Scaled semiotic resources in informal learning on Chinese social networking sites

Abstract

In the globalized internet age, informal learning is gaining prominence in China as mobile technology and social networking sites (SNSs) become widely accessible and virtually ubiquitously popular in Chinese society. An important informal learning platform is made up by the specialized public accounts on WeChat, the most popular SNSs in China. This study is based on three popular WeChat public accounts on parenting and education, especially on English learning, run by diasporic Chinese elites, with a special focus on the semiotic resources they have mobilized and brought across the national and real/virtual boundaries to attract novice parents in China. Drawing on Blommaert’s conception of scaled resources, this study uncovers the patterns of semiotic resources on the local, national, and global scales the public accounts holders have deployed to invoke indexical meanings to attract knowledge-seeking parents in China. The indexicality process reflects an ordered nature deeply embedded in the inequal power relations within the stratified world system and social structures. The value acquisition of local resources in globalized, webified mobility also embodies Barthes’ mythical signification.