Localizing the Sacred: A Sociolinguistic Study of the Linguistic Landscape in Beijing's Catholic Churches

Abstract

This study examines the linguistic landscapes of four Catholic churches in Beijing to explore how religious institutions negotiate visibility, authority, and cultural belonging in a rapidly urbanizing and commercializing society. Drawing on multimodal analysis and geosemiotic theory, the paper analyzes over 600 signs to reveal how churches construct layered semiotic strategies. Chinese signage reflects state-aligned legitimacy; Latin indexes religious tradition; English evokes cosmopolitan accessibility; and festive or commercial texts mediate local cultural and economic engagement. Churchscapes emerge as hybrid spaces where sacred and secular discourses coexist, sometimes in tension, often in strategic alignment. From liturgical inscriptions to wedding advertisements and themed cafés, signs perform localization not as translation, but as ideological choreography. The findings expand the scope of linguistic landscape research by foregrounding religious sites as dynamic semiotic environments shaped by policy, heritage, and everyday urban life.