Media Practices and Mediatized Identity Among Chinese Immigrants in Canada: Fluidity, Pragmatism, and Cultural Roots

The use of media among transnational immigrant groups provides an opportunity to go beyond the binary framework of identity in understanding migrant identity. This article explores the relationship between their identity and media practices. Drawing on 36 in-depth interviews and participant observation, this study examines how media practices shape identity construction among Chinese immigrants in Canada. Findings show that they use media and shape identities based on needs-oriented pragmatism, engage in media interactions with suspended identities, and enact differentiated media performances through strategies distinguishing internal and external contexts. These media practices cultivate a fluid, flexible, depoliticized mediatized identity, which not only reflects the agency of migrant subjects and the constructive nature of media but is also rooted in diverse social, cultural, and political contexts. Such identities profoundly embody China’s pragmatic tradition of “经世致用” (managing world affairs for practical purposes) as well as the Confucian doctrine of the golden mean, which emphasizes the pursuit of stability and harmony.