Speaking Romanian, being Moldovan: Language choice and intersectional performance on children’s television

Romanian language children’s television in the Republic of Moldova mainstreams identity through children’s performances of language choice. On-screen children and youth, aged 5-16, engage in two types of performative agency: literal singing, dancing, hosting and their implicit self-identification, against a bilingual backdrop (Russian and Romanian - also known as Moldovan). They document (re)definition attempts, expected to create economic opportunities, and make intersectional categories of being a child seem natural while foreclosing others. Children’s television negotiates post-Soviet identity, where language choice intersects with age, class, and national belonging to create distinctly Moldovan performances of childhood.