The chop suey letterform in historical Los Angeles Chinatowns

This study investigates the sociosemiotic practices of the chop suey letterform in three historical Chinatowns of Los Angeles. Created to index Chineseness in the 1880s America, the chop suey letterform has been controversial in use yet remains highly visible in today’s global linguistic landscape. This study examines visual data to capture the diachronic changes and synchronic variations in typographic ideologies over temporal space. It analyzes the dynamic meaning-making processes involved to construct ethnocultural identities, sustain power relations, and negotiate social re-positionings. In doing so, it proposes a new constitutive frame analytical approach to reveal the changeability and interconnectedness of discursive frames in political-economic transformations. On one hand, it critiques the chop suey letterform as symbolic capital utilized to create and sustain hegemonic regimes of racialization, domestication, and commodification. On the other hand, it highlights the progressive role the letterform plays through semiotic negotiation in social re-positionings and identity transformations.