Everything you need to know about Xiaohongshu
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That's so adorable. Do they really think that's going to work with the rabble heading over there?
Most of the rabble headings are sharing their life and cat photos, with all love and peace.
I like them.
I'm sure the censorship system blocked out level-headed elites who keep throwing 'CCP' 'Tiannnwan' 'Winnie the Pooh' 'Xijian GENOCIDE!!!' out of their mouth
US government: Threaten to ban - Hold a hearing - interrogation - Create panic - Force selling - Sign the ban bill - Oops
Chinese government: Well done!
People were accusing the CCP of using TikTok as a propaganda platform (despite the lack of any real supporting evidence other than a prevailing belief that there must be nefarious intent behind any Chinese owned product) and are now accusing the CCP of also having brainwashed Americans to move to another even more sinister app where I guess they get a dose of the super propaganda?
I mean, that isn't how real governments operate, it's how comic book supervillains operate.
It's true, there is an absolute invasion by the Americans & co. going on there right now, with pretty much any Western post collected under the collective hashtag gathering tens of thousands of likes and elbowing out Chinese posts. Viewed through a sociological lens, the chaos there has many hallmarks of a real migration, only that it unfolds at a rapid speed intrinsic to the Internet. There's novelty and a lot of groping about to discover the platform. There has also been a near instantaneous emergence of profit-seekers and shovel-sellers: new users peddling videos with "tutorials to Xiaohongshu", beginner Chinese learners trying to teach useful Chinese phrases to other new users, or random people acting as impromptu spokespersons for the entire migrant movement, all in hope to garner the most attention.
For people who crave a following, it's a new round of musical chairs with all of the chairs initially empty and all participants starting in a mad dash from the other side of the room. There's very few foreign "celebrities" on the platform, and whatever the Westerners post is by definition fresh. Whoever moves first can get an incommensurate number of followers material by posting material that is mediocre by Western TikTok standards.
The Chinese are generally (still) fascinated by the newcomers, as:
- the newcomers are mostly white, and the Chinese as a whole consider foreigners attractive
- the newcomers often speak fluent English with an accent. While the Chinese are schooled in English at school and are tested in it during their maturity exam, many have never used it in practice and their pronunciation was taught wrong in the first place by inadequate teachers. It's first-time exposure to living and breathing foreigners for many Chinese.
- the content that the newcomers post is different to regular Xiaohongshu content, closer to TikTok, and therefore fresh (to Xiaohongshu users).
That said, what evidence do you have that the migration to Xiaohongshu was a government-coordinated affair? There's enough rational choice and sociological arguments to be made to justify both the Westerners' preference for a fresh platform and cheap popularity, and the considerable attention that is given to them by the Chinese. And what tuning of TikTok are you talking about?