‘Becoming Chinese’ craze highlights soft power twist

A new trend is sweeping through Western social media – “Chinamaxxing.” Across TikTok and Instagram, many users are professing to be “in a very Chinese time of their lives,” or even “becoming Chinese.” 

They showcase practices like drinking hot water, learning Mandarin and performing traditional qigong exercises. This trend decouples “Chineseness” from citizenship and ethnicity, reconfiguring it into a cultural symbol that can be learned and performed. 

For many, the trend in “becoming Chinese” acts as a marker of self-care articulated through everyday practices. This trend also reflects the rise of China’s soft power, or beyond formal state messaging, with implications for diplomacy. 

Unlike conventional notions which emphasise a country’s ability to attract and co-opt influence through the appeal of its policies and political values, this type of soft power operates through emotional attachment and cultural experience.

At the forefront are social media influencers, who translate and amplify these cultural experiences for global audiences.

Content creators

Unfiltered livestreams during their visits to China by American YouTubers such as IShowSpeed and Hasan Piker have introduced everyday Chinese life to tens of millions of viewers worldwide. 

Chinese content creators like Li Ziqi who post on Western platforms, have also gained wide popularity for their videos showcasing the textures of everyday rural life.

Against the backdrop of the enduring “China threat” narrative and intensifying geopolitical, trade and technological rivalry, this trend marks a significant shift in Western perceptions of China. It also highlights the effectiveness of Beijing’s soft power.

Although state-led efforts have aimed at increasing China’s soft power since the mid-2000s, they have sometimes failed to generate positive sentiment within Western countries. 

Beijing’s assertive ‘Wolf Warrior’ diplomacy, trade frictions during the Covid-19 pandemic and rising technological rivalry contributed to a deepening mistrust.

This was reflected in the closure of Confucius Institutes in Western countries and low levels of global appeal to Chinese cultural exports. But the “becoming Chinese” trend is shifting China’s international image along with the rapid rise of DeepSeek. 

The success of cultural products like the blockbuster film Ne Zha 2 also saw the country jump to second place in the Global Soft Power Index 2025. 

And as various geopolitical shocks continue to unfold under American President Donald Trump’s second term, the “becoming Chinese” trend also reflects a deeper dissatisfaction over his governance. It also signals a broader ideological rejection of the US-led liberal order. 

Last year’s mass digital migration of so-called “TikTok refugees” to the Chinese app RedNote in anticipation of a ban has been described as a “Western awakening movement.” This process enabled Western social media users to engage directly with Chinese counterparts en masse.

US decline

It was the first time this had happened, as they gained a window into everyday life in China, deepening mutual understanding. 

Western users’ favourable assessments of China’s high-tech infrastructure, public safety, accessible healthcare and convenience is combined with their disillusionment over perceptions of US decline. This has been channelled into an idealised image of the country. 

The perception is also mediated through the platform itself, where politically sensitive topics – such as debates over China’s human rights record, protests in Xinjiang and the privacy of political leaders – and negative portrayals are systematically filtered. 

In this context, the “becoming Chinese” trend can be understood both as a literal identification with China and as a vehicle through which Western users can articulate their dissatisfaction with the limits of the American-led liberal order.

The “Chinamaxxing” trend also shows that digital platforms have created alternative diplomatic spaces beyond conventional statecraft, where the narrative shifts from official actors to everyday users. 

While Chinese President Xi Jinping has called for efforts to deepen people-to-people diplomacy, the current surge is occurring largely outside of the state’s control. Perceptions are being driven by social media influencers within digital environments .

This is characterised by organic fan communities and by information flows controlled by platform algorithms. 

While these trends have increased China’s affective soft power, its longer-term effectiveness will depend on whether this bottom-up exchange can be sustained through organic interaction rather than overt state orchestration.

Broadly speaking, diplomacy is increasingly being mediated through digital infrastructure, challenging traditional policy-led approaches. Digital platforms have transformed into key battlegrounds where narratives and perceptions are being shaped and contested. 

Digital communities

Public diplomacy must adapt to this affective shift by moving beyond top-down messaging towards a more participatory engagement that highlights everyday experiences. 

One approach could be to foster collaborative digital communities, where institutional actors and users co-create content, share narratives and work towards shared goals. 

Such participatory engagement has the potential to reshape perceptions and build trust by bridging the gap between everyday lived experience and public diplomacy.

Pan Wang is an Associate Professor of Chinese and Asian Studies at the University of New South Wales.

This edited article is republished from East Asia Forum under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article here.

The views and opinions expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the official policy of China Factor.