American social media users decided to migrate to the Chinese social media app Xiaohongshu amid the looming TikTok ban. This move sparked a sudden interest in learning Mandarin Chinese. Naturally, this pleased one menacing owl from the language learning app, Duolingo.
Many American social media users are still exploring the novelty of Xiaohongshu, or “The Little Red Book.” Although the TikTok refugees have been greeted warmly by Chinese netizens, the app’s content is still largely in Mandarin Chinese. Nevertheless, TikTok refugees are slowly adapting to the app’s etiquette. Many posters have even started captioning their English videos with Mandarin subtitles.
Duo, the Duolingo app’s notorious mascot, made fun of the situation. They wrote on X, “Oh, NOW you’re learning Mandarin.” The owl is far more aware than anyone could’ve imagined. Duo followed up in another tweet that compared to this time in 2024, there has been a 216% spike in Mandarin Chinese learners from the U.S. at Duolingo.
An unpreceedented cultural exchange
Coincidence? Probably not. TikTok refugees have been going back and forth with translation apps in an effort to understand Chinese netizens. Some of them are even asking Chinese netizens which translation apps are the best. Meanwhile, Chinese netizens have been keen on teaching the newcomers some popular Chinese internet slang. It seems that the desire to understand each other’s brain rot is a human need that transcends common language.
Amid the thirst posts and the “cat tax” memes, there’s an eagerness from both Chinese netizens and American TikTok refugees to understand each other. After all, Chinese netizens and Americans online don’t often have a common social media space to interact. This opportunity has also paved the way for users to challenge misconceptions they have of each other’s countries. In the US government’s quest to ban TikTok over national security, they’ve instead pushed their citizens to a Chinese app out of spite.
Published: Jan 16, 2025 07:01 am