“Hello, Chinese netizens! I am American; if you need assistance with your English assignments, please let me know!” Within a day, the 17-year-old had gotten approximately 2,000 responses.
Rios is one of thousands of “TikTok refugees” who have rushed to Xiaohongshu following TikTok stars’ call for a migration to the app in protest of the US government’s assault on TikTok. The US Supreme Court has yet to rule on a legislation requiring TikTok to be separated from its parent business ByteDance by January 19, or face a ban in the United States.
Xiaohongshu, nicknamed “RedNote” by TikTokers, was the most-downloaded app on Apple’s U.S. App Store as of Tuesday, despite not previously targeting American consumers. Rios explained to Rest of World that using the app is more than just an act of disobedience.
“I just wanted something that could replace TikTok, and also it was sort of an act of protest against our government,” the Texas resident explained.
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Xiaohongshu, or “little red book,” is one of China’s most popular social networks. Its feed has an infinite scroll of Instagram-like posts powered by TikTok-style personalized recommendations. The majority of Xiaohongshu users are young women who use the app to share travel, shopping, and other lifestyle ideas. It has more than 300 million monthly active users.
Xiaohongshu did not answer to Rest of World’s request for comment, including the most recent figure of overseas users.
As of Tuesday morning, the app’s search engine contained at least 58,000 postings tagged with “TikTok refugee”. On Monday, a chatroom called “TikTok Refugees Home” livestreamed for many hours, gathering over 727,300 users.
In contrast to ByteDance, which developed a separate app, TikTok, for users outside of China, Xiaohongshu is exclusively aimed at Chinese consumers and follows Beijing’s rigorous censorship restrictions. Douyin, TikTok’s Chinese sister app, is unavailable for download in the United States.
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Although Xiaohongshu is popular among Chinese expats abroad, the site has made modest efforts to expand its international user base. Even Xiaohongshu’s logo features the Chinese letters for its name. It does not provide in-app translation for user posts or comments and only provides Chinese-language keywords in its search box.
The unexpected surge of Americans into Xiaohongshu has created an unusual environment for conversations between Chinese and American users. Over the last few days, they’ve traded cat memes, shared hometown photos, and discussed sensitive issues like racism, transgender rights, and Luigi Mangione.
“I think Xiaohongshu is the Chinese app closest to American internet culture,” Roger Huang, a Mandarin-speaking Canadian novelist who joined up for Xiaohongshu in 2020 to learn about Chinese consumer trends, told Rest of World. “If a bunch of Americans showed up on WeChat, they’d be totally lost,” he remarked, referring to China’s widely used instant messaging service.
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A screengrab from Xiaohongshu depicts a joke regarding US official fears about Chinese surveillance.
According to Huang, relationships between American and Chinese users could have long-term good repercussions. “It could help more Americans understand that Shanghainese are not so different from New Yorkers. That would be beneficial to US-Chinese discussions in general.”
However, the unexpected spike in American users is likely to provide new issues for Xiaohongshu, as the platform attempts to reconcile worldwide corporate expansion with pressure to implement China’s censorship regulations.
China’s internet censorship system, known as “The Great Firewall,” restricts sensitive topics such as talks about LGBTQ problems, street protests, and Chinese leadership. American media platforms such as Facebook, Instagram, and X are prohibited in China, whereas popular Chinese social media platforms such as WeChat and Weibo are sophisticated and difficult for foreigners to use.
In China, internet users must register for social media profiles using their true names. Violations of content restrictions may result in account suspensions or legal consequences, including jail time. People have learned to avoid difficult issues or use euphemisms.
American TikTok users appeared to be unaware of or unconcerned about these rules. Their Xiaohongshu posts span from requesting thoughts on the Ukraine war to homosexuality and the Chinese government, all of which are frequently subject to censorship in China. In the comments, other Chinese users advised the newbies not to talk “politics, religion, and drugs.”
Eric Liu, a former Weibo content moderator and current editor with China Digital Times headquartered in the United States, told Rest of World that Xiaohongshu’s filtering mechanism is expected to face significant challenges.
“The fact that Americans are using Xiaohongshu is already [stepping] on the red line,” Liu was saying. “This is something that will not be able to last because Americans don’t practice self-censorship.” To comply with Chinese regulations, the app may need to separate domestic and foreign users, like ByteDance did with TikTok and Douyin, he said.
While the influx of Americans is forcing Xiaohongshu to clarify its international strategy, creating a separate app for international users will subject it to the same scrutiny that TikTok is facing in the West, according to Sheng Zou, an assistant professor at Hong Kong Baptist University’s School of Communication.
A close-up of a young woman wearing a fuzzy hood, smiling and speaking to the camera. Text overlays in English and Chinese are present, discussing American citizens. The background shows a variety of TikTok thumbnails.
A Chinese user shared a video addressing the so-called “TikTok refugees.”
“The platform needs to figure out how global it wants to be, how it wants to position itself, and what its globalization or internationalization development plan is over the next few years,” said Zou, a social media and popular culture researcher.
Finally, it is up to users to decide whether they want to be subjected to Chinese censorship, he stated. Rios, who admitted she didn’t anticipate to spend so much time conversing with Chinese people, isn’t bothered.
“If they think China is that interested in our data, I’d rather give it to them directly,” she told me. “I don’t think China cares what I am doing, I think it is just a way [for the U.S. government] to control us.”
However, not all Chinese users are delighted. Lin, a 28-year-old Xiaohongshu user from China, found it “refreshing” to communicate with American users at first, but quickly became tired of linguistic and cultural hurdles that resulted in stilted conversations, she told Rest of World.
Xiaohongshu is predominantly a Chinese-speaking community. It’s like a Chinese cultural circle that is difficult for foreigners to enter,” said Lin, who only revealed her surname for fear of repercussions from speaking to foreign media.
Ahead of the Supreme Court verdict, it is unclear whether TikTok will be outlawed. According to Bloomberg, certain U.S. corporations have expressed interest in purchasing TikTok, while Chinese officials are considering a potential acquisition by Elon Musk.
For the time being, Americans like Rios continue to enjoy exploring Xiaohongshu. Some are using the app’s strong technology to identify Chinese individuals who share their particular hobbies, such as birdwatching, crochet, musical theatre, and League of Legends.
Other users are using the chance to parody U.S. security fears, with some Americans posting variants of the joke, “Hi, I am looking for my Chinese spy,” and some Chinese users responding, “Who is calling me?” “I’m coming!”
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