Linguistic landscape, cultural capital, and tourism-based sustainable rural revitalisation in Zhujiajiao, Shanghai: a nexus analysis

Abstract

This study conducts a detailed examination of the linguistic landscape in Zhujiajiao, Shanghai. Drawing on the theoretical frameworks of language as resource and language as cultural capital and using the method of nexus analysis, the researchers integrate the collected data and find that there is a substantial transformation from a predominantly simple and monolingual linguistic landscape to a multimodal and multilingual landscape, particularly in official signage. These changes are shaped by dynamic shifts in business competition, tourism-based sustainable rural revitalisation, and government policy. The linguistic landscapes display a twofold approach to signage; official signs are multilingual and multimodal, reflecting the drive to international tourism. Local business signage, though adopting multimodal and digital techniques, remains predominantly monolingual. This reflects business owners’ agency, allowed by official exercise of inclusive power, but also reflecting local owners’ perceptions that their businesses are reliant on local trade and only peripherally on international tourism. The study highlights how these linguistic landscapes operate as cultural capital and economic infrastructure to push local tourism-based economic development and underscores the role of the commodified linguistic landscape in sustainable rural revitalisation; it also offers insights for rural language planning and policy implementers and contributes to rural linguistic landscape studies.

The authors' abstract, as published at the source. Journal of Multilingual and Multicultural Development, 2026 · DOI ↗