While 'transnationalism" often suggests mobility, modernity, simultaneous and easy access to multiple linguistic and cultural resources, 'diaspora' seems to imply a more negative connotation of displacement, disadvantage, and barrier. In this talk, I present a constructivist perspective whereby linguistic diaspora is viewed as multilingual and intercultural communicative practices across generations and geographies. In this view, diasporas are dynamic and evolving instead of a static or stable entity; diaspora languages (and language use in diaspora) accentuate the contingency, hybridity and indeterminacy against essentialist conceptualizations of identities, communities, race, nation and culture. I will begin with a brief overview of the history of and the diverse perspectives adopted in the study of diaspora languages. I will then share my thoughts on the discursive construction of people (we vs they), places (the land of birth vs the land of necessity/choice), languages (for home vs for society) and lives (lived vs imagined, material vs moral). Drawing narrative-ethnographic data from Chinese American communities for illustrative purposes, I will focus not so much on displacement and disadvantage as given, de-territorialized extension of an ethnic/linguistic group, but on connections and linkages that are open to continuous re-interpretation, re-construction and transformation through creative language use. I argue that it is this intersection of connection and transformation that leads to the reproduction and transformation of diasporic languages, cultures, and identities. I will aim to explore the following questions: What is the role that diaspora languages play in sustaining relations/relatedness and roots/rootedness and in forging new affinities, identities and communities? How is the trajectory of diaspora language use (maintenance, attrition, and/or transformation) shaped by mundane, everyday communicative needs and goals? How can research on diaspora languages and diaspora language speakers contribute to a more just, more equitable, more open society? I will end the talk with a call to action: it is morally and ethically imperative that we not merely describe the challenges facing diaspora languages and their speakers, but create venues and vehicles to remain critically engaged as we tackle the challenges by centering equitable multilingualism in what we do.
