This essay discusses Malay Singaporean author Suffian Hakim's novels The Minorities and The Keepers of Stories as speculative fiction because they feature the presence of magic and fantasy in an imagined Singapore. It draws on Mikhail Bakhtin's concepts of carnivalesque humour, dialogic imagination and heteroglossia to analyse how both novels challenge the official categorisation and management of race and culture by the Singaporean state (which designates its population as Chinese, Malay, Indian or Other). Minorities pokes fun at Singapore's multiracial logic through the comic misadventures of its multicultural group of main characters and the pervasive bureaucracy that oversees all supernatural beings in the country. Keepers offers a dialogical and heteroglossic counterpoint to the monological narrative of self-fashioning and nation-building presented in founding Prime Minister Lee Kuan Yew's memoirs; it focuses on storytelling rituals and shared knowledge to build community rather than competitive masculinity.
ABSTRACT This study investigates the shifting language attitudes toward English on Chinese social media and critically discusses the identities, ideologies, and broader societal forces that shape these attitudes. Drawing on a discourse analysis of 1000 user comments, the study reveals that Chinese netizens adopt predominantly negative stances toward English across cognitive, behavioral, and affective dimensions. First, influenced by technological solutionism, English is increasingly devalued as a purely instrumental skill that is obsolete in the age of advanced technology (especially AI translation). Second, a prevailing ideology of digital linguistic nationalism positions the rejection of English as an act of patriotism. This discourse is also characterized by expansionist and triumphalist narratives, asserting that Chinese will supersede English as the global lingua franca. By analyzing how language attitudes are discursively constructed, this study illuminates the complex intersection of technology, nationalism, and language ideology in contemporary China.
ABSTRACT English usage in India has been the target of a linguistic complaint tradition ‘which has taken the form of complaint about so‐called mis‐use of language and linguistic decline’ since the 19th century. The Indian English (IndE) complaint tradition in the 21st century has shifted from colonial to postcolonial in that IndE usage is now targeted by Indians themselves rather than British speakers of English, but there is also a remarkable continuity of topics, providing support for the observation that ‘relatively trivial linguistic differences are frequently seized upon and magnified’. The historical overview of the IndE complaint tradition will then be taken into the 21st century, with new data from an attitude study in which participants were asked to respond to the question ‘Can you give some (3 to 5) examples of ways of using English that really annoy you?’. Examples were coded regarding their thematic focus and then analysed quantitatively and qualitatively. Thus, overall, this contribution examines the enduring allure of the complaint tradition at the grassroots level.
ABSTRACT Three decades after Kachru's characterization of English as a source of both “agony and ecstasy,” debates about its global spread remain ambivalent. Despite significant advances in world Englishes scholarship, celebratory and critical stances toward English continue to coexist, sharpened by the political polarization of our times, and renewed concerns with democracy and inequality. This special issue revisits Kachru's enduring question regarding the adequacy of our theoretical and methodological tools by fostering sustained dialogue between sociolinguistics and political philosophy. Moving beyond abstract accounts of English as a neutral global lingua franca, the contributions offer empirically grounded and context‐sensitive analyses of how different Englishes are valued, regulated, and experienced across transnational and translingual settings. The articles demonstrate the analytical and normative benefits of approaches from different disciplines, advancing more nuanced understandings of English worldwide and its implications for linguistic justice in both theory and practice.
ABSTRACT Apocalypse that describes ‘end‐of‐world’ scenarios have been especially prolific in the past few decades since the climate crisis has prophesied the imminent destruction of natural and human habitats. Apocalyptic literatures present insights into the various problems that beset humanity currently and extrapolate the inevitable consequences that may occur in the future. Thus, these become cautionary tales that warn about current and historical human excess. I will examine three Southeast Asian texts, a novel and two short stories, all written in English, that centre women against apocalyptic backdrops. ‘Lake’ by Lily Yulianti Farid, ‘Heartless Forest’ by Khin Mya Zin and Locust Girl: A Lovesong by Merlinda Bobis depict extreme dilemmas faced by women. This article argues that these narratives not only attest to the rapidly escalating climate crisis that has impacted Southeast Asia but also reveal the close connections that exist between social dysfunctions and natural disasters, where women are the ultimate victims. The texts demonstrate Donna Haraway's concept of ‘natureculture’.
