Strategic selves within global mobility: metalinguistic awareness and metaperception in Chinese Singaporeans’ transnational passing

Passing is generally understood as the strategic act of being perceived as a member of a group other than one's own. This study reframes passing as an audience-sensitive practice shaped by passers' metaperception and metalinguistic awareness. Analysis of Chinese Singaporeans' passing experiences indicates that global mobility expands motivations for passing beyond traditional community-bound settings. While abroad, participants make linguistic adaptations to appear culturally unmarked, framing these practices as pragmatic responses to situational risks rather than long-term identity alignment. Notably, passing decisions are driven less by personal evaluations of ascribed groups than by participants' anticipations of the audience's sociolinguistic competence.