Postcards as sources of language use and language attitude

Abstract

In the late 19th and early 20th century, one important activity for travelers was sending postcards to families and friends. This period was described as the “postcard craze.” Though short, the period produced great impact in postal history and photography. Traditionally, postcards were treated lightly as a serious linguistic source since the messages there were often regarded as formulaic and mundane. This study, however, treats postcards as a multimodal source combining graphic and textual information and an exemplar of “language history from below” that reflects language use of the time (Elspaß 2012). The 20th century marked a surge in tourism and thus massive production of postcards in popular destinations like Hong Kong, major trade ports in China, and America. This research is a qualitative study of postcards with special focus on the use of Chinese Pidgin English (CPE). Originated in Canton, CPE emerged as a direct response to increasing China-West interactions in trade in the 18th century and after the First Opium War the language spread to other treaty ports like Shanghai (Bolton 2003). In mid-19th century, news of gold in mines in California attracted numerous Chinese gold rushers to migrate to America. This created an opportunity for CPE to be spoken in California (Kim 2008). This study compares the characteristics and functions of pidgin English on postcards produced in Hong Kong and Chinese major cities and America. It is shown that the pidgin English on postcards made in Hong Kong/Chinese trade ports contained more prototypical features of the language than those produced in America. Functionally, CPE was used neutrally as a reflection of language use in Hong Kong/Chinese trade ports; in America, on the contrary, postcards often depicted Chinese negatively and repeatedly highlighted certain non-standard speech features. As increasing number of Chinese arrived in America, tension and contention between Chinese and American built up quickly, cumulating into the Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882. The wide circulation of postcards made them a convenient tool to disseminate biases and stereotypes of Chinese immigrants. When examined closely, postcards could also be valuable historical sources that enable us to understand language use and attitudes of people at particular time in different parts of the world.