Netizen Voices on TikTok “Refugees”: “We All Know This Isn’t Going to End Well, so Let’s Enjoy This ‘Global-village Moment’ While We Can”

As the U.S. Supreme Court voted to uphold a law forcing either the sale or ban of ByteDance-owned TikTok, “TikTok refugees” continued flocking to the Chinese-language app Xiaohongshu, also known as RedNote. The influx of new foreign accounts has both puzzled and fascinated Xiaohongshu’s Chinese members, and raised challenges for the platform’s censorship and language-support capabilities. Screenshots being shared on Chinese social media reveal that Xiaohongshu has instituted real-name registration rules requiring a Chinese SIM card—thus kicking some overseas users off the app—and is also urgently recruiting English-language content moderators. There are also reports of new Xiaohongshu users being baffled by the app’s censorship guidelines or having their posts summarily deleted. In the last four days, CDT Chinese editors have archived 14 articles and essays about the wave of “TikTok refugees” and what it bodes for Xiaohongshu, for the internet, and for Sino-American relations.

One such essay, written by Ericaliga, a Chinese Weibo user living overseas, drew many thought-provoking comments from Weibo readers. The author begins by describing her mixed feelings about the ease with which American “TikTok refugees” are able to access Xiaohongshu, and the generally warm welcome extended to them on that platform—in marked contrast, the author notes, to the hostility and prejudice often encountered online and offline by Chinese citizens living in the U.S. or other Western countries. On the other hand, the author recognizes that the influx of Americans on Xiaohongshu benefits many Chinese citizens who have limited opportunities to live or work abroad, to study English, or to interact with people of different nationalities and ethnicities. A partial translation of Ericaliga’s essay appears below, followed by a compilation of Weibo comments about the essay.

The flood of TikTok refugees on Xiaohongshu makes many overseas Chinese uncomfortable, because we know very well what would happen if we were to do the same thing in reverse—if we were to show up on IG, say, and post a short video saying "Hello, Americans! I’m from Changsha. Ask me anything!" We know all too well what kind of response we’d get.

The likeliest response: no one would pay any attention to you.
But if someone did pay attention to you, it would probably take one of two forms:
If you’re a woman, it’s “Hey hottie you wanna taste some 🍆?”
If you’re a man, it’s “Go back to your country!”

Unlike the TikTok refugees on Xiaohongshu who can get loads of attention, interactions, and friendly comments just for speaking their own language, posting short videos devoid of content, and revealing their real identities online.

For overseas Chinese, the phenomenon feels like a slap in the face, like you’ve spent all day working so much harder than white people do, and then suddenly some white people show up and say, "Hey, look how easy our lives are!"

[…] How could I not be annoyed? How could I not feel frustrated?

[…] But in the midst of that frustration and annoyance, there was also a glimmer of self-awareness, something I’d like to share with other overseas Chinese who, like me, feel uncomfortable with the phenomenon [of Tiktok refugees flocking to Xiaohongshu].

All of the feelings and experiences I mentioned above come from a position of privilege—the privilege we have compared to most other Chinese people.

Among a population of 1.4 billion Chinese people, 1.17 billion have never been abroad. And for reasons of which we’re all aware, we’ve never had a robust online platform for real-time communication with overseas internet users. (Those platforms that did exist briefly are now dead and gone.)

Hatred between people arises on both sides from a mutual lack of communication. The only mainstream information channel that remains is the media, which invariably magnifies the other party’s flaws. Those who only speak one language do not see the real news, nor do they have a genuine understanding of the real world.

The influx of TikTok refugees, at least for now, is providing the majority of Chinese people—those who have never been abroad or communicated with actual foreigners—with a glimpse of a different world.

[…] As Chinese people living overseas, we will continue to face our own identity struggles. And while the irony of white people so breezily setting up Xiaohongshu accounts makes us undeniably uncomfortable, we must also recognize that for most of our compatriots, it is a great thing to be able to open a window onto the world, to have opportunities to communicate with others, and to have a place to practice their English. [Chinese]

CDT Chinese editors have compiled some of the many Weibo comments in response to Ericaliga’s post:

茹我所愿好好生活: If this were an essay, it would get perfect marks for critical thinking.

修仙鲤鱼: Sure, I’ve seen some posts about language hegemony when I was scrolling through. But I can’t deny that those [overseas] posts gave me a rare glimpse at other corners of the world. I saw posts about American policewomen, and about birds from different countries. I also think it’s a bit ironic that this time around, people so quickly became aware of the underlying power dynamics of language. But then why are they so insensitive to language that’s insulting to women, and why do they attack those who point out the problem?

走过漫长的深冬: I really like a comment I saw here on Hongshu: "There’s a crack in the invisible Berlin Wall, and Li Hua finally received an answer to his letters." [Li Hua, who adores English and often writes letters to his foreign pen pals, is a stock character from the English-language essay section of the gaokao, China’s national university entrance exam.]

行云不问: I think they’ll leave as quickly as they came. After all, Xiaohongshu isn’t TikTok.

Ericaliga: Right, the censorship department probably isn’t as efficient as usual because Chinese New Year’s coming up! ☺️ I’m guessing they’ll be back at work as soon as New Year is over.

wendy_lands: replying to @Ericaliga: It’s because they can’t afford to hire [enough] censors, so they rely on automated censorship. On all the major platforms, there’s always a lot of content in slang or coded language that manages to slip through.

居里壹壹: A lot of them might just be toadying up to white folks, but even more of them are genuinely curious about the real lives of ordinary folks “outside the wall.”

狗叠我想抽你鼙鼓: Yeah, I also just found out that there are a lot of ordinary Americans who have to work two jobs just to make ends meet.

我有的是力气和力气:I feel like it’s the "the wall" that creates these barriers and inequalities.

neverpark: I totally agree!

HA_Be-happy: I’m annoyed that TikTok refugees can sign up for accounts as easily as breathing, with nothing more than a short intro video and an overseas IP address, and just randomly post jokes and memes. Yet again, the space for Chinese content creators is shrinking. But it’s nice to see people using translation software to communicate in broken Chinese, and to see a Black lady who was praised for her beautiful voice and then quickly learned to sing a song in Hokkien dialect. And I think the “cat tax” is totally adorable. Last night at 1:00 a.m., I was still listening to refugees live-chatting in various languages ​​about better ways to use Chinese-language software. After TikTok was banned [sic], this strange trend caught everyone off guard. Although we know this friendly window won’t stay open long, at least it gives us a glimpse of what it would be like to live in a utopia where we’re all one big family.

卧槽什么鬼xx: We all know this isn’t going to end well, so let’s enjoy this “global-village moment” while we can.

碎碎念的饼饼: Well said! I’ve already seen some sexual harassment in response to posts by white women, but on the whole, I’m still really glad to see people on both ends of the internet being able to communicate in a friendly way and finally understand that we are all just human!

明天就搬去科孚岛_: After being “walled off” for so many years, suddenly we’re able to see people of all different skin colors sharing the same social media platform. Most are just curious and want to gawk at other people’s lives. This kind of curiosity is actually quite sad. Shouldn’t everyone be entitled to the same right of access?

Cleo阿直: Sometimes I’m really shocked by certain Chinese people’s naive sense of “collective honor.” Browsing the comment sections of a few TikTok refugees who asked if this platform is queer-friendly, I saw that the top comments basically said it was quite welcoming: "Most people here are queer-friendly," "Just be careful not to be too direct,” and "You can also type in the ‘le’ tag …” Omg, as if “le” weren’t already a product of being banned so much that it shrunk down from lesbian→les→le, but now it’s become some sort of queer-friendly signpost. Everyone’s forgotten that history, and now it’s just this tiny, discordant note. It’s like when guests visit your home and you forget about the pain of being beaten by your parents every day. At times like these, I sigh and think, “Yeah, Chinese people are the best.”

奈liang良: It makes me miserable that anyone would even type the words “Be careful not to be too direct.”

蛋水混合物: Actually, I think the saddest thing about those comments is that some aren’t pretending—that’s really what they think. Internalized homophobia has led them to truly believe that just because it’s not illegal to be queer here, it’s a welcoming environment.

喜欢卡西利亚斯是一种人生态度: I think some of those comments are just ridiculous. It’s like, “Oh, the foreigners are here now, so we’d better whitewash the bad stuff and pretend to be welcoming.”

真把自己睡进坟场了: We’re awfully good at self-censorship. [Chinese]

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