Online Peer Advice: Giving Advice on Chinese Social Networking Sites

摘要

This study investigates advice-giving in peer-to-peer comment sections on Chinese social networking sites. The results show that advice, explanation, experience, and assessment are the four most frequent discursive moves in Chinese advice given by peers on social networking sites. Involvement, mitigation, and face-threatening strategies are also utilized frequently by those peers to give directives and express empathy and solidarity on Chinese online sites, thereby building supportive relationships among them in online communities. The online peer advice-giving in this study is influenced by multiple aspects of the platform, participants, and language use, presenting distinctive characteristics that differ from other studies.