1 Introduction: Anglophone Asia

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The volume, Asian Englishes: Beyond the Canon, contextualizes selected

dimensions of world Englishes in Asia’s Anglophone societies. The ten chapters
that follow bring together various perspectives on functions, creativity,
canonicity, attitudes and pedagogy.
The term ‘Asian English’ warrants an explanation. This regional
identification marker for the varieties of English used by the region’s
Anglophone societies is understandably somewhat problematic. But, then, that
is true of such other terms that designate regional boundaries such as ‘Pacific
Rim’, ‘South Asia’, and ‘East Asia’. In their discussion of Pacific Rim, Lim,
Smith and Dissanayake rightly refer to this dilemma:

In the production of cultural discourse, there is no “Pacific Rim” that is an

“objective” given. Rather, a competing set of ideational constructs projects
upon that location on the globe the interest, power, and vision of these
historically produced relationships, one of the most crucial being constituted
through the Asia Pacific region’s participation in geoeconomic system in
which capitalism is dominant. (1999: 3)

In constructs of Asia’s Anglophone societies it is these shared ideational —

and not necessarily objective — characteristics that are under focus, as outlined
in Chapter 2.
The functional dynamics of Asian Englishes — as indeed of other Asian
languages — are in constant change. We witness this in each region of Asia
through the dynamics of language policies and thus the evolving identities of
English, particularly in the post-1950s. The recognition of nativized creativity
Copyright 2005. Hong Kong University Press.

in English has gradually become yet another marker for establishing such
identity in various genres of English, which until recently was considered
essentially a ‘colonial’ linguistic remnant to be discarded with disdain. We see
the evolving role of English as integral to national identity now in such places
as Malaysia, Hong Kong, the Philippines, Pakistan, and Sri Lanka. There is

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 2 Asian Englishes: Beyond the canon

an articulation of altered constructs of English, a redefined functional,

pragmatic and ideological location of the language. In Singapore, as in other
states of the regions, the English language has now become a potent — and
cherished — medium of youth culture. And, to the utter dismay of some,
English has almost acquired the status of first or primary language. What Lick
observes about Singapore certainly is true of segments of societies in other
regions too:

For the younger generation family members, English is the/a home language
and the ‘first language’ in school; they are, stereotypically, very ‘Westernized’,
being fed on a daily dosage of Western pop music, American sitcoms, etc.
Generational difference in the cultural grounding in the use of Singapore
English can thus be expected. (2001: 105)

In South Asia, to add yet another example, in a variety of linguistic

interactions ranging from ZTV or Star TV channels to the language of youth
culture in metropolitan areas, it is not easy to distinguish if the interlocutors
are actually interacting in Hindi, Hindustani, or in English. In such interactions
there are minimal clues indicating which is the ‘receiver’ language and which
is the ‘giver’ language. The blending and hybridization of two or more
linguistic systems is accomplished with dexterity and immense effect: A
metropolitan variety of language has thus already been institutionalized in
which English is a major partner and initiator of convergence.
The intent of this volume is to motivate a theoretical and methodological
shift towards functionally relevant constructs of Asian Englishes within a
broader conceptualization of world Englishes. This conceptual shift is of three
types: First, it locates the bilinguals’ creativity within the contexts of linguistic
and cultural pluralism that characterize the Asian English SPEECH COMMUNITY;
second, it treats linguistic construction of a text in any genre as a cohesive text
representing structural, discoursal and cultural hybridity; and third, it
distinguishes the bilingual’s competence in terms of its appropriateness within
the local contexts of function.
It is with reference to these conceptual points that adoption and adaptation
of Asian Englishes within Anglophone Asian societies — or other societies —
becomes meaningful. In recent literature, it has, however, been shown that
there still continues to be a resistance to this shift. The result is that there are
now two diametrically distinct approaches to Anglophone Englishes: The
SACRED COW MODEL that perpetuates the age-old mythology of linguistic purity
while what has been characterized as a LINGUISTIC LIBERATION MODEL, believed
to follow the LIBERATION THEOLOGY MODEL, invites such Sacred Cows to the
slaughter. The liberation linguistics views these theoretical and methodological
sacred cows as unable to represent contexts in which Asian Englishes — and,
indeed, other Englishes — function. This rather simplified version of the

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 Introduction: Anglophone Asia 3

differences between these two models is further elaborated and provides a

number of the main threads of discussion in Asian Englishes: Beyond the Canon.
There are yet other threads that integrate the chapters: a celebration of
the liberation of the medium (madhyama) of the English language, through a
gradual recognition of the nativization and acculturation of the messages
(mantras) that the medium conveys; and a retrospective study of the social,
ideological, cultural and psychological implications of the methodology and
pedagogy of English studies.
This book is divided into five thematic parts. The three chapters in Part I
(Contexts) locate English in Anglophone Asia within two distinct historical
and functional contexts, South Asia and Japan. Chapter 2, ‘Asian Englishes’,
goes beyond the issues of methods and methodology and explores Asian
reincarnations of Englishes in terms of what Marlowe, in another context, has
characterized, ‘the outwards sign of inward fires’. The conceptualization ‘Asian
Englishes’ thus situates the focus of the debate not on language that is in Asia,
but on language that is of Asia. These ‘inward fires’ related to the Asian
presence of English have resulted in an understandable debate questioning
the albatross of traditional mythology. This cultivated mythology has evolved
three major constructs: first, that of HIERARCHY in terms of interlocutors in
interactional contexts; second, that of CANONICITY in equating the medium
(madhyama) primarily with Judeo-Christian contexts; third, that of ICONICITY
in terms of models of creativity and peripheries for deviation from such canons
of creativity. The chapter provides a redefined conceptualization for Asia’s
Englishes and a preamble to the volume. The two following chapters in this
part, on South Asia and Japan show that these two regions are distinct in their
populations and profiles, in their histories of contact with English, in the range
and depth of functions of English, and in their identity formation with the
language. However, in several ways these two contrastive case studies
demonstrate and raise several identical issues about ideology, methodology and
fast-changing attitudes towards the English language.
In Part II, Chapter 5, the Janus-like double faces of the CONVERGENCE of
English are discussed with reference to multilinguistic contexts of world
Englishes, including that of Anglophone Asia. The two faces, one of
ENGLISHIZATION of native language and the other of NATIVIZATION of English
have an immense impact in South Asian sociolinguistic contexts. These two
faces provide valuable data for our better understanding of CONTACT
LINGUISTICS within Asia. In this respect, as the Kahanes have appropriately
observed, ‘English is the great laboratory of today’s sociolinguists’ (Kahane
and Kahane, 1986: 495). Chapter 6 extends these issues to examine the ‘absent
voices’ in present conceptual and methodological paradigms of ‘English for
Specific Purposes’ (ESP). It questions indiscriminate use of language corpora,
its organization and the pragmatic validity of claims made for its cultural, social
and functional appropriateness for the English users in Anglophone Asia.

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 4 Asian Englishes: Beyond the canon

The two chapters in Part III (Mantras) contextualize the canon of creativity
in Asian Englishes specifically with reference to Raja Rao’s classic Kanthapura
(1938), to illustrate an Asian and African dilemma between madhyama, the
medium, and mantra, the message. In other words, the debate is regarding
the relationship between the channel of a message and the ideological constructs
that this channel may convey. This dilemma is perceptively expressed by Raja
Rao when he says that the medium represents ‘an alien language’ and yet, it
is ‘not really an alien language’. Chapter 7, ‘Medium and mantra’, focuses on
Raja Rao and his pioneering articulation of the Indianness in Indian English
in 1938. Chapter 8, ‘Talking back and writing back,’ presents further
authentication of Raja Rao’s credo for creativity by several Asian and African
creative writers in their interviews with Feroza Jussawalla and Reed Way
Dasenbrock (1992). This chapter is a review of their book which focuses on
three intriguing questions about creativity in world Englishes: What does it
mean to write in a language that is not one’s own? What does it mean to have
more than one language to write in? And, how does this bilinguality affect
one’s approach to English? The views of fourteen creative writers comprise
the volume, including four from Anglophone Asia: Raja Rao, Anita Desai,
Zulfikar Ghose, and Bapsi Sidhwa.
In current debates on language shift, decay and extinction the jury is still
out on the putative cause of linguicide, language murder, or language genocide.
In literature a finger is often pointed toward the English language. Part IV
(Predator) revisits the questions of ‘Killer or accessory to murder?’ specifically
with reference to English in Asia. In Part V (Pedagogy), Chapter 10, ‘Contexts
of pedagogy and identity’, argues that there is a functional and pragmatic need
to relate the broader conceptualization of world Englishes to the pedagogy
in the teaching of English in Asian classrooms. This, then, entails a shift in
methodology, in the syllabus design and in the contextualization of the texts.
The concluding section, Part VI (Afterword), Chapter 11, ‘Present tense:
Making sense of Anglophone Asia’, recapitulates the major theoretical strands
— linguistic, ideological, ideational — that contribute vitality and pragmatic
authentication to Asian Englishes. This concluding chapter provides a context
and a backdrop for the watchers of Anglophone Asia. The major points
discussed are:
• The heart of the matter
• Constructing constructs
• Flogging a dead horse
• On getting the Three Circles model backwards
• Identity markers and location
• Pidgins and creoles in the constellation
• Life-Cycle hypothesis and ‘reincarnation’
• Lingua Franca, again!

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 Introduction: Anglophone Asia 5

• Codification and standardization

• The cauldron of ‘empires’
• ‘World Standard Spoken English’ (WSSE) and the real world
• Futurology and the crystal ball
• Asian voices in repositories of knowledge
• The victimology of English
• ‘A different ... uh, kettle of fish’
• Barking up the wrong tree
• Shared strands of ongoing debates

This chapter sums up the major issues, the tensions related to presence of
English in Anglophone Asia, and the underlying reasons for these tensions.
It also seeks to make sense of the present vibrant constructs and debates
surrounding the evolving identities of English in Anglophone Asia.

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