From exile to visibility: Performative translation and identity construction of TikTok refugees on Xiaohongshu

This study investigates how TikTok Refugees, users displaced by the TikTok ban, construct and perform their identities in their first posts on Xiaohongshu, a major Chinese social media platform. Drawing on Goffman’s dramaturgical theory and grounded textual analysis of 207 first posts, the study proposes a performative translation model of cross-cultural self-presentation. Five recurring identity roles (Refugee, Witness, Connector, Mediator, and Collaborator) and five performative strategies (Translation, Emotion, Comparison, Ritual, and Authenticity) were identified, showing how digital migrants convert the uncertainty of exile into visible acts of belonging. Findings reveal that the first post functions as a ritualized entry performance oriented simultaneously toward human viewers and algorithmic systems. These performances are the outcome of backstage textual rehearsal, cultural translation, and calibration to platform visibility norms. Identity thus emerges as a dynamic, iterative process of performative translation, where linguistic, affective, and technical elements converge to sustain cross-cultural participation. This study extends Goffman’s dramaturgy into algorithmically mediated and transnational settings by reconceptualizing the digital stage as a mediated environment shaped by visibility logics and affective infrastructures. The concept of performative translation provides a new lens for understanding digital literacy and intercultural competence under platform geopolitics, demonstrating that in global digital ecologies, belonging is performed, ratified, and algorithmically circulated.