Also on humblebragging: Why many Chinese posters brag by complaining

This study aims to join the recent academic conversation on humblebragging prevalent in Versailles literature on Chinese social media by addressing several important yet somehow underexplored aspects of the cyberpragmatic phenomenon. Based on a sizable self-built database, it finds that the nature of the complainables involved in the Versailles literature makes ostensible complaints interpretable as disguised bragging. It argues that Chinese posters choose to brag under the disguise of ostensible complaining to balance the need of modesty with that of show-off and identification apart from soliciting likes; Tucao subculture, Bandwagon effect, and technological affordances may all contribute to the popularity of such humblebragging on Chinese social media. It is hoped that this article may provide new insights into Chinese humblebrags on the one hand and generate implications for Internet pragmatic research on the other.