Becoming Otherwise Through Living Literacies in the In‐Between: Reimagining Critical Literacy in a Chinese Context

ABSTRACT This paper centers on Bo, a rural Chinese student who completed his early education in a rural setting before entering an elite class in an urban high school. Drawing on the concept of living literacies as relational engagements with felt, sensory, and embodied experiences in everyday life, this study examines how Bo made meaning through daily practices, tracing his evolving self‐understanding across time and space. Building on scholarship that approaches critical literacy from an affective perspective, this inquiry highlights how Bo navigated an emotionally charged in‐between space, contended with symbolic violence, and exercised agency by redrawing boundaries of identity and belonging. This study challenges dominant narratives that portray rural Chinese students primarily as passive victims of limited access to cultural capital. It contributes to broader scholarship that redefines what counts as legitimate literacy by foregrounding the lived literacy experiences of marginalized youth. By adopting an expanded lens of literacy, this study dialogues with scholars emphasizing China's distinctive socio‐political context to advance ongoing efforts to rethink and reimagine critical literacy, highlighting affect as central to how marginalized youth navigate and respond to power.