to the pride for her economy (Cheung, 2006). With the shift of the identity from Chiu Chow people to Hong Konger, Cantonese would rather be chosen to speak in most of the time in order to play the social identities of Hong Kong people, while Chiu Chow language is used only to show the Chiu Chow identity when needed.
Individual Identity
According to our interviews, there is definitely a linkage between the language use and their identity. However, it is surprised to find from the communities of restaurant and one of the other interviewee that they are being proud of Chiu Chow cuisines.
Different from the traditional understanding of language users in contributing the social identities, the individual identities suggest that “interactants make situationally motivated selections from socially constituted repertoires of identificational and affiliational resources and craft these semiotic resources into identity claims for presentation to others” (Bauman, 2000:1). With this perspective, individual identity is produced by the choice and activities of the agency instead of being given social identity. From the interviews, Chiu Chow people are proud of their Chiu Chow cuisines might due to their everyday lives. The chefs in the Chiu Chow restaurant conducted their own Chiu Chow identities with the agentive moves of everyday Chiu Chow cuisines lives. The Chiu Chow identities is losing from Chiu Chow language itself but constructed with the Chiu Chow food. While on the church and family communities, use of Chiu Chow language is still the main factors contributing to their Chiu Chow identities.
