Ethnocultural and pragmatic features of Chinese slang

Context and relevance. The work offers an analysis of Chinese youth slang through the prism of ethnocultural conditioning, integrating sociolinguistic and linguocultural approaches, identifying mechanisms for adapting global trends to local cultural contexts. Objective. To identify the interrelation of cultural traditions, socio-cultural changes and linguistic features of Chinese youth slang. Hypothesis. Chinese youth slang is a unique socio-cultural phenomenon in which traditional Confucian values are intertwined with modern digital practices. Methods and materials. The study used three main sources: the Weibo microblogging platform, Douyin video hosting (an analogue of TikTok) and youth forums (Tieba, Douban). Thematic communities (“super-topics’) related to current youth trends were selected to collect information: #躺平 (tǎngpíng – “lying flat”), #内卷 (nèijuǎn – “hypercompetition”), #00后 (generation Z). Over the period 2021–2023, 2 000 posts were collected and analyzed through the platform’s API, filtered by frequency criteria (at least 50 mentions per month) and contextual saturation. Results. The study identified three key trends: 1) socio-critical use of slang; 2) creative adaptation of language forms; and 3) regional differentiation, which emphasizes the pluralism of the linguistic landscape. Conclusions. Chinese slang serves as an indicator of sociocultural transformations, combining criticism with the search for new ethical models.