Ever since China blocked Google, Facebook and other Western social media from 2009, Chinese netizens have had little chance of interacting with Americans on the same social media platform.

But now, an influx of American users, who call themselves “TikTok refugees”, has surfaced on popular Chinese social media app Xiaohongshu.

With the clock ticking down to TikTok’s likely closure in the US within days, some of its American users have migrated to the Chinese Instagram-like social media app, whose name means “little red book”.

In an ironic turn of events, the attempt by the US government to shield Americans from Chinese influence is having the opposite effect – it is driving Chinese and American social media users closer.

“Hi everyone, I’m a TikTok refugee. I literally just got this app an hour ago; so far everyone has been so nice,” said a brown-haired American teenager with the moniker “fern” in a video posted on Jan 13. She added Chinese captions to her video to reach out to the new online community.

Had fern stayed on TikTok, she would not have much chance to cross digital paths with Chinese social media users, who are segregated in the China version of TikTok called Douyin.

On grounds of national security and data privacy concerns, a US federal law requires ByteDance, TikTok’s Chinese owner, to take the popular short-video app off the shelves of US Apple and Google app stores from Jan 19, unless it sells the app to a non-Chinese company. ByteDance has said it will not do so.

There are about 170 million people using TikTok in the US.

American users are not waiting around to find out what will happen to TikTok. Instead of turning to alternative US social media such as Instagram or Facebook, they have flocked to Xiaohongshu, making it the top free-to-download app on the Apple US App Store at one point on Jan 13.

Some users said they chose another Chinese-owned app to show they did not agree with the US government’s claims that using such an app would hurt their data privacy.

User “2ndClassCitizen23” said in a video post: “This message is for the Chinese government. I want to know if there’s anything I can do in assisting you in collecting my precious data.”

The appeal of interacting with a huge audience on the other side of the world is possibly another factor.

Xiaohongshu, which was founded in 2013, had 130 million daily active users as at mid-2024.

The name Xiaohongshu is a modern play on the red pocket-size booklet of quotes from Mao Zedong, which young Chinese waved enthusiastically during the Cultural Revolution to show their adoration for the first paramount leader of the People’s Republic of China.

The app does not have an official English name, but some American users have called it “Red Note”.

Many American users have been introducing themselves with first posts featuring videos or photos of themselves on the platform, with the hashtag “selfie” – an English word commonly known in China.

These posts typically receive enthusiastic responses in English by users with IP addresses from all over China, such as “You’re so handsome” or “Your nose-stud is so cool”.

Many American users initially shared about feeling lost when they first started using Xiaohongshu.

However, they soon began posting about their desire to learn Chinese and meet Chinese friends.

Chinese social media users responded warmly to the newcomers. Some even posted their English homework on Xiaohongshu, seeking help from the Americans.

Surprisingly, the Chinese government appears to be tolerating this organic interaction between Chinese and Americans, even though they have been segregated in different social media playgrounds for decades.

China is typically wary of “foreign influence” on its people and has banned foreign social media apps, such as Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and WhatsApp.

These platforms would have otherwise enabled Chinese people to interact with foreigners and have access to information that differs from the state’s propaganda.

So far, none of the Xiaohongshu posts by American users has been taken down.

State news agency Xinhua, which does not report on matters that the state does not want its people to know, reported about the surge of “TikTok refugees” to Xiaohongshu on Jan 14.

All this signals that Beijing may approve of the cross-pollination of US and Chinese influencers – a subtle show of friendliness towards the US as Donald Trump prepares to return to the White House on Jan 20.

If this unplanned social experiment of reconvening on a common app goes well without causing significant disruptions for either country, would it raise hopes for more of the same?

After all, amid intensifying rivalry between the world’s two largest economies, US and Chinese leaders have said they wanted more “people-to-people exchange” and interaction among students as a way to improve communication and mutual understanding.

However, in recent years, these good intentions have been overshadowed by nationalism and mistrust from both countries.

Negative developments, such as the stabbing of visiting American staff from Cornell College in a park in north-east China and the ending of a joint programme between the University of Michigan and Shanghai Jiaotong University in January, have added to the sour mood.

Perhaps the spontaneous migration of American users to Xiaohongshu could go on to achieve what other painstakingly organised programmes for interaction could not – a cost-free, low-barrier way to say “Hi, let’s be friends”.

Asia News Network/The Straits Times