Censorship, homework help and cats: China’s RedNote users welcome ‘TikTok refugees’
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Americans fleeing the looming TikTok ban have been warmly welcomed to app Xiaohongshu – or RedNote – despite China’s tight restrictions on what can be posted. “It is the coolest thing,” says Huang Ziyan, a longtime user of Chinese social media app Xiaohongshu, describing the experience as a “21st-century Tower of Babel”.
![[James Harr, of clothing label Comrade Workwear, is among new US users on the Chinese social media app, Xiaohongshu, who have moved over from TikTok ahead of a US government ban.]](https://i.guim.co.uk/img/media/bacaf258f892e6c1c12dac32d8ad7628f220101e/0_175_1170_1927/master/1170.jpg?width=445&dpr=1&s=none&crop=none)
Huang is referring to the influx of US “TikTok refugees” fleeing the impending ban and the resulting cross-cultural exchange that has seen Americans warmly welcomed – and sometimes given a few helpful tips. “I was wearing this green hat in one of my videos and some Chinese netizens informed me that in China … it’s effectively a symbol to broadcast you are a cuckold,” says James Harr, who is among those to take their first Chinese language lessons soon after switching from TikTok to Xiaohongshu.
Harr says using Xiaohongshu was a form of protest against the US government but that the “cultural exchange has been incredible to watch”. Users have also been helping each other out with homework, with Chinese users posting pages of English homework pleading for help from their new English-speaking users of the app. Others have urged US users to add Chinese subtitles to their videos. The app doesn’t have a simple auto-translation function in either direction.
Then there’s the entry fee demanded of newcomers by resident users – pictures of cats. New user ItsNate offered George Jr, an elongated dangling feline, as a tribute, garnering 100,000 likes for his efforts. “Paying my cat tax,” said another, offering a photo of his pet, plus a tongue-in-cheek reference to Washington’s security concerns about TikTok. “My Chinese spy hasn’t contacted me yet so I post my cat because he must know about him.”.
