Journal of Asian Pacific Communication - Volume 36, Issue 2, 2026

Abstract

Unlike high-end globalization, the global flows of people and goods (e.g., between global-South nations) constitute a major type of low-end globalization. Such low-end globalization results in mobility, superdiversity, and grassroots multilingualism. Boasting many international tourists and traders, Bangkok is a dynamic trade, business, and tourism hub and multilingual contact zone. This study explores the sociolinguistic aspect of grass-roots communication emerging from the author’s ethnographic observations of two malls in central Bangkok that orient towards foreign tourists/traders: the MBK center (with many Middle Easterners) and Indra Square (with many Nepali-Burmese salespeople and Indian/South Asian buyers). The study illustrates the dynamic, flexible, pragmatic, and embodied nature of grass-roots communication as jugaad, where various multimodal and multisemiotic means are strategically deployed as meaning-making resources. These include using named languages (e.g., English, Arabic, and Hindi), translanguaging (e.g., Hinglish), and using calculator, Google translate, and gestures. This study contributes to scholarship in (grassroots) multilingualism in our superdiverse societies in the 21st century beyond the elitist use of language (e.g., using perfect English). This study argues that while English remains important overall as lingua franca, other languages (e.g., Arabic and Hindi) also carry important capital in the linguistic market as far as low-end globalization is concerned

Abstract

While much research has explored attitudes toward plagiarism, there has been limited focus on how different socio-cultural groups articulate their criticisms of plagiarism. This paper examines how Chinese secondary school students and editors of student magazines employ interdiscursive rhetorical strategies to critique plagiarism. The data comprises a rare public-facing corpus of published Chinese texts, including reports written by students who exposed plagiarism in compositions published in student magazines, and responses from magazine editors. The analysis centres on the use of figurative language — such as idioms, proverbs, and metaphors; and double-voicing — the use of another’s language to convey two meanings at once. These two key rhetorical strategies reveal socio-cultural attitudes toward plagiarism in the data. The strategies are examined for their cultural implications and contributions to broader societal attitudes toward plagiarism. The findings highlight the potential of interdiscursive analysis to inform academic integrity education and pedagogy globally.

Abstract

In the Philippines, social media has become a significant tool for political discourses and socio-civic movements, especially with the “forced” shift to online interactions due to the COVID-19 pandemic. This research contextualizes the political and electoral landscape in the Philippines as it looks into the mediated political participation among Filipinos by analyzing the determinants that shape practices of online political engagement. Guided by Casemajor et al.’s (2015) concept of participation as a form of mediated political action, twenty-four in-depth interviews with Filipino voters during the 2022 Philippine national elections were conducted to explore the nature of political participation in a mediatized milieu. Findings reveal varied ways by which an individual’s networks and the available information from media sources influence their political participation online. Beyond the determinants identified by literature, social realities as observed by the voting population also influence their mediated political participation. This study exposes that which seems invisible: that massive digitalization, both the technologies and communicative practices, is changing human society. While the digital sphere has allowed a more engaged citizenry, it has also become an arena for mis-, dis-, and mal- information as actors exploit the space for conversation.

Abstract

This study addresses how Javanese kesarasan texts discursively construct cultural legitimacy for traditional herbal medicine (jamu), a practice central to indigenous health knowledge yet often marginalized by biomedical paradigms. By integrating Appraisal Theory with the Mixed Game Model, the research examines the evaluative language and dialogic strategies that negotiate authority between these knowledge systems. A qualitative discourse analysis of eight texts from Panjebar Semangat (2024–2025) reveals that legitimacy is built through a consistent pattern of unhedged positive Affect and Valuation, amplified by Graduation and asserted via monoglossic Engagement supported by communal attribution. These strategies function cooperatively to present jamu as an emotionally resonant, self-evident cultural truth, effectively closing dialogic space to competing perspectives. The study contributes a hybrid analytical framework to discourse analysis and offers practical insights for culturally sensitive health communication that acknowledges the persuasive architecture of traditional knowledge systems.

Abstract

In multilingual countries like Singapore, shop signage serves as a prominent site for observing how language is used to communicate cultural, social, and political messages. Building on the original linguistic landscape conceptualization of Landry and Bourhis (1997), this study examines the linguistic environment in Singapore’s Chinatown. It adopts a mixed-method approach, combining photographic documentation of 292 shop signage and interviews from 25 shop owners. The aim is to identify dominant languages used on shop signage, analyzing their distribution patterns and investigating factors that influence shop owners’ language choices. The findings demonstrate that English and Chinese are the predominant languages on shop signage. The study manifests that bilingual English-Chinese signage is the most prevalent, balancing functional communication and cultural symbolism. Additionally, the study illuminates the factors that influence shop owners’ language choices on shop signage. The study further presents how commercial interests, cultural identities, and globalization influence the linguistic landscape in a multilingual setting.

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