Being Students, Becoming Influencers: Constructing English Major Influencers’ Identities on Chinese Social Media

ABSTRACT This study interrogates the performance and negotiation of digital identity among student influencers on RedNote, a Chinese social media platform. Drawing on a multimodal discourse analysis of 1854 posts produced by 18 English major influencers, we elucidate how identities are discursively fashioned through verbal narratives and visual composing strategies, and how these performances engage broader sociocultural discourses. Three interrelated identities are identified: the relatable peer (cultivating affective closeness and everyday authenticity), the motivated model (performing diligence, authority, and achievement), and the lifestyle‐savvy icon (aestheticizing study and curating consumption). To give a possible account for the amalgamation of these personas, we propose the notion of identity assemblage, one inextricably shaped by the platform's multimodal, relational, and sociotechnical affordances. Such assemblage performs a dual function: it materializes neoliberal discourses of meritocracy and self‐enterprise while also articulating a counter‐discourse of resilience against the prevailing narrative of disciplinary precarity. RedNote, in this light, operates as a third space that enables and sustains this intricate identity work. Our study advances scholarship on student identity and edu‐influencer practices by illuminating digital self‐making at the intersection of platform culture, affective labor, and educational anxiety.