Performing my other self: movement between languages, cultures and societies

Abstract In this article, we employ creative methodologies that enable an immigrant individual to speak out about their lived realities. Drawing on Kristeva’s notion of creative mimesis, performative writing is used to carve out new spaces for understanding the interplay between languages, cultures, and societies. Engaging with an anonymous letter that garnered widespread attention on Chinese social media [我奋斗了18年才和你坐在一起喝咖啡], this article demonstrates how creative mimesis can cultivate epistemic capabilities – allowing individuals to generate interpretive materials that articulate their lived worlds. By privileging the voice of ‘ordinary people’ [普通人] – those whose perspectives are often overlooked – we position this research as distinct from conventional academic genres, emphasizing the emotional, linguistic, and aesthetic dimensions of displacement. The article draws attention to style – made visible through what convention typically rejects – highlighting the ways immigrants live in difference. Public performance emerges not only as a unique form of knowledge-making but also as a call for readers from diverse backgrounds to participate in the process of meaning-making. In doing so, this collaborative research empowers the immigrant subject on the margins to reclaim agency over their narratives and their understanding of the world. To conclude, we argue that performative texts hold methodological potential for creating a dialogic, relational space – one that enables the very people we aim to serve and inspire.