The aim of the study is to identify pathways of formal and semantic adaptation of Sinicisms in the contemporary Russian-language media space, using the name of the traditional Chinese musical instrument “гучжэн” (古筝 [gǔzhēng]) as an example. The article examines methods of graphically rendering the Chinese lexical item, ways of its grammatical integration, and techniques of semantization. The corpus comprises 280 texts of various genres: scholarly articles, concert announcements, and product descriptions on marketplaces. For the first time in this line of research, a case-study method was applied to investigate the life of a Sinicism in Russian. A detailed, comprehensive analysis of the history of a single word made it possible to trace the functioning of this specific unit in loosely codified segments of online communication and in academic discourse, and to show the differentiation of strategies for its appropriation depending on discourse type – this constitutes the study’s novelty. The study found that the noun “гучжэн” demonstrates a trajectory typical for contemporary xenisms: from an unassimilated foreign insertion to a systematically integrated lexical unit, passing through stages of graphic variability, grammaticalization, and semantic refinement. Instances were identified of conflation of representations of different instruments and of constructing lexico-grammatical analogies with other Sinicisms. The results contribute to the study of de-exoticization processes of borrowings in digital communication contexts and can be used in lexicographic practice and courses on intercultural communication.