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Remapping the Cultural and Linguistic Landscape of the Chinese in Britain – Feb 15 – University of Westminster

Posted: February 13th, 2020 | No Comments »

The Chinese in Britain is one of the fastest growing communities. It is estimated the total number of Chinese has reached 500,000 by 2015. Approximately two-thirds of Chinese in Britain were born outside UK, with the majority coming from Hong Kong, China and Southeast Asia. The past two decades has witnessed a steady rise in the number of people from mainland China, including professionals, skilled workers, investors and young people who come to study in UK’s schools and universities. There is an urgent need to document and conceptualise this important demographic and cultural shift, not only for a better understanding of the new development of Chinese communities in the UK but also for the benefit of Britain whose future is increasingly built upon its understanding of and relations with the rest of the world including China.

This conference is aimed at addressing this gap by bringing together researchers, Chinese language teachers, community leaders and policy makers to identify and examine the changing linguistic and cultural landscape of the Chinese in Britain. After the keynote speeches, the conference is organised around four sessions:

Session 1: Negotiating and articulating Chineseness in a changing Britain

Session 2: Speaking Chinese in multilingual London

Session 3: British Chinese as a Transnational Subject

Session 4: Theorising and doing British Chinese heritage

The conference is hosted by HOMELandS (Hub on Migration, Exiles, Languages and Spaces) in collaboration with the Contemporary China Centre of University of Westminster. It is supported by Language Acts and World Making Small Grant Scheme, AHRC Open World Research Initiative (OWRI).

With contributions from:

Freya Aitken-Turff, Eona Bell, Harriet Evans,Jing Huang, Paul Kendall, Denise Kwan,Jackie Jia Lou, Xiao Ma, How Wee Ng, Giulio Verdini, Natalie Vujasin, Gerda Wielander, Anne Witchard, Maggie Hoi Lam Wong, Yan Wu, Lini Xiao, Chen Yang, Diana Yeh, Vanessa Yim.

More details and tickets (free but need to rsvp) click here



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