The Code Game of Digital Natives: Language Innovation and Identity Performance in the Online Communication of New Malaysian Chinese Youth

Shiqi Tan

doi:10.54691/jm5f2b80

Authors

Shiqi Tan

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.54691/jm5f2b80

Keywords:

New Malaysian Chinese youth; Network mixed language code; Chinese identity; Digital natives; Language innovation.

Abstract

This study focuses on the new Malaysian-Chinese youth (aged 16-25) on platforms such as TikTok and Instagram. Through an analysis of 1 million characters of online language data and in-depth interviews with 30 young people, combined with the social linguistic variation model and digital anthropology methods, it explores the characteristics of their self-created mixed codes and the mechanism of reconstructing "Chineseness". The study found that the mixed codes present three types: cross-language abbreviations (such as "U2" "TQ"), dialectal rhymes (such as "886"), and lexical reconfiguration (such as "wood ear" replacing "agaric"). Among them, the local expressions like "wood ear" accounted for 67% in the relevant semantic fields, and 90% of the frequent users tended to mark their "Malaysian-Chinese" identity in their personal profiles and interact with the transnational Malaysian-Chinese community. This language innovation, through digital symbol practice, shifts "Chineseness" from traditional cultural inheritance to dynamic construction, and challenges the dominance of English naming through a "cultural " form， becoming a bond of identity connecting the new Malaysia and global Malaysian-Chinese communities.

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