Acceso usuarios
Yunhong Wang
From a translational perspective, the researcher conducts a diachronic study of the changing street signs in one of the hybridised areas in Guangzhou. The street signs in the present study were investigated through an ethnographic process and were compared and discussed in relation to their changing contexts before and after the COVID-19 pandemic. The findings show a decrease in multilingual signs in the area post-pandemic time, which may indicate the influence of the pandemic on international visitors. In contrast, increasing monolingual Chinese signs exhibit the authorities’ reassertion of the dominant ideology and restoration of social order. On the other hand, however, a large number of bilingual and monolingual English signs in multifarious modes, among which many are from the business sectors in the 2023 corpus, may signal the open nature of an export-oriented economy in the area and recovery of international business after the pandemic. The changing translational landscape of the area constructs a gateway for us to renew our understanding of the influence of the pandemic on the cosmopolitan city and the relationship between language practice and the city.
