Accomplishing multiethnic identity in mundane talk: Half-Japanese teenagers at an international school

Tim Greer
Abstract

This paper examines identity-related interaction in a group of teenagers at an international school in Japan, focusing particularly on the discursive accomplishment of multiethnic identity among so-called half-Japanese (or “haafu”) people. The study employs Conversation Analysis (CA) and Membership Categorization Analysis (MCA) to document three instances of mundane talk in which such multiethnic Japanese teenagers are ethnified through the use of various identity categories and their associated activities and attributes. The analysis demonstrates that multiethnic people use a variety of discursive practices to refute unwanted ethnification, including reworking the category, casting themselves in a different category and refusing to react to category-based provocations. Common to all three cases is the fundamental issue of how ethnicity becomes a resource for speakers in everyday conversation.

Keywords:
Quick links
A browser-friendly version of this article is not yet available. View PDF
Arboleda, T.
(1998) In the shadow of race: Growing up as a multiethnic, multicultural, and ‘multiracial’ American. New Jersey: Laurence Erlbaum. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Antaki, C., and S. Widdicombe
(1998a) Identity as an achievement and as a tool. In C. Antaki, and S. Widdicombe (eds.), Identities in talk. London: Sage, pp. 1–14.  BoPGoogle Scholar
(eds.) (1998b) Identities in talk. London: Sage.  BoPGoogle Scholar
Bell, A.
(1999) Styling the other to define the self: A study in New Zealand identity making. Journal of Sociolinguistics 3.4: 523–541. DOI logo  BoPGoogle Scholar
Bilmes, J.
(2009) Taxonomies are for talking: Reanalyzing a Sacks classic. Journal of Pragmatics 41.6: 1600–1610. DOI logo  BoPGoogle Scholar
(2011) Occasioned semantics: A systematic approach to meaning in talk. Human Studies. Human Studies 34.2: 129–153. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Bucholtz, M.
(1999) You da man: Narrating the racial other in the production of white masculinity. Journal of Sociolinguistics 3.4: 443–460. DOI logo  BoPGoogle Scholar
(2003) Theories of discourse as theories of gender: Discourse analysis in language and gender studies. In J. Holmes, and M. Meyerhoff (eds.), The handbook of language and gender. Oxford: Blackwell, pp. 43–68. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
(2011) ‘It’s different for guys’: Gendered narratives of racial conflict among California youth. Discourse & Society 22.4: 385–402. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Bucholtz, M., and K. Hall
(2005) Identity and interaction: A sociocultural linguistic approach. Discourse Studies 7.4-5: 585–614. DOI logo  BoPGoogle Scholar
(2008) Finding identity: Theory and data. Multilingua 27.1/2: 151–163. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Damari, R.R.
(2010) Intertextual stancetaking and the local negotiation of cultural identities by a binational couple. Journal of Sociolinguistics 14.5: 609–629. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Day, D.
(1998) Being ascribed, and resisting membership of an ethnic group. In C. Antaki, and S. Widdicombe (eds.), Identities in talk. London: Sage, pp. 151–170.Google Scholar
Delgado, R., and J. Stefancic
(2001) Critical race theory: An introduction. New York, NY: New York University Press.Google Scholar
du Bois, J.
(2007) The stance triangle. In R. Englebretson (ed.), Stancetaking in discourse: Subjectivity, evaluation, interaction. Amsterdam/Philadelphia: John Benjamins Publishing Company, pp. 137–182. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Egbert, M.
(1997) Schisming: The collaborative transformation from a single conversation to multiple conversation. Research on Language and Social Interaction 30.1: 1–51. DOI logo  BoPGoogle Scholar
Enfield, N.J., and T. Stivers
(eds.) (2007) Person reference in interaction: Linguistic, cultural and social perspectives. New York: Cambridge University Press. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Garner, S.
(2007) Whiteness: An introduction. London: Routledge. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Gaskins, P.
(1999) What are you? Voices of mixed-race young people. New York: Henry Holt and Company.Google Scholar
Green, M., C. Sonn, and J. Matsebula
(2007) Reviewing whiteness: Theory, research, and possibilities. South African Journal of Psychology 37.3: 389–419. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Greer, T.
(2001) Half, double or somewhere in-between? Multi-faceted identities among biracial Japanese. Japan Journal of Multilingualism and Multiculturalism 7.1: 1–17.Google Scholar
(2003) Multiethnic Japanese identity: An applied conversation analysis. Japan Journal of Multilingualism and Multiculturalism 9.1: 1–23.Google Scholar
(2005) The multi-ethnic paradox: Towards a fluid notion of being haafu. Japan Journal of Multilingualism and Multiculturalism 11.1: 1–18.Google Scholar
(2007) Accomplishing identity in interaction: Codeswitching practices among a group of multiethnic Japanese teenagers. Unpublished Ed.D., University of Southern Queensland, Toowoomba, Australia.
(2008) Accomplishing difference in bilingual interaction: Translation as backwards-oriented medium repair. Multilingua 27.1/2: 99–127. DOI logo  BoPGoogle Scholar
(2010) Switching languages, juggling identities: A sequence of multilingual, multiparty talk. In G. Kasper, H.t. Nguyen, D. Yoshimi, and J. Yoshioka (eds.), Pragmatics and language learning Vol. 12. Honolulu, HA: National Foreign Language Resource Center, University of Hawai’i, pp. 43–65.Google Scholar
He, A.W.
(2004) CA for SLA: Arguments from the Chinese language classroom. The Modern Language Journal 8.iv: 568–582. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Hester, S., and P. Eglin
(1997a) Culture in action: Studies in membership categorization analysis. Washington D.C.: International Institute for Ethnomethodology and Conversation Analysis & University Press of America.  BoPGoogle Scholar
(1997b) Membership categorization anlaysis: An introduction. In S. Hester, and P. Eglin (eds.), Culture in action: Studies in membership categorization analysis. Washington D.C.: International Institute for Ethnomethodology and Conversation Analysis & University Press of America, pp. 1–23.  BoPGoogle Scholar
Housley, W., and R. Fitzgerald
(2002) The reconsidered model of membership categorization analysis. Qualitative Research 2: 59–83. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Iwabuchi
(1994) Complicit exoticism: Japan and its other. Who imagines ‘Japaneseness’?: Orientalism, occidentalism and self-orientalism. Continuum: The Australian Journal of Media & Culture 8.2: 49–82. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Jaworski, A., and C. Thurlow
(2009) Taking an elitist stance: Ideology and the discursive production of social distinction. In A. Jaffe (ed.), Perspectives on stance. New York & London: Oxford University Press, pp. 195–226. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Jayyusi, L.
(1984) Categorization and the moral order. London: Routledge and Kegan Paul.Google Scholar
JMHLW
(2006) Annual report on population change statistics (jinko dotai tokei nenho). Japanese Ministry of Health, Labor and Welfare. Retrieved 16 May , 2006 , from: http://​www​.mhlw​.go​.jp​/toukei​/saikin​/hw​/jinkou​/suii04​/index​.html
Kamada, L.
(2008) Discursive ‘embodied’ identities of ‘half’ girls in Japan: A multi-perspective approach. In K. Harrington, L. Litosseliti, H. Sauntson, and J. Sunderland (eds.), Gender and language research methodology. Basingstoke, UK: Palgrave Macmillan, pp. 174–190.Google Scholar
(2009) Mixed-ethnic girls and boys as similarly powerless and powerful: Embodiment of attractiveness and grotesqueness. Discourse Studies 11.3: 329–352. DOI logo  BoPGoogle Scholar
(2010) Hybrid identities and adolescent girls: Being “half” in Japan. Bristol: Multilingual Matters.Google Scholar
Keisanen, T.
(2007) Stancetaking as an interactional activity: Challenging the prior speaker. In R. Englebretson (ed.), Stancetaking in discourse. Amsterdam: John Benjamins Publishing Company, pp. 253–281. DOI logo  BoPGoogle Scholar
Kitzinger, C.
(2000) Doing feminist conversation analysis. Feminism & Psychology 10.2: 163–193. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
(2005) Speaking as a heterosexual: (How) does sexuality matter for talk-in-interaction. Research on Language and Social Interaction 38.3: 221–293. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
(2007) Feminist conversation analysis: Research by students at the University of York. Feminism & Psychology 17: 133–148. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
(2008) Conversation Analysis: Technical matters for gender research. In K. Harrington, L. Litosseliti, H. Sauntson, and J. Sunderland (eds.), Gender and language research methodologies. Basingstoke, UK: Palgrave Macmillan, pp. 119–138.Google Scholar
Lee, S.
(1998) Zainichi gaikokijin no boshi kenko (The maternity health of foreigners living in Japan). Tokyo: Igakushoin.Google Scholar
Lerner, G.
(1996) On the place of linguistic resources in the organization of talk-in-interaction: ‘Second-person’ reference in multi-party interaction. Pragmatics 6.3: 281–294.  BoP DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Luke, C., and A. Luke
(1998) Interracial families: Difference within difference. Ethnic and Racial Studies 21.4: 728–753. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Murphy-Shigematsu, S.
(2001) Multiethnic lives and monoethnic myths: American-Japanese Amerasians in Japan. In T.K. Williams-Leon, and C.L. Nakashima (eds.), The sum of our parts: Mixed heritage Asian Americans. Philadelphia, PA: Temple University Press, pp. 207–218.Google Scholar
Nakashima, D.A.
(2001) A rose by any other name: Names, multiracial/multiethnic people and the politics of identity. In T. Williams-Leon, and C.L. Nakashima (eds.), The sum of our parts: Mixed heritage Asian Americans. Philidelphia: Temple University Press, pp. 111–129.Google Scholar
Okano, K., and M. Tsuchiya
(1999) Education in contemporary Japan: Inequality and diversity. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Psathas, G.
(1999) Studying the organization in action: Membership categorization and interaction analysis. Human Studies 22.2-4: 139–162. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Rampton, B.
(1999) Styling the other: Introduction. Journal of Sociolinguistics 3.4: 421–427. DOI logo  BoPGoogle Scholar
Rauniomaa, M.
(2003) Stance accretion: Some initial observations. Unpublished manuscript, University of California, Santa Barbara.
Sacks, H.
(1972a) An initial investigation of the usability of conversational data for doing sociology. In D. Sudnow (ed.), Studies in social interaction. New York: Free Press, pp. 31–74.Google Scholar
(1972b) On the analyzability of stories by children. In J. Gumperz, and D. Hymes (eds.), Directions in sociolinguistics. New York: Holt, Rinehart and Winston, pp. 325–345.  BoPGoogle Scholar
(1992) Lectures in conversation (Vol. I & II). Oxford: Blackwell.Google Scholar
Sadanobu, T.
(2008) Rikimu kenri, rikimu gimu [The right to strain, the responsibility to strain]. Nihongogaku 27.5: 178–186.Google Scholar
Schegloff, E.
(2007a) Sequence organization in interaction: A primer in conversation analysis. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. DOI logo  BoPGoogle Scholar
(2007b) A tutorial on membership categorization. Journal of Pragmatics 39: 462–482. DOI logo  BoPGoogle Scholar
Singer, J.
(2000) Japan’s singular ‘doubles’. Japan Quarterly 47.2: 76–82.Google Scholar
Speer, S.
(2005) Gender talk: Feminism, discourse and conversation analysis. East Sussex, UK: Routledge. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Stokoe, E.H.
(2009) Categories, actions and sequences: Formulating gender in talk-in-interaction. In K. Harrington, L. Litosseliti, H. Sauntson, and J. Sunderland (eds.), Gender and language research methodologies. Basingstoke, UK: Palgrave Macmillan, pp. 139–157.Google Scholar
(2012) Moving forward with membership categorization analysis: Methods for systematic analysis. Discourse Studies 14.3: 277–303. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Takahashi, M., and S. Vaipae
(1996) Gaijin seito ga yattekita (“Here come the Gaijin students”). Tokyo: Taishukan.Google Scholar
Wallace, K.
(2004) Situating multiethnic identity: Contributions of discourse theory to the study of mixed heritage students. Language, Identity and Education 3.3: 195–213. DOI logo  BoPGoogle Scholar
Watson, R.
(1978) Categorisation, authorisation and blame-negotiation in conversation. Sociology 12:105-113. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Wilkinson, S., and C. Kitzinger
(2003) Constructing identities: A feminist conversation analytic approach to positioning in action. In R. Harré, and A. Moghaddam (eds.), The self and others: Positioning individuals and groups in personal, political and cultural contexts. New York: Praeger/Greenwood, pp. 157–180.Google Scholar
Whitehead, K.
(2009) “Categorizing the categorizer”: The management of racial common sense in interaction. Social Psychology Quarterly 72.4: 325–342. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Whitehead, K., and G. Lerner
(2009) When are persons ‘white’?: On some practical asymmetries of racial reference in talk-in-interaction. Discourse & Society 20.5: 613–641. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Zimmerman, D.H.
(1998) Identity, context and interaction. In C. Antaki, and S. Widdicombe (eds.), Identities in talk. London: Sage, pp. 87–106.Google Scholar