Commodified Self-Compassion and the “Ai Ni Laoji” (Love You, Good Old Self) Narrative in Critical Discourse Perspective

DOI

10.2991/978-2-38476-611-6_131How to use a DOI?

Keywords

“Ai Ni Laoji” (Love you, good old self); Self-compassion; Consumerism; Critical Discourse Analysis

Abstract

This paper examines the emotional functions and consumerist transformation of the online trending expression “Ai Ni Laoji” (Love you, good old self) through critical discourse analysis of 13 Douyin comments, and links the cases to broader patterns of youth digital affective practices. The study finds that the phrase lowers the psychological threshold for self-care via a strategy of “self-othering,” but is encoded during diffusion as a quantifiable consumption script. Performance logic and purchase logic become mutually embedded, constraining practical pathways for self-care. Concurrently, under pressures such as aesthetic exclusion and dialectical misreading, the density of this emotional expression steadily declines. The findings indicate that internet buzzwords cloaked in positive psychology can redirect young people’s attention from the public sphere toward private consumption in a subtle, nonconfrontational manner, thereby compressing space for collective care. The paper provides an analytical reference for observing contemporary youth emotional expression and its socio-cultural implications, and suggests avenues for further research.

Copyright

© 2026 The Author(s)

Open Access

Open Access This chapter is licensed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 3.0 International License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/3.0/), which permits any noncommercial use, sharing, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons license and indicate if changes were made.

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TY  - CONF
AU  - Zhen Zhao
PY  - 2026
DA  - 2026/09/07
TI  - Commodified Self-Compassion and the “Ai Ni Laoji” (Love You, Good Old Self) Narrative in Critical Discourse Perspective
BT  - Proceedings of the 2026 12th International Conference on Digital Humanities and Frontiers in Social Sciences (DHFSS 2026)
PB  - Atlantis Press
SP  - 1228
EP  - 1238
SN  - 2352-5398
UR  - https://doi.org/10.2991/978-2-38476-611-6_131
DO  - 10.2991/978-2-38476-611-6_131
ID  - Zhao2026
ER  -