The language policy and planning in Shenzhen during the Greater Bay Area period: a bottom-up perspective

The bottom-up language policy and planning (LPP) emphasises the role of individuals' language behaviours and language attitudes in modifying LPP decisions. To better understand the bottom-up LPP practices in a migrant city in an integrated economic region, this study targeted Shenzhen Special Economic Zone in the Greater Bay Area (GBA) in China. A sociolinguistic survey was conducted to investigate 699 Shenzhen residents' self-reported language behaviours and language attitudes. The major findings were as follows: (1) The current speech communities in Shenzhen demonstrated a pattern of '+bilingualism/-diglossia,' in which Shenzhen residents generally had a Mandarin-dominated bilingual language competence ('+bilingualism') and performed a functional compartmentalisation of different speech varieties in their linguistic practices ('-diglossia'). (2) The participants' language attitudes suggested that they embraced the prestige of Mandarin and the coexistence of other speech varieties with a significant value-oriented preference for instrumental varieties over culturally representative ones. Based on the cross-reference between the bottom-up description and the top-down government policy documents, it is suggested that Shenzhen LPP implementors could consider fully integrating the roles of different speech varieties in the multilingual context of Shenzhen for the strategic development of the city.