Home-based care has become a predominant mode of elderly care in China amidst rapid population aging. This paper draws on a ‘narratives-as-practices’ approach (De Fina & Georgakopoulou, 2012; De Fina, 2021) to analyze storytelling in naturally occurring, face-to-face interactions in four Chinese families. We examine the types of narratives that are told, how they are constructed, and the interactional functions they serve in home-based eldercare. Two primary modes of storytelling were identified: 1) collaborative storytelling that involves interactions between older persons and their caregivers; and 2) unilateral storytelling where narratives are constructed by older persons alone, with limited participation or engagement from the listeners. Three narrative types were further distinguished, namely, personal, collective, and vicarious narratives. All three types of narratives were observed in the collaborative mode of storytelling, whereas the unilateral mode of storytelling exclusively features vicarious narratives. We show that these narratives were produced to perform a range of interactional goals in home-based eldercare, including fostering caregivers’ understanding, advocating generational values, conveying expectations, and sustaining social bonds. By revealing the narrative patterns in home-based eldercare communication and how they reflect and constitute the ‘power-solidarity’ dynamics in the family, this study sheds light on the complexities of intergenerational communication in the emerging context of home-based elderly care in China.

This paper investigates the appropriation of offline linguistic landscapes (LLs) on Chinese social media, with a particular focus on how these LLs are creatively deployed for playful mockery and disruption of existing social order. Specifically, we present detailed analyses of a blog post and its comments to illustrate how Weibo users creatively appropriate offline LLs to playfully mock universities. Drawing on frameworks of Geosemiotics and ?ambient affiliation?, we examine the semiotic mechanisms through which the playful mockery is realized and how such mockery is perceived by the audience. The findings show that the creative appropriation of offline LLs is realized via three strategies ? resemiotization, emplacement, and homonym. Some users align with the ?mockery? bond by showing their amusement, whereas others promote the bond by posting similar cases of mockery to engage potential readers in the digital practice. We argue that these creative semiotic practices not only reflect users? agency of exploiting the playful potential of social media for expressing their sentiments, but may also deconstruct the general portrayal of universities as the ?ivory tower? of talent cultivation and knowledge production. This may, in turn, diminish the prestige of universities and risk creating an opposition between the public and these institutions.

This study examines a widely used yet underexplored digital affordance specific to the Chinese social media platform WeChat, i.e., the “tap-tap” (拍一拍) function, with a particular focus on users’ metacommunicative reflections on its role in online communication. Adopting a discourse-centered online ethnographic approach that combines analyses of naturally-occurring instances of “tap-tap” use and interviews with these users, this study explores the creative ways in which participants exploit the communicative potential of “tap-tap”, and how they interpret the role of this technological affordance in their online interactions. Drawing on the concept of ‘metacommunicative reflexivity’ in sociolinguistics and communication studies, as well as ‘interpretative flexibility’ in the sociology of science, we highlight the agency of users as active adaptors of the ‘intended scripts’ of digital technologies for meaning-making and interpersonal connection. The study shows that “tap-tap” is inherently interactive, which is evident not only in its content design but also in users’ active deployment of this function for self-representation, interpersonal alignment, and conversation management. By emphasizing users’ metacommunicative reflections on a digital affordance specific to WeChat messaging, this study offers contextualized insights for understanding the complexity and creativity involved in contemporary digital communication.

Social media has emerged as an important channel for mental health education, allowing health educators to communicate mental health knowledge to the public via short-form videos. Drawing on critical multimodal discourse analysis, this paper examines the use of multimodal metaphors in animated depression educational videos on the Chinese social media platform Bilibili.com and considers the broader social implications of these metaphors for understanding and managing depression. The findings show that multimodal metaphors are employed to represent the nature of depression, its symptoms, potential causes, and treatments. Conventional metaphors (e.g., Experiencing Depression is Being Engulfed by a Blanket of Darkness) transform mental distress into a visible and embodied presence, thereby validating the sufferers’ illness experiences; creative metaphors (e.g., Depression is the Grim Reaper and Depression is a Black Dog) reframe depression as external agents, while also attributing a certain level of agency to individuals and combating social stigma. Moreover, by personifying brain chemicals and simplifying neurological mechanisms, multimodal biomedical metaphors make complex knowledge more understandable to the audience. While these metaphors play an important role in removing barriers to public understanding, by prioritizing a biomedical account, they also risk dehumanizing and overmedicalizing individuals who are affected by depression. Therefore, we argue that a more balanced approach that incorporates both biomedical and psychosocial aspects of depression is needed for a more holistic and socially oriented mental health education.

This paper explores health literacy mediation in Chinese online medical consultations (OMCs). Adopting a social practice view of (health) literacy, the study examines naturally occurring instances of health literacy mediation in which caregivers act as “mediators” by initiating and receiving online medical services on behalf of their family members who may have limited health literacy. The analysis focuses on the discursive and interactional strategies through which these mediators participate in OMCs, articulate their family members’ illness experiences, and support the management of their health. The findings show that literacy mediation serves as a powerful means of addressing health literacy barriers, promoting inclusion, and empowering linguistically and digitally marginalised groups to achieve better health outcomes through the support of others. Drawing on the view of health literacy as shared resources, knowledge, and expertise distributed across individuals’ social networks, the paper argues that, apart from an emphasis on independent mastery of health-related texts and practices by an individual, literacy mediation provides an alternative pathway to enhancing health equity for less-advantaged groups, by mobilising the resources of people who help them with navigating challenging digital health texts.

This book examines language and communication in a novel area of digital health. Situating itself within the sociocultural paradigm of literacy research, the book proposes a discourse-oriented approach to genetic literacy and applies it to the study of public engagement with direct-to-consumer (DTC) genetic testing—an emergent biotechnology operating at the intersection of personal genomics, consumer culture, and online health. The author draws on a rich dataset comprising marketing materials from a leading genetic company in China, interviews with genetic test users, and online forum interactions involving consumers and members of the genetic company. Using in-depth analyses of authentic discourse data, the book examines how key stakeholders in DTC genetic testing discursively construct and negotiate socially situated knowledges about genetics and health to pursue a range of interactional goals. Challenging the static and cognitive view of genetic literacy as a set of decontextualised knowledge and skills in scientific and medical fields, this book argues for a reconceptualisation of genetic literacy as a dynamic and socially situated discursive practice. Building on key insights from medical sociology, the author discusses genetic literacy within the context of broader societal shifts, including the biomedicalisation of health and the rise of neoliberal ideologies and practices in contemporary healthcare. Written in a clear and accessible style, this book will appeal to researchers and students working in the areas of sociolinguistics, discourse analysis, and health communication. It will also be of particular interest to practitioners in genetics and health, as well as members of the general public seeking to understand the social aspects of public engagement with genetics and health.