Proceedings of the 4th International Conference on Language and Cultural Communication (ICLCC 2026)

4th International Conference on Language and Cultural Communication (ICLCC 2026)

📍Beijing, China🗓️ 24-26 April 2026
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A Critical Discourse Analysis of “Baoyan Anxiety” in Social Media: A Case Study of Experience-Sharing Posts on The Rednote

Authors
Bowen Sun1, *
1School of General Education, Dalian University of Technology, Dalian, Liaoning, 116024, China
*Corresponding author. Email: sunbowen0511@mail.dlut.edu.cn
Corresponding Author
Bowen Sun
Available Online 13 July 2026.
DOI
10.2991/978-2-38476-597-3_15How to use a DOI?
Keywords
Critical Discourse Analysis; Baoyan Anxiety; Social Comparison; The Rednote; Social Media Discourse
Abstract

Intensifying competition in Chinese higher education has made “Baoyan anxiety” a prevalent issue among undergraduates. This study employs Fairclough’s three-dimensional Critical Discourse Analysis framework and Social Comparison Theory to analyze 20 Baoyan experience-sharing posts on The Rednote. It investigates the discursive strategies constructing this anxiety and how they exacerbate it by distorting social comparison mechanisms. The analysis reveals that anxiety is systematically built through textual features like oxymorons and metaphors, amplified by platform practices, and rooted in social structures (e.g., the meritocratic trap). Crucially, these strategies distort comparisons by triggering extreme upward comparisons, invalidating downward comparisons, and intensifying multi-dimensional self-comparisons, thereby heightening anxiety. This research offers a new perspective on how social media shapes youth emotionality, with implications for education and platform governance.

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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Volume Title
Proceedings of the 4th International Conference on Language and Cultural Communication (ICLCC 2026)
Series
Advances in Social Science, Education and Humanities Research
Publication Date
13 July 2026
ISBN
978-2-38476-597-3
ISSN
2352-5398
DOI
10.2991/978-2-38476-597-3_15How to use a DOI?
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.

Cite this article

risenwbib
TY  - CONF
AU  - Bowen Sun
PY  - 2026
DA  - 2026/07/13
TI  - A Critical Discourse Analysis of “Baoyan Anxiety” in Social Media: A Case Study of Experience-Sharing Posts on The Rednote
BT  - Proceedings of the 4th International Conference on Language and Cultural Communication (ICLCC 2026)
PB  - Atlantis Press
SP  - 124
EP  - 129
SN  - 2352-5398
UR  - https://doi.org/10.2991/978-2-38476-597-3_15
DO  - 10.2991/978-2-38476-597-3_15
ID  - Sun2026
ER  -