I am not a big social media user but I downloaded xiaohongshu just to see how things were going there firsthand.
It was downright heartwarming.
Chinese users being incredibly open to people coming on to the platform, going out of their way to provide messages in English and tutorials on how things work. Obviously it is a great chance for them to expand their viewership too. USians to their credit, being pretty humble and often even trying to use some mandarin or express interest in learning it. A lot of questions that seem to stem from legitimate curiosity as opposed to any kind of maliciousness. Legitimately some of the most positive social media I think I have ever seen in my life.
Will people stick with it? I have no idea, but I can only hope a little bit of the attitude sticks around longterm.
It probably helps that XHS is one of the more LGBT and feminist friendly platforms with a mix of libs sprinkled in to ease them in. Some of those same libs were shocked that Americans healthcare costs and needing to work multiple jobs to survive was actually true, and not state propaganda as they previously thought.
The whole thing turned out to be incredibly wholesome. This is the first mass cultural exchange between regular people in US and China, and it went better than anyone could’ve expected. I really think this is exactly what we need going forward. Regular people talking to other people across the world, realizing we’re not that different from each other and we all want the same things.
I am not a big social media user but I downloaded xiaohongshu just to see how things were going there firsthand.
It was downright heartwarming.
Chinese users being incredibly open to people coming on to the platform, going out of their way to provide messages in English and tutorials on how things work. Obviously it is a great chance for them to expand their viewership too. USians to their credit, being pretty humble and often even trying to use some mandarin or express interest in learning it. A lot of questions that seem to stem from legitimate curiosity as opposed to any kind of maliciousness. Legitimately some of the most positive social media I think I have ever seen in my life.
Will people stick with it? I have no idea, but I can only hope a little bit of the attitude sticks around longterm.
It probably helps that XHS is one of the more LGBT and feminist friendly platforms with a mix of libs sprinkled in to ease them in. Some of those same libs were shocked that Americans healthcare costs and needing to work multiple jobs to survive was actually true, and not state propaganda as they previously thought.
This has truely been a wonderful thing to see. I do wonder about what actions will be taken by the west in response to this.
At least 小红书 seems to be in the position that they want to allow the western users to keep using their platform non-region locked.
The whole thing turned out to be incredibly wholesome. This is the first mass cultural exchange between regular people in US and China, and it went better than anyone could’ve expected. I really think this is exactly what we need going forward. Regular people talking to other people across the world, realizing we’re not that different from each other and we all want the same things.
The death of Capitalism? I didn’t relise the west was so onboard with that yet