Multiracial Mandarin: Asian Americans and Impossible Language with David Shuang Song (U of Minnesota Press, 2026)

Podcast: New Books in Sociology · New Books Network

Opublikowano: 2026-10-17

Who has the “right” to learn Mandarin Chinese? In Multiracial Mandarin: Asian Americans and Impossible Language (U Minnesota Press, 2026), Dr. David Shuang Song examines how matters of race and privilege shape US Mandarin language education and who has access to it. Through a two-year ethnographic study of two Bay Area high schools where diasporic and heritage speakers learn Mandarin alongside Black and Latinx students, Song advances a sociological and educational–linguistic inquiry into how language interacts with our understanding of identity and equity. Comparing classroom activities in two public schools, Dr. Song investigates teachers who seek to make Ma...