Patterned exceptions, policing vacuum, and self-policing: multilingual linguistic landscape in a Tibetan-autonomous region of China

This paper adopts a mixed-method approach to explore the linguistic landscape of four cafes in a predominantly Tibetan county, namely Xiahe in western China. Xiahe is renowned for Labrang Monastery, a religious institution that enjoys great reverence among Tibetans. The four cafes stand out because they are allowed to deviate from the norm, while other stores within the same area are subjected to a uniform signage policy. Findings indicate that the top-down language policy of Xiahe involves compromise and allows patterned exceptions, because only stores, such as the cafes under study, whose commercial success rely heavily on ‘being different’ are granted this privilege. Besides, while top-down policies prioritise Chinese in public places, the linguistic landscape inside the cafes goes in a different direction, where Tibetan enjoys greater prominence, a phenomenon made possible by what can be described as a ‘language policing vacuum’. Furthermore, Tibetan owners demonstrates a careful and prudent attitude towards use of Tibetan language. Their prudence are attributable to not only their Tibetan identity, but their proximity to Labrang Monastery, a respected actor of language policing.