Transpositioning through visual translanguaging creativity: A multimodal analysis of a Chinese wanghong vlogger’s identity performance on YouTube

Abstract

This study analyzes how the popular Chinese vlogger Li Ziqi represents herself and the Chinese culture on YouTube for a global audience. It addresses two key issues of identity performance in vlogging: the transpositioning of the self drawing upon pluralized cultural repertories, and the deployment of multimodal resources for identity construction. We extend the notion of translanguaging to multimodal meaning-making practices and explicate the complexity of transcultural identities. Our analysis reveals a high level of multimodal translanguaging creativity in Li Ziqi’s videos, where mise-en-scène, cinematography, and music are orchestrated to blend the traditional Chinese aesthetics with modern, commercialized styles. This multimodal translanguaging creativity allows Li to position herself simultaneously as a romanticized farmer, a postfeminist folk artist, and a Chinese cuisine bon vivant. Each persona reflects further layers of transpositioning—where traditional and (post)modern, local and global, rural and cosmopolitan attributes are seamlessly integrated. This study furthers our understanding of identity hybridity in translocal vlogging as well as multimodal translanguaging as a key strategy for identity performance in social media discourse.