When the TikTok ban was looming, many of us grieved the loss of found communities, niche jokes, the many saved videos of recipes we would never make, and the endless laughs we wouldn’t have anymore. During this time, however, there was a silver lining—a messy yet beautiful unassuming friendship between American TikTok users and Xiao Hong Shu’s (also known as RedNote) users.
In retaliation to the ban, American TikTok users flocked to RedNote, a Chinese owned social media app akin to Pinterest and Instagram. It was the number one most downloaded app on January 14th! American TikTok users became known as ‘TikTok refugees’ and were welcomed with open arms by Chinese users. I am proud to say I was witness to this strange, unprecedented, and bittersweet relationship that was developing between American and Chinese users. Even on TikTok, RedNote was trending. I watched videos of people making jokes that they signed up for the next Squid Game after agreeing to the terms and services without knowing how to read Chinese. I saw people actually learning and speaking Chinese within days. I’ve been taking Chinese classes for a decade and I’m still not fluent!
Most importantly, however, were the heartwarming interactions between Americans and Chinese. Americans were helping Chinese students with their English homework after some users were asking for help. One American dad posted a picture of himself with his daughter, writing beneath that he “look[s] forward to all the new friends [they] make across the sea!” The response was overwhelmingly positive, with many Chinese users sending pictures of their own families and saying hello. It was almost as if the divide between China and America didn’t exist.
I was surprised to see many Americans entering RedNote with an open mind, expressing a willingness to learn the Chinese language, learn about Chinese culture, and learn about how Chinese people actually live.
So much of what I’ve seen in the media about China is extremely negative and blatantly Sinophobic. During the Covid-19 pandemic, racism and xenophobia was expressed through media. News media would criticize Chinese government, Chinese people, or Chinese businesses, yet turned a blind eye to other countries who have equally flawed governments and businesses. Anything “Chinese” was considered bad and cheap. The negative attention was always on China. TikTok was no exception.
Signed by President Biden, a law was passed last year with bipartisan support that required Byte Dance, Tik Tok’s parent company, to sell the app to a U.S. company or shut down by January 19th. Supporters of the ban say that TikTok posed a national security risk and that the Chinese government has access to U.S. user data which they can “blackmail” people or “develop spies.” Of course, this sounds ludicrous and hypocritical. If they say TikTok is a national security threat, what about Facebook? Don’t they also “steal” data? In fact, personal data from Facebook users was collected by Cambridge Analytica, a British consulting firm, for political advertising without user consent in 2010. I would say Facebook sounds a lot more like a security threat than TikTok—and, let’s be real here, any and all social media apps use personal data from users. Why ban TikTok but not Facebook or any other form of social media in the U.S.? I believe it stems from Sinophobia and tensions between China and the U.S.
The sheer amount of anti-China rhetoric severely impacted the way I viewed China and my own identity as a Chinese American. I believed what the media had to say about China: that it was an awful place with an evil government. When American users took to RedNote, I was shocked. I would have never seen that coming in a million years and as jarring as it was, I’m glad it happened. For some time, I was guilty of my own culture. China doesn’t have soft power like Japan or Korea does, so I never felt seen. The media glorified Japanese and Korean culture, focusing on anime, K-pop, or K-dramas, whereas Chinese culture was never talked about unless it was to criticize China. Sometimes, and I hate to admit this, I was glad to be mistaken as Japanese or Korean because then I would be seen as cool or pretty in the eyes of society.
From the Chinese users, so many people, like me, discovered what reality actually is in China. It was not some backwards country where everyone was unhappy, it was a thriving one where people had universal healthcare, no property tax, and affordable groceries! The Chinese users were willing to teach Americans about their culture and willing to help them navigate RedNote. Americans were shocked at how nice the Chinese people were and shocked to discover that Chinese people also had the same humor as them, as if Chinese people were some foreign alien and not an individual like them.
In many ways China is better than America, a country that praises itself as being the best while people die from being denied healthcare, grocery prices rising, school shooters run amok, and our rights are being taken away. It hurts to see how much people are conditioned to fear China to the point where they know next to nothing about the country that’s rich in history and culture.
For once it felt nice for people to want to learn about your culture and language and not immediately stereotype you or demonize you. Even if it was brief, I hope this experience opened the eyes of everyone to learn about things themselves and walk through life open minded.
I would have never seen this coming in a million years, but I’m glad it did.