Wednesday 4 September 2013

Can a person who is bilingual be bicultural?

This post gives something worth thinking about.
Hello! Welcome to this blog.

I started this place as a sharing space with my students on the course Bilingual Cyber Culture at Lingnan University, Hong Kong.

If language is power, then those who command more than one language also command particular privileges – especially in an age of information and globalization. I'd like to explore the magnificent cyber world with my students, paying special attention to the increasingly prominent existence of bilingual web publishing and blogging. Specifically, the students will learn how bilingual presentations in Chinese and English facilitate individuals and communities to create social impact.

Those engaged in bilingual cyber publication may be called “cultural translators”, as they appropriate and re-contextualize information, news and opinions across linguistic and cultural borders. By examining exemplary bilingual websites and blogs, we become usefully aware of the complex dynamics between language use and identity (race, gender, class etc.), social networking, (trans-)nationalism, activism, transcultural fusion and global economy in the 21st century.