Identity Construction and Psychological Compensation Among “Online Leftist Youth” on Social Media-A Qualitative Study of Douyin and Bilibili

DOI: https://doi.org/10.62517/jnme.202610408

Author(s)

Yiduo Zhao

Affiliation(s)

Fuzhou University, Xiamen, Fujian, China

Abstract

This paper examines how young Chinese users who identify with left-wing politics build group identity on Douyin and Bilibili. Data were collected through netnography and semi-structured interviews. Three findings stand out. First, identity formation begins with learning a covert symbolic vocabulary rather than declaring political beliefs. Second, left-wing discourse functions as psychological compensation: it shifts blame from personal failure to structural causes and wraps anger in irony. Third, the two platforms support different modes of engagement. Bilibili encourages deeper, knowledge-based belonging; Douyin enables quick emotional release. The paper extends Jenkins’s participatory culture framework to a censored political context and proposes the concept of discursive compensation to account for the gap between online expression and offline action.

Keywords

Online Leftist Youth; Identity Construction; Psychological Compensation; Participatory Culture; Social Media; Coded Discourse; Netnography

References

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