Saejang J.Phanthaphoommee N.Mahidol University2025-10-082025-10-082025-01-01Social Sciences and Humanities Open Vol.12 (2025)https://repository.li.mahidol.ac.th/handle/123456789/112477This 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.PsychologySocial SciencesDecision SciencesArticleSCOPUS10.1016/j.ssaho.2025.1020172-s2.0-10501728229325902911