The Xiaohongshu Meme: How Chinese Americans Are Protected in the Anti-TikTok Era
Over and over again, the US government has said that its main goal in banning TikTok has always been to shield American users from Chinese propaganda and protect their data.
Over the last few days, TikTok alternatives like Clapper, Flip, and TikTok’s own Lemon8 have risen to the top of the app store charts. The most popular is Xiaohongshu, which has more than 700,000 new users.
The exodus—which was prompted by the ban attempt and carried out through sheer spite—proves how pointless the effort to protect Americans from a “dangerous” app, which has taken more than five years, has truly been. The effort seems to have made things worse for those in power.
Many Americans are also giving advice on how to better integrate with Xianhongshu’s predominantly Chinese user base. A TikTok user made a video asking people in the US to stop saying democracy on the app. She said that if you were Taiwanese and you were on Xiaohongshu, you were now Chinese. Sorry.” I couldn’t find a single piece of criticism in her comment section. Many people thanked her for the tips.
Across TikTok, users are jokingly addressing love letters, tributes, and thank yous to fictional Chinese spies. The ones, the meme goes, who pose the national security threat the US government aims to thwart with the looming TikTok ban, which is slated to go into effect on January 19.
“Started learning in Duolingo and from creators on Red Note [or Xiaohongshu],” one TikTok user wrote to me. “Even added the Chinese keyboard option on my phone.”
TikToker, Instagram, and Me: Why We Don’t Wanna See You? A Video by Lisandra Vazquez and Gabriella Rose
“If we don’t get to hang out anymore, I just want to thank you for the good times we had,” comedian Lisandra Vazquez says in one clip on the video-sharing site. I know that you were looking out for me and sending those tarot readers telling me that he was not good for me. In a different video, TikToker Gabriella Rose lugs a suitcase down a snowy sidewalk, back to the camera. “Me because I’d rather move to China than Instagram Reels,” the overlaid text says.
TikTok user aalamode’s handwriting loops across a manila envelope addressed to the president of China. The video says that it was sending a data care package to the Chinese leader because he took better care of it than the US government has. The camera pans to a young woman with a cheek swab in her mouth, who has a passport with a Social Security card in her purse, and a list of prescriptions, and then shoots a picture of their personal effects.