Self-translation for tapping into affinity with Chineseness: The case of a badminton athlete
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Issued Date
2025-01-01
Resource Type
eISSN
25902911
Scopus ID
2-s2.0-105017282293
Journal Title
Social Sciences and Humanities Open
Volume
12
Rights Holder(s)
SCOPUS
Bibliographic Citation
Social Sciences and Humanities Open Vol.12 (2025)
Suggested Citation
Saejang J., Phanthaphoommee N. Self-translation for tapping into affinity with Chineseness: The case of a badminton athlete. Social Sciences and Humanities Open Vol.12 (2025). doi:10.1016/j.ssaho.2025.102017 Retrieved from: https://repository.li.mahidol.ac.th/handle/123456789/112477
Title
Self-translation for tapping into affinity with Chineseness: The case of a badminton athlete
Author(s)
Author's Affiliation
Corresponding Author(s)
Other Contributor(s)
Abstract
This study aims to investigate how Viktor Axelsen, one of the world's most renowned badminton players, employs self-translation via Instagram to forge a stronger bond and affinity with the Chinese-speaking audience. We use ambient affiliation and appraisal frameworks to analyse the athlete's communing approaches. We have identified six approaches characteristic of his online communing: Entertaining, Embodying, Endorsing, Empathising, Encouraging, and Ensuring. The nonequivalence of his horizontal English to Chinese self-translation, as evidenced by the shift in communing approaches, points to an unstable self-epistemology that enriches the self-translator's life experience. This requires the self-translator to adopt a different voice and persona, thereby contributing to the expansion of their ambient affiliation and the overwhelming positive couplings of ideational and interpersonal meaning.