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ABSTRACTBuilding on Darvin and Norton's (2015. "Identity and a Model of Investment in Applied Linguistics." Annual Review of Applied Linguistics 35:36–56) model of investment that recognises the intersection of identity, capital, and ideology, this ethnographic case study traces a Chinese EFL learner – Frances (Pseudonym) and examines how she transcends the barriers of entry to engage in critical digital literacies in the wider transcultural and transnational digital world. The analysis of data from multiple sources reveals that what constitutes Frances's criticality as a digitally literate person includes: (1) the stance she adopted to interrogate technological affordances and constraints; (2) the great deal of capital she was able to negotiate in the digital wilds; (3) the positions she agentively took for self-expression and equitable communication in the multicultural, diverse, and unjust world. The findings also highlight that critical digital literacies can present a socially imaginable and cosmopolitan future for Chinese college students in the era of globalisation. Based on the discussion of these findings, a situated understanding of critical digital literacies and a critical digital pedagogy model are proposed to advance the agenda of critical digital language education in China and beyond.KEYWORDS: Critical digital literaciesdigital wildsinvestmentliteracy educationcritical digital pedagogy AcknowledgmentsI am obliged to Frances who voluntarily participated in this study. Many thanks also go to the review panel whose constructive feedback has helped improve the quality of this paper in large measure. I especially appreciate Prof. Ron Darvin for his relentless support and his work on digital literacies and critical digital pedagogy, which has been a source of inspiration for me.Disclosure statementNo potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.Data availability statementDue to privacy and ethical concerns, neither the data nor the source of the data can be made available.Notes1 Bilibili, also known as B site, is the most prevalent online free video-sharing site among Chinese young people. Its functions and design features are quite similar to YouTube.2 Xiaohongshu, often described as China's answer to Instagram, is a popular social media and e-commerce platform, with more than 90% of its users being Chinese females.3 OmeTV, an online and transnational free video chat and social networking platform, allows its users to befriend others from different countries.
Guangxiang Liu (Mon,) studied this question.