Impoliteness as a Social Strategy in Online Communication among China Chinese Youths: Resistance, Solidarity, and Power on BILIBILI

This study explores how Chinese youths employ impolite language as a strategy to resist authority on the video-sharing platform Bilibili. It further investigates how such language use contributes to the emergence of China’s “cancel culture” and reshapes power dynamics in digital spaces. Drawing on Culpeper’s impoliteness taxonomy and Goffman’s theory of face, the analysis reveals that users frequently adopt positive impoliteness tactics to challenge public figures, undermine their moral legitimacy, and mobilize collective disapproval. The findings suggest that online impoliteness functions not merely as personal expression but as a powerful discursive tool for grassroots resistance and the reconfiguration of sociopolitical hierarchies.