The linguistic landscape of Lamma Island: Autoethnography, polycentricity, and the urban-rural nexus in Hong Kong.

The article examines the linguistic landscape (LL) of Yung Shue Wan (YSW) Main Street on Lamma Island, Hong Kong, as a polycentric urban-rural border nexus where diverse populations and multiple centres of authority intersect. Using an autoethnographic approach, the authors analyze public signage that orients to four overlapping centres—municipal, regional, communal, and touristic—highlighting how signs derive meaning both from their design and from varied reader interpretations shaped by linguistic competence and positionality. Examples include a Song Dynasty poem on the public library reflecting regional and touristic symbolism, bilingual environmental signage embodying municipal and communal concerns, and commercial signs that negotiate local and global identities. The study underscores how Lamma's LL reflects complex sociolinguistic dynamics at the urban-rural interface and advocates for reflexive methodologies that consider readers' diverse perspectives in LL research.