English as Eastern: Zhuang, Mongolian, Mandarin, and English in the linguistic orders of globalized China

Abstract Socially constructed and globally propagated East-West binaries have influenced language ideologies about English in the People’s Republic of China (PRC), but they are not hegemonic. This essay explores how reformed mergers with Mandarin-minority ideologies. It discusses two separate similar recent studies minority speakers PRC, respectively by Grey Baioud. Each study reveals aspects Mandarin being socially as on same side a dichotomous hierarchic linguistic social order, contradistinction to languages. The thus problematizes construction Western an Eastern language; both academic discourses wider political discourses. uses Asif Agha’s theory “enregisterment” unify points drawn from each study. concludes that practices/discourses under examination reproduce displacement subaltern status; we describe this process dynamic, internal Orientalism “recursive” Orientalism, drawing foundational paves way for further recursive Orientalism.