The Semiotic Ideology of Harmonizing Civilizations as Moving Contructs: Ibrar Bhatt, "A Semiotics of Muslimness in China" (Cambridge Elements; Applied Linguistics, 2023)

 

 For with with an interest in linguistics and semiotics, applied to notions of collectove inter-penetration within a political herarchically shaped space, a book recently authored by Ibrar Bhatt (Queen's University, Belfast),  A Semiotics of Muslimness in China" (Cambridge Elements; Applied Linguistics, 2023) may be of some interest. The publsihed abstract nicely states the problem and premise:

This Element examines the semiotics of Sino-Muslim heritage literacy in a way that integrates its Perso-Arabic textual qualities with broader cultural semiotic forms. Using data from images of the linguistic landscape of Sino-Muslim life alongside interviews with Sino-Muslims about their heritage, the author examines how signs of ‘Muslimness’ are displayed and manipulated in both covert and overt means in different contexts. In so doing the author offers a ‘semiotics of Muslimness’ in China and considers how forms of language and materiality have the power to inspire meanings and identifications for Sino-Muslims and understanding of their heritage literacy. The author employs theoretical tools from linguistic anthropology and an understanding of semiotic assemblage to demonstrate how signifiers of Chinese Muslimness are invoked to substantiate heritage and Sino-Muslim identity constructions even when its expression must be covert, liminal, and unconventional.

The opening of the Introductory chapter sets out the overarching sensibilities of the work:

Both the Islamic and Chinese civilisations might appear, to the casual onlooker, to be very distinct and with their own histories and propensities to grow and assimilate other peoples. What happens, though, when elements of both cultures converge over an extended period in a single location? And what kinds of semiotic phenomena might one discover in such a context? When it comes to harmonising their faith within an historically Confucianist and Taoist milieu, as well as more recent Sino-nationalist and even Sino-Marxist sensibilities, the non-Turkic and largely Sinophone Muslims of China have, for many, come to demonstrate a process by which a community can adapt and integrate elements of very different cultural identities in their everyday practice with language and materiality. In this Element, I examine how this kind of plurality is embodied in the semiotic practices of Sino-Muslim heritage literacy. (Bhatt, supra, p. 1).

One of the most interesting aspects of the work is the application of notions of semiotic ideology (W. 'On Semiotic Ideology' (2018) 6(1) Signs and Society,' 64–87). Professor Bhatt describes it this way: 

What becomes important, therefore, in a study such as this is the agency and awareness of Sino-Muslims to create, interpret, emplace, and/or valorise signs that are constitutive of heritage. The notion of ‘semiotic ideology’ thus lies at the heart of this research, and is defined by anthropologist Webb Keane as ‘people’s underlying assumptions about what signs are, what functions signs do or do not serve, and what consequences they might or might not produce’ (Keane 2018, p. 65). A semiotic ideology is a system of meanings, norms, and values, whether consciously recognised or not, associated with particular modes of signification.(Bhatt, supra, p. 10, see examples p. 36 et seq(Muslim Street in Xi'an; and branded food).

This sort of semiotic ideology is not unique in this context, though its exploration here is fascinating.  It borrows from the mimesis of code, and has been an especially powerful tool for solidarity for centuries if not longer. NOr are its flourishes and signalling unknown to the larger community. The level of tolerance, and the barriers that signification may not cross without push back or response, makes for another interesting element in the coding,the mimetic signification expressed in this context, even as an expression of vernacularization that Professor Bhatt explores. Professor Bhatt's conclusions 70-73, nicely draw the the study together in a quite thoughtful way. 

The table of contents follows below.

Contents
1 Introduction 1
2 The Semiotics of Sini Calligraphy 16
3 The Semiotics of Food Heritage 36
4 Heritage Literacy in Liminal Spaces 58
5 Conclusions: A Semiotics of Muslimness 70
References 74