What TikTok refugees need to know about REDnote
I’ve been posting on Rednote since 2021. Here’s what I’ve seen.
The American government just handed China the largest PR opportunity in a lifetime. As scores of American TikTok influencers flood China, reporting on what they see, marveling at the people and culture and technology, they’ll expose the rest of Americans to a China they never knew existed.
What a win for China!
But Americans can expect a culture shock when they first log onto Rednote. You’re going to see that people look different, not racially but digitally. You’ll have to navigate a new language and UI/UX. The relentless hustle culture and rampant consumerism will rightly appear frightening. And there will be new scams to be wary of.
After using WeChat for fifteen years and Rednote for five, here are a few tips on negotiating your social media experience on Chinese platforms.
Appearance
If you think body image is a problem on American social media, prepare to be shocked.
Americans appreciate influencers who present their real self, discussing body weight and neurodivergence while eschewing the Victoria Secret model aesthetic. Still, there are plenty of influencers who rose to fame simply by winning the genetic lottery, while young and rich. You could say even those accounts are authentic. Sure, Americans have always flirted with camera angles and filters, maybe sat in a fake jet to appear prosperous, but that’s part of the fun.
China went the opposite direction.
You’ll be forgiven for thinking, after some time exposed to Rednote, that all Chinese girls look identical — doe eyes and soft skin, small heads, excessively long legs. That’s not because you’re racist. It’s because they all use the same filters.
What you’ll see are (mostly) women who are quite obviously not real. China has moved away from the “snake women” of early years, women whose chiseled chins and enormous eyes looked less human and more X Files, but they still adhere to a digitally fabricated appearance.
Several scandals over the last few years pointed to women as old as 60 raising huge followings by manipulating their image as teenagers. That’s if they’re real at all. Chinese apps are shameless when it comes to AI. Make no assumption that you’re ever interacting with a real human being.
One could hope the earnestness of TikTok Americans could temper the extreme beauty trend in China, or it could destroy all progress in America as newcomers pander to the Chinese market by changing their own appearance. Either way, it will be interesting to watch the transformation.
Language
Unlike Instagram, Rednote does not have a translate button. Rednote is, no suprise, entirely in Chinese. New users will find a stream filled with Chinese content which means nothing to them. While Rednote may add this feature soon, why would it? Mandarin Chinese is read and spoken by over 1 billion people. Should they change for America’s paltry 350 million? Would you?
Already, TikTok user inboxes are flooded with offers to teach them Chinese. That might be a good thing. As America’s global hegemony falters, a few words of Chinese may come in handy. Words like, “I’ll clean it again, ma’am” and “The children were good today” and “Yes, Boss.”
You might think the Chinese, being business minded, will add English to the platform to capture all that TikTok influencer cash. Hardly.
Business focus
After the shock of AI girls passes, you’ll notice the preponderance of hustle videos. For example, after working twelve hours in a factory, do the Chinese go home and watch TV? No, they drive a van to the nearest river and set up a food stall, sitting behind it until midnight to earn the equivalent of $42 USD while live-streaming the experience on social media. Chinese people are addicted to earning money.
You’ll see weird videos for factories selling bathtubs and motorcycles to export to Africa, ads for trade shows where the minimum buy is $10,000, apartments for sale in Shanghai, and lots and lots of self promotion. It sometimes feels more like a cheesy Linkedin grab than TikTok.
There’s a reason for that.
The primary purpose of social media in China is to sell products. Influencers rise, and are paid, based on the number of products they sell directly from their account. Influencers still get paid by advertisers to influence, but the real money is in sales.
The Chinese work too hard, while Americans have grown soft. The Chinese sell products while Americans sell themselves. The collision of these two worlds will be interesting to watch.
Small fish
As in most business mergers, the small fish gets eaten. American TikTok influencers will be out of their element in an ocean of sharks. China already has TikTok stars, stars that speak their language and sell them products they can buy with a click. Thats a lot of competition. Once the novelty of American faces wears off, we might see a nationalist resurgence where Chinese feel, justifiably, superior.
What’s more, TikTok still exists in China. So they’ll have twice the platform as their American counterparts.
It’s an odd situation. The Chinese have been following the American entertainment models for years. Americans are the go-to superpower when it comes to media. What happens when China realizes these silly kids from America’s tiny (cities of 8 million people) can’t keep up? The perception of the American dream may change for the average Chinese. That might lead to fewer Chinese seeking opportunity at American universities, American corporations, American tech companies. It may be the wake-up call to China to assume the mantle of global hegemony.
Or it may lead to the opposite, a happy medium where the two nations share a love for individuals even when their governments clash. What are the odds?
Everything Apps
You’ll quickly learn that Rednote, like most Chinese Apps, is not strictly a social media app. It is designed to get you to buy products. It is like Amazon and Instagram rolled into one.
But not for you. In order to truly participate in Chinese apps, you’ll need a Chinese bank account.
Click on a hashtag in Rednote and you’ll see the prompt, “Function Upgrade, Not Open”. You can get around this here, but that won’t be much help to you since it is designed for purchases in China.
Since Chinese app users follow people they can buy from, that puts Americans at a distinct disadvantage. The only way around it is to go to China and set up a bank account. But getting money out of China is another whole debacle. And Americans will now have to file a FATCA with the IRS when filing their taxes. To capture the Chinese market, American influencers will need to go there, live there, and what follows will be a daily dose of China for the rest of the world.
Politics
Don’t talk about it. You will be censored and even cancelled. But that’s okay, because it isn’t any of your business anyway. Have the sense not to wade into politics you don’t understand. Admit you don’t have the cultural experience to navigate it. It’s not your country.
Instead, use this opportunity to learn everything you can about an alternate system.
Beware of London Gold
The largest concern of Westerners opening Chinese apps is fraud. I’ve experienced online fraud attempts so many times, it’s more entertainment now. Do not trust your ability to spot it. The Chinese have sophisticated networks of people involved in refined ways to scam you.
I’ve been on WeChat since 2010, and I can’t tell you how many times I’ve been approached by women who “just want to chat”, present themselves as successful, living in my area (though they won’t say where), and are very focused on business. About ten texts in, they’re trying to sell you bitcoin or ask you to send them a gift card.
The scam is generically called London Gold, though there are many, many iterations, usually sweaty men in someone’s basement who manipulate digital media to trick you out of your life savings.
Once you get used to it, though, it’s actually kind of fun to interact with them. You get into the rhythm, see if you can detect when a new person is typing (someone is always on shift), checking if they’re following the script knowing what they’ll ask next, predicting when they’ll casually drop bitcoin into the conversation.
I’ve learned to be leery of anyone who wants to befriend me on Chinese social media, and so should you.
That said, I’ve made some excellent real friends through Chinese social media. When I travel, I reach out to locals to get their take on the local scene. I even get to meet them when they come to my country.
The lesson is, like all interactions online: be cautious. The person on the other end of the fibre may be a 60 year old man dancing in a mocap suit in his Heilongjiang Province basement. Or they may be the person who opens up your cultural world. Take a chance!
What comes next
In some ways, the influx of Americans moving to Rednote exposes the absurdity of social media in general. Watch some random person you don’t know, without preamble, sheepishly step back from the camera to start dancing. We’re so used to scrolling through these scenes, that it doesn’t strike us as odd until we see it out of context. Now, it’s just eerie.
Maybe this is what social media needed. Not only will it mesh the culture of two superpowers, but it will also raise questions about why we use social media in the first place.
And, hey, you don’t have to be a TikTok refugee to download Rednote. When you do, look me up! Moots!