Inter-lingual Homophony: Neige as a Demonstrative/Filler in Mandarin Chinese

The demonstrative/filler neige in Mandarin Chinese is potentially contentious outside that language,as it bears resemblance in terms of pronunciation with a racial slur in English. Nonetheless, neigedoes not possess any racist connotation in Mandarin Chinese, and its analysis needs to take intoconsideration historical and contextual information. The form neige is a colloquialism of its formalequivalent nage, which has functioned as a demonstrative determiner/pronoun or a discoursemarker in verbal communication since ancient periods. The derivation of nei from na is realisedvia suppression of the demonstrative with the numeral yi ‘one’, and this phenomenon occurredeven before Mandarin was invented as a national lingua franca. Differently from languages suchas English in which the number of homophones is limited, Chinese contains an enormous amountof syllables with myriads of homophones, owing to the fact that Chinese is a tone language thatdepends on tone implications to differentiate meanings and syllables/words are hence predominantlymono- or bi-morphemic. As a consequence, homophones pertaining to Chinese aboundboth language-internally and cross-linguistically. Among the repercussions of homophony are theliterary inquisitions during the Qing era that sabotaged freedom of creation. Therefore, the interpretationand comprehension of neige need to be objective and impartial.

Observations on Use of the N-Word in Psychoanalytic Conferences

In a frequently repeated group phenomenon, a racial slur is spoken in psychoanalytic conferences, after which a range of defensive responses emerge to counter acknowledgment of the meanings of having done so. After a discussion of the literature relevant to the use of slurs in psychoanalytic professional settings, Freud’s concept of Nachträglichkeit, or deferred action, is used to identify and explore these events as a series of discriminatory gestures that evoke racial trauma. The defensive responses that emerge to protect the use of these gestures indicate ties to the traumatic legacy of slavery and to white supremacy as it appears in contemporary psychoanalytic culture. “Gestures of the open hand” are proposed, and their profound reparative potential is discussed. The intimate link between epistemic justice and psychoanalytic endeavors is delineated.

Unwelcomed Guests

This study explicates discourse on Indonesian social media pertaining to Chinese Indonesians by analyzing comments posted on Facebook. Using Cultural Discourse Analysis (CuDA), we show how Chinese are depicted as the “other” in Indonesian discourse. We also unpack persuasive efforts to convince readers of Chinese Indonesians’ other-ness through such rhetorical terms as cina (racial slur against Chinese Indonesians) and pribumi (native, indigenous, non-Chinese). The functional accomplishment of such discourse works to (1) exert the power to determine indigeneity and inclusivity; and (2) solidify Chinese Indonesians’ position as non-native, and a scapegoat for problems in Indonesia. Findings from this study further our understanding of ways to analyze and unpack discursive construction in online communication. They also demonstrate how social media may amplify and/or construct social and political discourses.

Perceptions of Racial Slurs Used by Black Individuals Toward White Individuals: Derogation or Affiliation?

Research suggests that racial slurs may be “reclaimed” by the targeted group to convey affiliation rather than derogation. Although it is most common in intragroup uses (e.g., “nigga” by a Black individual toward another Black individual), intergroup examples of slur reappropriation (e.g., “nigga” by a Black individual toward a White individual) are also common. However, majority and minority group members’ perceptions of intergroup slur reappropriation remain untested. We examined White (Study 1) and Black (Study 2) individuals’ perceptions of the reappropriated terms, “nigga” and “nigger” compared with a control term chosen to be a non-race-related, neutral term (“buddy”), a nonracial derogative term (“asshole”) and a White racial slur (“cracker”) used by a Black individual toward a White individual. We found that the intergroup use of reappropriated slurs was perceived quite positively by both White and Black individuals. Our findings have important implications for research on intergroup relations and the reappropriation of slurs.

Creative nonfiction and narrative inquiry

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to describe, situate and justify the use of creative nonfiction as an overlooked but legitimate source of text for use in social inquiry, specifically within the ambit of narrative inquiry. What potential lies in using creative writing, creative nonfiction specifically, as a source of text in social research? How may it be subjected to modes of analysis such that it deepens understandings of substantive issues? Links are explored between creative nonfiction and the social context of such accounts in an attempt to trace how writers embed general social processes in their narrative. Design/methodology/approach Three exemplars from literary magazines are described in which whiteness is the substantive theme. The first author is a woman who writes about her relationship with her landscaper, the second story is written by a man who is overwhelmed by guilt after uttering a racial slur, and the third text is by a man who describes his attempts to help a homeless couple. The authors’ interpersonal experiences with people unlike themselves tell something significant about the relationship between selfhood and power relations. Findings No singular pattern emerges when analyzing these three narratives through the critical lens of whiteness. This is because whiteness is not a subject position or static identity but a practice, something that it is done in relation to others. It is a collective capacity whose value is realized only in dynamic relationship with others. As a rich source of narratives, creative nonfiction may generate insights about whiteness and middle classness and how their intersections give rise to complex and contradictory sets of social relations. Originality/value There is very little precedence for using creative nonfiction as text for analysis in any discipline in the social sciences despite its accessibility, its richness and its absence of risk. Inviting the sociological imagination in its project to link the personal to the political, it opens possibilities for the analysis of both in relationship to each other. As a common form of narrating everyday understandings, creative nonfiction offers something unique and under-valued to the social researcher. For these reasons, the paper is highly original.

The Differential of Appearance: Asian American Cultural Studies

Lisa Lowe, Immigrant Acts (Durham: Duke University Press, 1996, $16.95). Pp. 252. ISBN 0 8223 1864 4.Paul R. Spickard, Japanese Americans: The Formation and Transformation of an Ethnic Group (New York: Twayne Publishers, 1996, $28.95). Pp. 225. ISBN 0 8057 7841 1.Gordon Chang, Morning Glory, Evening Shadow: Yamato Ichihashi and his Internment Writings, 1942–1945 (Stanford: Stanford University Press, 1997, £35.00). Pp. 552. ISBN 0 8047 2733 3.Appearances can be deceiving, sometimes they are fatal. In 1982, Vincent Chin, a Chinese-American, entered a Detroit bar with some friends. Ronald Ebens, a foreman at a Chrysler automobile plant, and his stepson Michael Nitz, a laid-off Chrysler assembly-line worker, also came into the same bar. It is uncertain what exactly prompted Ebens to derisively call Chin a “Jap” and scoff: “It's because of you motherfuckers that we're out of work!” What is indisputable, however, is the sequence of events which took place after the insult. In the wake of the abusive remark, a fist-fight erupted between Ebens and Chin. The brawlers were evicted from the bar. Ebens and Nitz went to their car and grabbed a baseball bat. Observing that Ebens was in possession of a bat, Chin and his companions fled from the bar's parking lot. Unwilling to be thwarted by this escape, Ebens and Nitz stalked Chin. After a twenty minute pursuit, Ebens and Nitz cornered Chin. Nitz held Chin while Ebens beat him on the head with the baseball bat. Four days after this attack, Chin died from his head wounds.What makes the murder of Vincent Chin particularly hideous is the perverse element of mistaken identity that led to his death. Ronald Ebens took Chin for a “Jap.” At one level of interpretation, this visual blunder comments on the blind spots of racist thinking, where categorical forms of reasoning isolate us between our prejudices and our self-serving interests. Ebens saw an Asian face and automatically made it the target of his frustration. At another level of interpretation, Eben's racial slur, although inaccurate in ethnically identifying Chin, strangely articulates the conceptual incongruities and cultural displacements that occur in representations of ethnicity and race. Chin's physical appearance made him vulnerable to ethnic mistranslation and an eventual victim of racist misrepresentation. In short, there is (much like pronouncing two people husband and wife) a performative aspect to Ebens's misrecognition of Chin's identity. To put it grimly, Chin's figurative transformation literally concluded in his execution.