Unpacking fluid linguistic landscape in a community coffeehouse in Hangzhou, East China: an everyday life perspective

Abstract This paper enquires into the emergence of linguistic landscapes as cycles from fluid to frozen and fluid again. It is based on the first author’s ethnographic narratives of the appearance and disappearance of linguistic landscapes in a community coffeehouse in Hangzhou, East China. By moment analysis of the entanglements in everyday life that owners and customers share, we find that the meanings of the coffeehouse space are dynamically shaped by the intersections of their life trajectories and constant communication with others in ongoing everyday life. It is argued that linguistic landscapes emerge as a continuous flux, with language users’ care for others, willingness to correspond, and improvisation of linguistic and semiotic practices affected by their life trajectories. This paper will contribute to current research on language use in everyday space and fluid linguistic landscapes.