Zhang Lingxiao, Shen Tao
City University of Hong Kong School of Creative Media, Hong Kong, Hong Kong SAR, China.
Tongji University College of Design and Innovation, Shanghai, China.
Front Psychol. 2025 Aug 12;16:1643942. doi: 10.3389/fpsyg.2025.1643942. eCollection 2025.
In digital societies, social media has emerged as a critical arena for immigrant communities to engage in identity construction, yet there remains limited research on identity negotiation within specific digital platforms in the Chinese context. This study examines how Mainland Chinese immigrants negotiate identity, express emotions, and engage in social interactions on Hong Kong's LIHKG platform (a locally dominant online forum established in 2016 that serves as Hong Kong's primary community discussion platform) to adapt to the local socio-cultural environment. The research conceptualizes place as both physical location (Hong Kong as destination) and digital space (LIHKG as virtual locale), exploring how these intersecting spatial dimensions shape identity construction processes. Using grounded theory methodology, we analyzed 800 platform posts and conducted in-depth interviews with 20 Mainland Chinese immigrants. Results reveal a dynamic identity negotiation process characterized by four patterns (integrative, confrontational, collaborative, and avoidance) that immigrants strategically employ across different contexts. Place emerges as a fundamental organizing principle, with immigrants navigating between physical Hong Kong, digital platform spaces, and imagined cultural territories in their identity work. Emotions emerged as critical resources in identity construction, with specific regulation strategies developed to navigate exclusionary experiences. Interactions between immigrants and locals demonstrated significant topic differentiation, with political discussions exhibiting heightened boundaries while professional and everyday topics facilitated collaborative engagement. LIHKG's platform features-including anonymity mechanisms and voting systems-fundamentally shape these identity expressions and group dynamics. This research contributes to migration studies by incorporating both digital and physical place dimensions into traditional frameworks, integrating emotional sociology, and developing localized theoretical models specific to Hong Kong-Mainland relations. The findings offer implications for digital inclusion policies, platform governance, immigrant support services, and construction of inclusive public discourse across multiple place-based contexts.
在数字社会中，社交媒体已成为移民群体进行身份建构的关键领域，但在中国背景下，针对特定数字平台内身份协商的研究仍然有限。本研究考察了中国大陆移民如何在香港的连登讨论区平台（一个于2016年设立的本地主导在线论坛，是香港主要的社区讨论平台）上协商身份、表达情感并参与社会互动，以适应当地的社会文化环境。该研究将场所概念化为物理位置（香港作为目的地）和数字空间（连登讨论区作为虚拟场所），探讨这些相互交叉的空间维度如何塑造身份建构过程。运用扎根理论方法，我们分析了800篇平台帖子，并对20名中国大陆移民进行了深入访谈。结果揭示了一个动态的身份协商过程，其特征表现为四种模式（融合、对抗、协作和回避），移民在不同情境中策略性地运用这些模式。场所成为一个基本的组织原则，移民在身份建构工作中穿梭于香港实体、数字平台空间和想象中的文化领域之间。情感成为身份建构中的关键资源，移民们制定了特定的调节策略来应对排斥性经历。移民与当地人之间的互动显示出显著的话题差异，政治讨论的界限更为突出，而专业和日常话题则促进了协作参与。连登讨论区的平台功能——包括匿名机制和投票系统——从根本上塑造了这些身份表达和群体动态。本研究通过将数字和物理场所维度纳入传统框架、整合情感社会学以及开发针对香港与内地关系的本地化理论模型，为移民研究做出了贡献。研究结果对数字包容政策、平台治理、移民支持服务以及跨多个场所背景的包容性公共话语建构具有启示意义。
