One day, in mid-January, the influencer of social media based in California, Candise Lin, woke up and discovered that hundreds of thousands of so-called Tiktok refugees suddenly flock to Red Note, a Chinese social media application that she uses every day. Linen does not want to claim that everything has happened because of it, but the trend is a good example of how its videos have become an essential link connecting the parallel worlds of Western and Chinese social media. For many people who do not know much about China, Lin has become the de facto ambassador of the country of Internet culture.
From December 2023, Lin, which has more than 2.3 million subscribers combined on Tiktok and Instagram, downloaded a series of viral videos Presentation of the red note (known as Xiaohongshu in Chinese) to the Western public as a destination for people looking for brutally honest makeover suggestions. The videos prompted beauty influencers to start downloading the application, which led to its first Non-Chinese circulation hump. When Tiktok was about to be prohibited in the United States in January, it was the beauty creators who suggested that people should go to the red note instead.
But well before Red Note offers millions of Americans the opportunity to discover the Chinese Internet directly, Lin had given them a rare overview. “Dr. Lin content is like a magic portal on the other side of the world, where everyone is like you but a little different,” explains Lucy White, a 22 -year -old Scottish bartender who follows Lin on Instagram.
In return, Lin has become a minor celebrity and wins a stable income from Tiktok which subsidizes his day work as a Cantonese tutor. But its online presence also opens it to controversies and hatred of pro and anti-china voices online. “If I say something nice about China, I am called a CCP bot, but if I say something wrong about China, I am called a CIA spy,” Lin to Wired. As a result, she tries to stay away from politics and focus on more harmless and funny trends.
Each day, Lin travels the Chinese Internet in search of a new celebrity quarrel, the hottest meme, or perhaps a college dormitory challenge, which she then translates into English and explains in a one-minute video. Each clip presents it by giving the camera the same impassive signature look. Lin is often asked why she does not laugh in her videos, and she explains that it is because she needs to film four or five times to get the best catch. No matter how funny the jokes, they age at the end of this. “That’s why I’m like a robot,” she said. However, sometimes Lin cannot help entering a smile, which delights his fans.
Lin public likes to learn what hilarious things are Chinese “Internet users” have done lately. Chinese social media is a world to which Westerners do not have access because they do not speak the same language or do not use the same platforms as people in China, says Josef Burton, a 39 -year -old writer and former American diplomat who follows Lin on Instagram. “I cannot interact with it or reach it, but there is a kind of tenderness” all men are brothers [in knowing] This ridiculous thing happens online, ”he says. “China is presented as this completely altered place where no one jokes, this censored and sterile hell space which is very super propaganda … But no, people joke. Daily life exists. The memes exist.
Funny facts on the Cantonais
Candise Lin was born in the Chinese city of Guangzhou and immigrated to the United States with her family when she was in college. She obtained a doctorate in education psychology and then worked as a third cycle teacher and tried at some point to open an online skin care shop.
Then, the pandemic locks struck, and while being bored at home by scrolling on his phone, Lin decided to start publishing on Tiktok. In April 2020, she did A 24 -second video Listing six English names that seem horrible in Cantonais: the name “Susan”, for example, resembles “God of bad luck”. The video exploded unexpectedly, collecting 5 million views and more than 10,000 comments. “So I continued to make a series, and I realized that there was an audience for that,” explains Lin.
