‘I call myself a five (rubbish/loser), but I don’t really want to be’: online identity and translanguaging play in social media

Abstract Failure or being a loser are identities not openly recognized or acceptable in a merit-driven society, especially for top university students. This study investigates the role of translanguaging play in negotiating identities related to precarious life experiences within a Chinese online community on Douban. Drawing on discourse-centered online ethnography (DCOE) and Moment Analysis, we explore how ‘loser’ identities are negotiated, destabilized, and subverted through homophonic wordplay on ‘five’. The findings reveal that participants employ translanguaging play to reclaim the ‘five’ label in self-deprecation, develop ‘five lexicology’ to build solidarity, and oscillate between ‘being a five’ and ‘de-fiving’ under meritocratic pressures. These demonstrate participants’ creativity in deploying diverse semiotic resources alongside metalinguistic and genre knowledge. We further argue that psychological distance between named languages itself constitutes a translanguaging resource for identity work, as the affective gap between English five and Chinese fèiwù (rubbish/loser) enables participants to re-represent failure through a register of playful lightness. Translanguaging play thus carves out a safe space in which vulnerability can be voiced, ascribed identities transcended, and resilience cultivated against uncertainty.