Senior Chinese diplomats are taking notice of a fast-spreading social media wave in which young people outside China say they are in a “very Chinese time” of their lives, according to AP. China’s ambassador to the US invoked the viral meme while promoting a new visa-free transit policy. He urged Americans to “experience for yourselves a real, dynamic and panoramic China.”
Posts under hashtags celebrating “Chinamaxxing” — a term users apply to everyday habits such as drinking hot water with goji berries, eating dumplings, wearing house slippers, and flying to China to marvel at its infrastructure — have drawn millions of views in recent months. Experts linked the trend to dissatisfaction with life in the US.
As current trend meets an audience primed by a string of pop-culture hits with distinctly Chinese characteristics, from toys to films and games. Sales of Labubu — a fuzzy, ugly-cute doll toted by celebrities — helped propel annual profit at the toy’s Chinese parent PopMart by 300% at the height of last spring and summer’s craze. A Cantonese rapper known as Skaii Isyourgod, or “Lanlao,” amassed a global following despite performing in a regional dialect, with his single “Blueprint Supreme” generating billions of TikTok views worldwide.
The animated feature “Ne Zha 2” reached the top of the all-time global box office for animation even before its North American release. The big-budget video game “Black Myth: Wukong” set a new mark for most-concurrent players of a single-player title on Steam after 2.4 million people logged on simultaneously at launch. Even mapping apps became part of the allure, with Chinese digital maps such as Amap going viral for hyper-detailed features like showing whether a route stays in sun or shade.
Very Chinese
Online creators that are part of the trend cluster their clips under tags including #Chinamaxxing, #VeryChinese, #ChineseWellness, #ChinaTravel, and #BecomingChinese.
The same online energy helped a New Jersey creator, 23-year-old Sherry Zhu, turn tongue-in-cheek posts about noodles, hotpot, and slippers into a runaway meme after one of her videos was shared nearly a million times in December.
Some Chinese Americans who embraced the visibility of the meme said they had faced bullying in the past but hoped that sharing culture could help reduce misunderstandings over time, AP reported. “Appreciation does not erase the racism that many Chinese people grew up with,” said Elise Zeng, 28, of Brooklyn, New York.