The changing language ideology and linguistic market in the Globalization of China

Abstract

Language ideology in contemporary China is changing in the milieu of globalization. Previously, especially during the early promotion of Putonghuà in the 1950s, language was considered as a tool to ensure effective communication between people of various linguistic backgrounds. Nowadays, language is considered more a capital than a tool, the exploitation of which will benefit the society more. Under the influence of the changing ideology on language, the linguistic market in China is not exactly the same as what Bourdieu (1977, 1991) describes, and there is a boom both in the standard
and vernacular linguistic markets.