ABSTRACT
As an example of identity study taking a critical-theoretical perspective, this chapter examines the discursive construction of modern identity in bilingual advertising. In addition to demonstrating whether the critical-cognitive approach is as empirically applicable and analytically productive as proposed, it illustrates the interconnections between modern identity and the local politics of English. In the study of the dynamic interplay between English, modern identity and society, the chapter thereby concerns itself more with the localization of modern identity as manifested in its social, cultural and political meanings alongside a discussion of what role English plays in this process. The main claim of this chapter is that, even though the possibility of multiple forms and meanings of modern identity to be discovered, the ways in which they are constructed and represented through the medium of English or not are structured by the local politics of the English language, leading to a particular configuration of the ideological complex of English that reproduces, and supports, the complex situation of English in China.
