Transnationalizing Raciolinguistics: An Intersectional Analysis for Understanding Chinese International Students’ Language Ideologies Across Contexts

ABSTRACT This study adopts a transnational raciolinguistic perspective to examine how Chinese international students (CISs) navigate language, race, and identity across borders and contexts. Based on semistructured interviews with 14 CISs, the study highlights that pre‐migration socialization in China influences how CISs perceive and interpret their racialized linguistic experiences abroad. Specifically, before arriving in the United States, CISs internalized linguistic hierarchies that positioned “white” American English as a symbol of intelligence and success, reinforced by educational and societal expectations in China. However, in the United States, their English proficiency was racialized, and their Chinese national identity politicized, casting them as perpetual outsiders. They faced accent scrutiny, microaggressions, and racialized assumptions, prompting them to employ various strategies in navigating linguistic and racial hierarchies. These findings underscore that language functions as a racialized marker of belonging and exclusion, emphasizing the need for a globalized framework that captures CISs’ evolving raciolinguistic negotiations across geopolitical contexts.