Visualizing language contact

About

This website is about travel and contact.

Travel: to move from one place to another.

Contact: two people or things touch each other.

These two seemingly different activities can produce interwining effects on social structure, culture, language, etc. We will explore how separation from our own cultures and meeting new cultures result in the creation of new modes of communication.

latest articles

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Age of sail: the lorcha
The Age of Discovery, from the 15th to 17th century, created unprecedented opportunities for people of...
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The longitude: east and west
In 1784, the first merchant ship of the newly established United States of America – Empress of China...
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Canton: Shap Pat Pu 十八甫
Located at the Pearl River  (珠江) (Cantonese: zyu1 gong1, Mandarin: zhujiang) in south China, Canton...
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Canton: a language was born
For most of the Ming dynasty (1368–1644) and the early period of the Qing dynasty (1644–1912), China...
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Macau: Cidade do Nome de Deus
Although the Ming dynasty of China (1368–1644) shut the door on establishing foreign relations in the...
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Sancian Island: from deus to joss
It is often acknowledged that Jorge Álvares was the first Portuguese to have landed in China. In 1513,...
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Malaya: picul and godown
The featured image is the receipt from a shop in Penang for an order of rock sugar. Rock sugar 冰糖 (Cantonese:...
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India: Tiffin
When Granville Sharp (1824–1899) arrived in India, he joined the Commercial Bank of India. On 2 November...
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India: chitty, chit
After the landing of the Portuguese explorer Vasco da Gama in Calicut (now Kozhikode), India in 1498...
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Portugal, where the voyage began
The early 20th century was the golden era of postcards. Not only did travelers buy postcards as souvenirs,...
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Doing justice to pidgin English
The modern world is not unfamiliar with different types of mixing – mix-and-match in fashion, crossover...
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Fan-tan
An aspect of Chinese lives that Western writers of the 19th and 20th century often described was gambling....
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Mahjong
The third day of the Chinese New Year is also known as 赤口 (Cantonese: cek3 hou2). Traditionally, it is...
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Sing-song & flower boats
Situated in southern China, the Pearl River (Zhujiang 珠江) is the third longest river in China. Life and...
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Cumsha(w)
 “Hong Kong prospère sous le signe de la cumshaw et le sourire des sing-song girls” (Hong Kong thrives...
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Kismas chop chop come
The Victoria Harbour has been a well-known attraction of Hong Kong. The skyline of the Hong Kong side,...
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Maskee
Not having a chance to feel the “spicy breezes” of Ceylon? Maskee, try Singapore – a country that is...
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Spicy breezes
Before tea became the main industry of Ceylon (now Sri Lanka), it was that attraction of spices that...
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Ceylon 西冷
In 2017, milk tea was declared as an item of “intangible cultural heritage” of Hong Kong. Hong Kong-style...
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茶 ‘tea’
Tea has become one of the popular beverages in Europe since the 17th century. Even coffee houses sold...
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公司(一): The Company
The English East India Company (EIC), also known as the “Governor and Company of Merchants in London,...
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Custom House & Hoppo
The postcard above was sent in 1907 from Singapore to the Custom House of Shanghai via Hong Kong. The...
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Chop-chop & man-man
Someone who is “on active service” participates in military action as a member of the armed force, like...
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First chop & No. 1
A quick reminder of the various meanings of “Chop” – a seal, a stamp, a trademark, a permit, an order,...
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Chop
Kopi is a popular drink in Singapore and Malaysia. However, visitors may find it mind-blowing when it...
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Tael, mace, candareen
Before we travel to a different place, one of the first things we do is to check up on the currencies...
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Shroff
Strolling along the narrow streets in Canton city in the olden days, the first thing that caught your...
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Coolie
Titled “A coolie of Hongkong”, this postcard presented an unusually stylish and calm posture of a coolie....
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Boy
“Boy, go catchee two piecey tea.” ­­– This is perhaps the best way to describe this photograph. The...
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Amah
The letter above, dated 1973, was sent from Macau to Canada. At the end of the letter, Christine told...
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Memsahibs and servants
At the back of the photo above was written “Frank Arthur & servants. 3 years old!” Have you ever...
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Joss
In the last article chin-chin joss, it has been mentioned that joss (or josh) was a form derived from...
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Chin-chin joss
Compiled by Henry Yule and Arthur Coke Burnell, the Hobson-Jobson Being a Glossary of Anglo-Indian Colloquial...
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Yang-king-pang 洋涇浜
Yang-king-pang 洋涇浜 (Yangjingbang in Chinese Pinyin) used to be a tributary of the Huangppu River in Shanghai....
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Factory/Hong 行
This advertisement for a porcelain shop was printed in a travel guide A Pictorial Handbook to Canton...
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Taipan 大班
The image above is a poster of the film Tai-pan, adapted from James Clavell’s 1966 novel of the same...
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Comprador soup 金必多湯
A unique class developed under the context of China trade, the compradores truly embraced the spirits...
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Compradore 買辦
The signing of the Treaty of Nanking in 1842 after the end of the First Opium War (1839-1842) resulted...
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Foreign devil
In Hong Kong, Caucasian men are known as gweilo (鬼佬 gwaai2 lou2) literally ‘ghost man’. Caucasians women...
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Red Haired 紅毛
The Portuguese gained rights to settle and trade in Macau in 1557. The Dutch, a constant rivalry of the...
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Pākē in Hawai‘i
The image shows a cover celebrating the 150th anniversary (1789-1939) of Hawaiʻi and Chinese interaction.  For...
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Hawaiian and English in contact
Hawaiʻi is made up of a group of islands located in the central Pacific Ocean. The state capital and...
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Chin-chin
This postcard was sent from Honolulu, Hawai‘i to Hong Kong in 1888. The writer, Phillips, told the recipient...
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The Postcard craze
When the idea of writing message on a card without an envelope was first proposed, people were quite...
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Contact me

Michelle Li
li.michellekl@gmail.com