The Linguistic Architecture and Value Sublimation of “Shushu Wo A” (I, the Little Rat) in Chinese Youth Discourses

DOI

10.2991/978-2-38476-597-3_55How to use a DOI?

Keywords

“Shushu Wo A” (I, the little rat); Internet Buzzwords; Youth Subculture; Social Mentality

Abstract

This research takes the emerging internet buzzword “Shushu wo a” (I, the little rat) as the research object. Adopting online observation and case analysis, the study explores the buzzword’s linguistic and paralinguistic features including semi-objectified personal structure, reduplicative morphemes and matching memes, and analyzes its unique narrative strategies adopted in different contexts. The findings reveal that beneath the buzzword’s self-deprecating expression lies concealed self-esteem and longing for a better life. During online communication, it undergoes semantic shifts, breaking from subcultural circles into mainstream discourse and realizing value reconstruction from individual sorrowful narration to grand national narratives. This paper aligns with scholarly attention to the positive shift and complex mental narratives of internet buzzwords in the Chinese digital context. It transcends simplistic interpretations of youth self-deprecation in existing research, offers novel insights into empirical evidence and discourse analytical perspectives for understanding the positive transformation of contemporary youth’s social mentality, and enriches research findings on online discourse and digital culture.

Copyright

© 2026 The Author(s)

Open Access

Open Access This chapter is licensed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/), 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  - Zihan Yu
PY  - 2026
DA  - 2026/07/13
TI  - The Linguistic Architecture and Value Sublimation of “Shushu Wo A” (I, the Little Rat) in Chinese Youth Discourses
BT  - Proceedings of the 4th International Conference on Language and Cultural Communication (ICLCC 2026)
PB  - Atlantis Press
SP  - 509
EP  - 518
SN  - 2352-5398
UR  - https://doi.org/10.2991/978-2-38476-597-3_55
DO  - 10.2991/978-2-38476-597-3_55
ID  - Yu2026
ER  -