1. Bai Language Became a Threshold of Employment
Throughout the data, the recruitment criteria denote that the tourism marketing strategy is not only pointed at landscapes and culture but also directed against linguistic competence, especially emphasizing the significance of Bai language competence for a certain percentage of tourists' interactions. The recruiters valued candidates' Bai linguistic backgrounds as a barrier to employment, this language policy legitimized candidates' Bai linguistic competence and bestows a space to use it together with Putonghua and Han Hua in Bai Village interchangeably. Under these conditions, the Bai identity appeared as potential 'assets or forms of 'added value' (Heller, Pujolar et. al, 2014) in this market.
2. Bai Semiotic Resources Turn into A Source of Income
Kress (2010) groups under the term "semiotic resources" a wide range of categories, such as images, gestures, music, etc. as opposite to linguistic resources. These semiotic resources signify specific meaning which was closely linked with the current globalization era culturally, economically, and socially. Additionally, specific semiotic forms are valued as the 'best possible' resources in any social interaction and cultural resources are meaningful semiotic resources. (Blommaert, 2010). Focusing on an untapped niche market, Zhang Yingying employs a set of specialized, localized cultural resources that helps her wining 17,000 followers on TikTok among which a part of became her clients and bring instantaneous material rewards, more than that, building a social reputation which in turn brings advertisement chances. Seen in this light, she makes perfect use of the 'best possible' semiotic resources, which refer to her cultural resources.
3. Tensions over Commodification of Authenticity on TikTok
TikTok is a site of modern life, features by its young user base. According to the statistics, 63% of active TikTok users are under the age of 30 (IQBAL, 2022). It conveys an idea that the pure local music in the Bai language is somehow not fit for modern practices on TikTok, leading to a mixture of the pure and the hybrid. This mixed form involves the contradictory discourse in putting into practice forms of symbolic resources formerly associated with Bai identities that have been traditionally constructed as authentic and are now mobilized as commodities on TikTok. The eagerness to participate in this site of modern life to seek potential profit captures her motivation for incorporating popular music into Bai culture resources. Switching between these hybrid elements is an expression of dual identity, a Bai identity to prove her authenticity on the one hand, and a fashionable vlogger to draw more potential customers on the other hand.
Monica Heller, Joan Pujolar and Alexandre Duchêne. 2014. Linguistic commodification in tourism. Journal of Sociolinguistic 18/4, 2014: 539-566.
Kress, Gunther. 2010. Multimodality: A social semiotic approach to contemporary communication. Oxon: Routledge.
Blommaert, J. (2010). The sociolinguistics of globalization. Cambridge, UK; New York: Cambridge University Press.
MANSOOR, IQBAL. (2022, January 18). TikTok Revenue and Usage Statistics. Retrieved from https://www.businessofapps.com/data/Tik-Tok-statistics/.
