Introduction

Anxiety, insecurity, and border crossing

Language contact in a globalizing world

Mie Hiramoto and Joseph Sung-Yul Park

National University of Singapore

The modern conception of the self is grounded in stability and identity. Under
this perspective, anxiety and insecurity of the border are only characteristic of
peripheral communities. However, anxiety and insecurity are much more fun-
damental to linguistic life; heterogeneity of linguistic practice and our constant
movement across communities, positions, categories, and identities mean that
uncertainty and indeterminacy are just as salient in the way we use language.
This special issue builds upon this insight to explore the subjectivities of border
crossing in contexts of language contact under globalization. By bringing togeth-
er studies that explore cases of language and cultural contact across the Asia-
Pacific region from the perspective of anxiety and insecurity, it aims to highlight
the importance of considering subjectivity in our analysis of language in global-
ization, and considers the new insights we may gain through an emphasis on the
subjective dimensions of contact situations. Together, the contributions to the
special issue identify three key issues for further research on the sociolinguistics
of globalization: (1) the role of language ideologies in mediating experiences of
transnationalism, (2) consequences of globally circulated semiotic resources on
local articulations of subjectivities, and (3) the impact of neoliberal projects of
social transformation upon our sense of self.

Introduction

Language always exists in the contact zone (Pratt 1987); and this is even more so in
the context of globalization, which gives rise to new situations and experiences of
cultural and linguistic contact every moment. Contact no longer takes place solely
at the edges of community, but permeates every aspect of our modern life. For
this reason, language contact challenges us to rethink and reconceptualize the way
we understand language and social practice. This special issue responds to this
challenge by attending to the subjective dimension of contact situations, particu-
larly that of anxiety and insecurity, as a key to approaching contact phenomena, in

Journal of Asian Pacific Communication 24:2 (2014), 141–151. doi 10.1075/japc.24.2.001int

issn 0957–6851 / e-issn 1569–9838 © John Benjamins Publishing Company
142 Mie Hiramoto and Joseph Sung-Yul Park

which mobility and transnationalism bring together multiple languages, cultures,

and social positions. In doing so, it aims to highlight subjectivity as a keyword for
our analysis of language in globalization.
The modern conception of the self is grounded in stability and identity; un-
der this perspective, anxiety and insecurity of the border is only characteristic of
peripheral communities. However, anxiety and insecurity are much more funda-
mental to linguistic life; heterogeneity of linguistic practice (Bakhtin 1981) and
our constant movement across communities, positions, categories, and identities
(Bucholtz and Hall 2005) mean that uncertainty and indeterminacy are just as
salient in the way we use language. Linguistic anthropology (Hill and Hill 1986)
and sociolinguistics (Labov 1966) have indeed long recognized anxiety and in-
security as a key language ideological force that constitutes speakers’ subjectiv-
ity and shapes their social relations, rather than a mere psychological reaction
inconsequential for social organization and practice (Ahmed 2004, Besnier 1990,
2011, Lutz and Abu-Lughod 1990, McElhinny 2010, Ortner 2005, Wilce 2009).
Contributions in this special issue aim to reinvigorate this insight by bringing to-
gether studies that explore the subjectivities of border crossing in contexts of lan-
guage contact. Each paper seeks new ways in which we can understand the chang-
ing conditions of life in globalization through a focus on anxiety and insecurity
caused by a language contact situation in the Asia-Pacific region. The special issue
as a whole thus aims to demonstrate the importance of considering the perspec-
tive of subjectivity as a central element for the emerging field of sociolinguistics of
globalization (Blommaert 2010, Coupland 2010).

Globalization as border crossing

Sociolinguistic and linguistic anthropological research of the past decade has seen a
boom in studies of globalization and culture contact, with a focus on wide-ranging
issues such as language commodification (Heller 2007, 2010), discursive construc-
tion of space and place (Blommaert, Collins, and Slembrouck 2005; Blommaert
2010), performance in linguistic contact situations (Bauman and Briggs 1990), lin-
guistic landscaping (Jaworski and Thurlow 2010), and reconfigurations of ethnici-
ty and identity (Maher 2005, 2010). These approaches, which jointly constitute the
new field of sociolinguistics of globalization, introduce important methodological
shifts in the way we approach and analyze language contact and change. Studies
of linguistic change have conventionally focused on fixed linguistic identity mark-
ers associated with specific social or regional dialectal spaces. That is, linguistic
varieties were principally viewed as a local, stable complex of traits attached to an
equally local, stable community of speakers. The sociolinguistics of globalization,
 Anxiety, insecurity, and border crossing 143

however, offers a methodological shift from language-in-place to language-in-

motion, acknowledging the various spatio-temporal frames that interact with one
another in any given context of language use (Pennycook 2012).
This changing perspective thus reframes language and cultural contact as
border crossing — that is, not as interaction between distinct, abstract systems
that results in objectively describable structural transformations, but as a process
rooted in the experiences of subjects who must negotiate between multiple re-
gimes of spatio-temporality and frequently fraught with tension and uncertainty.
When speakers of different linguistic varieties come into contact, it is not only
the speakers’ words, but their very cultural values, language ideologies, and en-
tire social formations that must be negotiated. Particularly in the age of globaliza-
tion, the perspective of border crossing becomes all the more relevant, as mobil-
ity, migration and transnationalism serve as basic frames for subjects’ daily lives.
In this context, it becomes essential to focus on the experiences of speakers who
traverse borders of languages, nations, and cultures as they engage in the work of
fluid, transient, and liminal self-positioning — in other words, we need to look at
the more subjective dimensions of affect, emotion, desire, fears, insecurities, and
anxieties that reflect the instabilities of border crossing. Based on this perspective,
this special issue looks at specific cases of language and cultural contact across the
Asia-Pacific — a region with particularly dense transnational connections driven
by active modernization — to explore the new insights we may gain through an
emphasis on the subjective dimensions of contact situations.

Key themes of the contributions

All the contributions to the special issue share a common focus on the subjective
dimension of language and culture contact at research sites that highlight the grow-
ing interconnectivity and transnationalism of the Asia-Pacific region. But more im-
portantly, the contributions also form a coherent whole by the common themes
that they identify for future research on border-crossing phenomena. These larger
themes represent key areas that are made salient through globalization in the region,
and also serve as important junctures which the sociolinguistics of globalization
may profitably engage to further establish its grounding on the analysis of subjectiv-
ity. The three major themes that emerge through the contributions are the following:

Anxieties of mobility and hierarchies of language

The contribution by Sohee Bae explores the mechanisms by which anxiet-
ies of transmigrants come to be mediated by language ideologies that impose a
144 Mie Hiramoto and Joseph Sung-Yul Park

hierarchical order on language varieties. Transnational subjects must navigate

a space indexed by language ideologies which attribute distinctions in value to
different language varieties (Park and Bae 2009). The resulting linguistic market
(Bourdieu 1991) — here existing on a global scale — thus serves as a topographic
space that facilitates subjects’ movement in some directions but constrains mobil-
ity in others. Bae’s paper, which follows South Koreans families moving across the
transnational space of Asia for better educational opportunities of the children,
traces how such ideological conditions of transnational space can serve as a source
of anxiety and insecurity. Parents of these families use short-term migration to
help the children more easily acquire valuable linguistic capital, most notably the
global language of English, particularly in a standard form that can be recognized
as legitimate across multiple markets. This project does not always go smoothly,
however, as Bae highlights the uncertainties the families experience about how
the child’s linguistic capital may be evaluated in other locales, which leads them
to constantly recalibrate their strategies of transnational migration and linguistic
investment. This remind us that language ideologies (such as beliefs about which
linguistic variety will be valued more) play an important role in mediating our
experiences of transnationalism, not only conditioning relations of power that
constrain paths of mobility, but also shaping our very sense of (in)security about
our place in the world.

Circulation of semiotic resources in local identity construction

The constant circulation of languages and other types of semiotic resources is a
key aspect of globalization, and the contributions by Mie Hiramoto and Gavin
Furukawa each highlight how such flow of signs has consequences for the work
of local identity construction, even for communities of speakers who may remain
relatively immobile. One important aspect of globalization is the enhanced reflex-
ivity and greater awareness of linguistic and cultural difference, and this process
is importantly mediated by the global circulation of semiotic resources which are
in turn inserted into local processes of identity construction (Kroon, Dong, and
Blommaert 2011, Pennycook 2010). The ensuing linguistic and cultural contact
often reveals how such semiotic processes can be a site of tension. For instance,
Hiramoto’s study of Hawai‘i locals’ evaluation of the use of visual motifs in tattoos
illustrates how the appropriation of such forms routinely invoke debates about
authenticity and competing claims about who may legitimately wear such heav-
ily indexical signs on their bodies. Furukawa looks at Japanese television enter-
tainment shows in which the global language of English becomes a key resource
for constructing different character types, demonstrating a recurrent practice in
which anxieties about English are linked with semiotic interpretations of character
 Anxiety, insecurity, and border crossing 145

traits like high vs. low intelligence. These studies illustrate how globally circulating
semiotic resources may result in highly complex meanings with consequences for
subjectivity, as the local meaning of such resources must be seen as always on the
move, constantly being renegotiated, thus opening up possibilities for local ap-
propriation, but at the same time becoming a key locus for tension and insecurity.

Precarious place of neoliberal subjects

The neoliberal transformation of society that is sweeping the Asia-Pacific region
serves as a backdrop for Yurni Said-Sirhan’s and Joseph Sung-Yul Park’s contribu-
tion. The current mode of economic globalization is inseparable from the ideology
of neoliberalism, in which individual responsibility, accountability, and entrepre-
neurship are valorized (Harvey 2005). The ideal neoliberal subject is expected to
constantly engage in projects of self-development and to flexibly adapt oneself to
rapidly evolving conditions of work, instead of relying on structures of solidarity
and community. This also leads to the commodification of language and identity,
where speakers are encouraged to actively take up valued forms of linguistic capi-
tal for economic benefits (Heller 2010), as we can see, for instance, in the promo-
tion of English as a global language in many national contexts (Piller and Cho
2013). Neoliberal subjects, then, live a life of border crossing, constantly pushed
into new social and linguistic spaces in the name of self-branding and human
capital development. For this reason, a focus on anxiety and insecurity can be a
powerful vantage point for our critique of neoliberalism. Said-Sirhan’s research
of a training program for micro-business entrepreneurs, for instance, reveals the
linguistic insecurity experienced by Malay Singaporeans who are commonly po-
sitioned as ‘failures’ within Singapore’s political economy. Park also explores the
tension between ideologies that posit a flexible connection between language and
identity (foregrounded by neoliberalism) and ideologies that view language as in-
herently linked to a speaker’s enduring identity that takes place in the context of
transnational work. These contributions, through their focus on anxiety and inse-
curity, provide a grounding for a critique of idealized neoliberal subjecthood; not
only do they reveal the socioeconomic inequalities that are reproduced by projects
of neoliberalism, but also expose the problematic consequences they introduce for
our deepest sense of being.
In short, the contributions to the special issue all work together to paint a
map for future research that may lead us to a more serious engagement with the
sites and mechanisms that intensify the insecurity and precarity of mobile lives.
Through their common focus on subjective experiences of anxiety and insecurity
under globalization, they open up a rich, new direction for the sociolinguistics of
globalization.
146 Mie Hiramoto and Joseph Sung-Yul Park

Overview of the special issue

The contributions in this issue bring the lens of anxiety and insecurity concerning
language and communication to five different institutional and cultural contexts
of language and culture contact in the Asia-Pacific region.
Sohee Bae’s paper hinges on a phenomenon known as jogi yuhak ‘early study
abroad’, in which Korean families move abroad for the purpose of the child’s edu-
cation (Park and Bae 2009). For transnational migrants, language is one of the
most crucial factors which influence social experiences and relations. Moreover,
crossing borders becomes an important strategy for acquiring valuable linguis-
tic resources in the globalized neoliberal economy. Anxiety and insecurity is in-
herent in such transnational movement in the sense that relocation necessarily
implies adjustment to new conditions of life. Successful adjustments can involve
time-consuming processes of learning about new environments and neighbors,
culture-specific practices, communities, languages/dialects, etc. Based on her eth-
nographic study, Bae discusses the jogi yuhak families’ awareness of the complex
and indeterminate relationship between language and space, which often leads
the parents to worry about whether the linguistic skills their children acquired at
one location will remain valuable when they move to another. Bae analyzes such
anxiety and insecurity by situating the families’ apprehensive feelings towards
their uncertain future within the rapidly transforming global society. Due to the
polycentric nature of educational migration (Blommaert 2010), Korean jogi yu-
hak families are destined to continuously readjust to different resources, systems,
experiences, and expectations embedded in each location along their migratory
trajectories. Bae’s contribution is thus a clear illustration of how the complexity
and multiplicity of sociolinguistic conditions brought about through globalization
can lead to consequences of anxiety and insecurity for people on the move.
The next article by Mie Hiramoto moves the analytic focus to globally circu-
lating semiotic resources in the context of globalization, through a study of how
tattooing practices that index local identity are evaluated by Hawai‘i locals. Tattoos
have become global fashion trends for many individuals regardless of age, gender,
place, or race, and traditional Polynesian tattoos have come to be used as an im-
portant symbolic resource for indicating a Hawai‘i local identity in multiethnic/
multilingual Honolulu. In this case, the specific local meaning of such historically
Polynesian signs derives from the historical event of plantation immigration to
Hawai‘i from different parts of the world which expanded after the mid-1800s. As
Hawai‘i became a host to a multiethnic and multicultural community, the visual
signs that denote particular ethnic cultures became an index of a pan-ethnic iden-
tity that represents local Hawai‘i culture. But such shifts in indexical meaning also
implies that those local meanings must always be subject to constant negotiation,
 Anxiety, insecurity, and border crossing 147

leading to contesting claims about who can legitimately wear such tattoos and
who is a true “local” that authentically represents the meanings of those signs.
Hiramoto’s study looks at how local tattoo wearers problematize the Polynesian
tattoos used by outsiders (mainly identified as haoles from the mainland US) in
discourse, referring to other co-occurring signs (such as the use of Hawai‘i Creole,
see Hiramoto 2011 for negotiation of localness through Hawai‘i Creole in media)
as necessary evidence of the authenticity of such tattoo practices. These claims
of authenticity are also emotionally invested and affectively charged, closely con-
nected with senses of belonging and entitlement, which points out how dimen-
sions of subjectivity become crucial components in the negotiation of authenticity
of globally circulating semiotic resources.
In his analysis of Japanese television entertainment shows, Gavin Furukawa
examines the interpretive process of identity construction that takes place through
the use of English in Japanese media, which lies at the intersection between the
mediascape, ideoscape, and ethnoscape (as per Appadurai 1996). Even though
Japan is largely a monolingual nation, English communication skills are highly
esteemed and almost all Japanese learn English as a second language. However,
the majority of Japanese do not end up acquiring proficient English communica-
tion skills from school education, and in Furukawa’s examples, anxieties about
incompetence in English become an important ideological condition for identity
construction. Much research on language, identity, and globalization has shown
how second language users often construct new identities by drawing upon ele-
ments of popular culture (Higgins 2011). Such research typically focuses on how
phenomena such as hip hop, circulated across cultural and national boundaries,
serve as resources for the reconstruction of identities (Pennycook 2005, 2007).
What is often overlooked in such studies, however, is how anxieties about (in)
competence in English can also be used to construct selves and others. Furukawa’s
analysis shows how Japanese variety shows frame peoples’ uses of English as re-
flecting their “intelligence” and “stupidity”, building upon the sense of anxiety
about English widely shared by the Japanese audience. His case is thus a powerful
example of how dimensions of subjectivity can be an important element of the me-
diascape, relating ideologies about the importance of global languages like English
and the way Japanese viewers imagine their position within the world.
The next article by Said-Sirhan discusses the peripheral yet significant position
of the Malay community in Singapore, who are often perceived to be socioeco-
nomically underachieving in relation to other ethnic groups, and thus have been
encouraged to pursue entrepreneurial skills in the name of attaining upward so-
cial mobility. In her ethnographic study of a micro-business programme organized
by a Malay-Muslim self-help organization, Said-Sirhan explores how the partici-
pants negotiate their positions between being aspiring entrepreneurs and their
148 Mie Hiramoto and Joseph Sung-Yul Park

socioeconomic peripherality. As part of an argument against the welfare state, pri-

vate self-help organizations that provide training in business skills have been po-
sitioned by the state as offering accessible avenues for all who aspire to participate
in Singapore’s globalized economy that emphasizes productivity and efficiency.
Training programs offered by such organizations implicitly underline the ability
to communicate in English and competence in certain genres for business com-
munication as necessary cultural capital for social mobility. But whether such cul-
tural capital is truly made accessible to the Malay Singaporean community remains
uncertain. Said-Sirhan’s analysis of interaction among the program participants
shows that linguistic insecurity becomes a key for the participants’ negotiation be-
tween the Malay identity and their desire to present themselves as budding entre-
preneurs. Through a close analysis of the program participants’ attempts to speak
more English despite their lack the appropriate genre-based competence and how
this may backfire by making them appear lacking relevant skills for business, Said-
Sirhan points out the contradictions and false promises of neoliberal competition.
The issue’s final article, by Joseph Sung-Yul Park, continues Said-Sirhan’s cri-
tique of neoliberalism by focusing on how regimes of work under neoliberalism
foreground conflicting ideologies about language and identity. On the one hand,
the link between language and identity is seen as flexible and malleable under
neoliberalism, as language comes to be seen as a commodity that can easily be
picked up and appropriated for economic gain. On the other hand, the older ide-
ology that posits an essentialist link between language and identity still persists,
as relations of nationality and ethnicity remain powerful points of reference in
global capitalism (Heller 2010). The tension between these two ideologies can be
particularly prominent in transnational work, as participation in the global work-
place often requires competence in commodified global languages such as English,
yet cultural difference in terms of nationality and ethnicity becomes highly salient
in intercultural communication (also see Park 2010). Park suggests that it is im-
portant to understand this tension not simply as an abstract conflict of principles
underlying neoliberalism, but in terms of its consequences for subjectivity. He re-
frames the notion of linguistic insecurity, originally developed by William Labov,
as a way of conceptualizing the anxieties speakers may experience in positioning
themselves between such contesting ideologies. Through an analysis of how the
tension between the two ideologies may work to rationalize inequalities in a nar-
rative of transnational work produced by a Korean mid-level manager working
at a multinational corporation in Singapore, Park manages to show how close at-
tention to such aspects of insecurity can help us better understand the effects that
neoliberalism has on our own sense of subjecthood.
The special issue concludes with a commentary on the contributions by Kira
Hall. Through a critical evaluation of the cases discussed in the special issue, she
 Anxiety, insecurity, and border crossing 149

elaborates on the strategic importance of looking at anxieties that take place at the
borderlands of global movement, and then suggests further questions we must
ask and future directions we should explore in order to more appropriately un-
derstand the complex and multiple dimensions of subjectivity that underlie the
experiences of language and culture contact in the context of globalization.

Acknowledgments

We sincerely thank the journal’s editors, reviewers, and Kira Hall for their invaluable assistance
for the special issue. Hiramoto gratefully acknowledges the financial and institutional support
given to her project by the National University of Singapore FRC Research Grant (AY 2012-15).

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 Anxiety, insecurity, and border crossing 151

Authors’ address
Department of English language and literature
National University of Singapore
Blk AS5, 7 Arts Link
Singapore 117570
Mie Hiramoto
[email protected]; [email protected]
Joseph Sung-Yul Park
[email protected]