How do you say lmaoooo in Mandarin? Americans flock to Chinese TikTok alternative RedNote
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Despite security concerns, Americans are flooding the app, where Chinese users are welcoming them with open arms – and Luigi Mangione memes. Cute cats. Fit checks. Travel vlogs. Luigi Mangione latte art. Americans who downloaded RedNote saw it all this week, as they fled to the Chinese social media app in advance of an imminent (or not ) TikTok ban.
![[screenshot from an app of a cartoon statue of liberty and a green creature with a t shirt saying red]](https://i.guim.co.uk/img/media/ae18eda9f12cf9bcf0b7cb57e6f1e60af2833518/0_670_1170_1624/master/1170.jpg?width=445&dpr=1&s=none&crop=none)
English language content has flooded RedNote, whose default language is Mandarin, with Americans posting introductions to themselves and kicking off cross-cultural discussions: How much do you pay for groceries? What Chinese slang do I need to know? Do you have any opinions about the state of Ohio?.
![[screenshots of social media posts]](https://i.guim.co.uk/img/media/029300fce760df313f864187b37a99a31260d930/0_0_1170_2532/master/1170.jpg?width=445&dpr=1&s=none&crop=none)
Qian Huang, a professor at the University of Groningen in the Netherlands who studies Asian youth and digital culture, said that she originally downloaded RedNote to keep up with Chinese trends. “But this week, I woke up and my feed was not the usual feed anymore,” Huang said. “It was all English content. That was a bit of a weird feeling for me.”.
![[a screenshot of a social media post saying please help with my homework]](https://i.guim.co.uk/img/media/ba2dd6d58542c07c8cd97523fdbd4dccb931582f/0_491_1170_1945/master/1170.jpg?width=445&dpr=1&s=none&crop=none)
Despite concerns about data privacy, the app shot to number one in US app stores on Tuesday, with more than half a million downloads from new users, after a supreme court hearing on TikTok’s future last week. The tech reporter Ryan Broderick noted on his Garbage Day newsletter that Black TikTok beauty influencers had seen RedNote’s potential for makeup tutorials and trend-spotting before the hearing.
RedNote is primarily a video-sharing app, though users can also share photo galleries accompanied by questions to spur discussion in the comments. A lot of the content looks similar to what you’d find on Instagram’s Explore page: posts from Chinese influencers and regular people about what they eat in a day, or how they exercise, or what they’re wearing. The app’s Chinese name, Xiaohongshu, translates to “little red book”, a reference to a collection of the Chinese communist leader Mao Zedong’s favorite sayings.
