Multilingual Practices in China-Vietnam Borderlands: A Case of Supermarket at Hekou

Against the backdrop of increasingly frequent cross-border mobility, language plays an important role in catering to the needs of foreign migrants who come to China for various purposes. This study selected a supermarket in Hekou, a China-Vietnam border town, as a research site for examining how different languages are displayed across different areas of the supermarket and what functions these languages serve. Based on the content analysis of 127 multilingual signs and semi-structured interviews with seven bilingual employees, the study reveals three major findings. First, the supermarket’s linguistic landscape is dominated by bilingual signs. Specifically, Chinese-Vietnamese signs serve practical communicative functions, while Chinese-English signs mainly appear on electronic products and imported goods. Second, Chinese-Vietnamese bilingual signs perform important informative functions such as directional guidance, price transparency, usage instructions, and rule communication. However, interview data show that multilingual signs alone cannot fully meet the needs of Vietnamese customers, who prefer interpersonal communication for product details and promotional information. Third, English serves symbolic rather than practical communicative functions in that English signs create a fashionable atmosphere for young Vietnamese customers, signal high-end product quality, project a formal and professional institutional image, and position the supermarket as an internationally oriented venue for cross-border shoppers. The study concludes that the multilingual signs in the border supermarket serve both informative and symbolic functions. Practical suggestions are provided for offering Vietnamese language training for border service workers so as to facilitate cross-border trade and people-to-people connectivity between China and Vietnam.