The social media scene in China is a completely different beast to that in the West. First of all, social media in China is state controlled, meaning that the content and the comment sections are much lighter. Then there’s the ban on US websites, which means that Instagram, Facebook, X and YouTube are difficult to access, and so alternative platforms reign there. This fact means that the research conducted as a part of this column—such as those showing the most followed museums and art fairs in the world on Instagram, Facebook, X and TikTok—often leaves a China-shaped gap in the findings.
Influencer culture is huge in China, says Philip Tinari, the director of the UCCA Center for Contemporary Art in Beijing, adding that—just as in other parts of the world—influencers have matured beyond simple selfie-taking to become much more creative content creators. “We track these influencers and invite them to special influencer opening nights for our major shows. We try to give them what they need to make interesting content,” he says.
Despite this similarity, rarely do the social media scenes of China and the West collide—but the TikTok ban in the US in January (which, in the end, lasted less than 24 hours) temporarily opened up the divide. The US government closed down TikTok over national security concerns, given the Chinese government’s direct influence over the app. “It’s an algorithm that’s controlling a huge percentage of the population’s attention, and these things are not that difficult to play with,” Tinari says. While one should not condone censorship, the surprising silver-lining of state surveillance of Chinese social media is that the platforms are more neutral and stable. “Chinese apps are not able to execute a personal or private agenda in the ways we’ve seen from some of the American ones recently,” Tinari adds.
Ironically, millions of American TikTok users fled from the app to another Chinese platform, the TikTok-esque RedNote (known as Xiaohongshu, meaning Little Red Book, in China). “There was a moment when the TikTok ‘refugees’ were joining RedNote and users in China were hopping on the bandwagon and doing posts to welcome them,” laughs Tinari. He says that RedNote has become “the most effective platform in terms of conversion” for the museum. “The art ecosystem around RedNote is really vibrant right now.”
But what is it? RedNote has around 350 million active monthly users (Instagram has two billion), most of whom are in China, and it shares a lot of similarities with TikTok (the Chinese-language version of which is called Douyin). Both also have “a killer algorithm”, Tinari says. “RedNote assesses virality very quickly and figures out what you’re into and sends you much more of the same and related things.” It doesn’t only push high-follow accounts, like Instagram predominantly does, but it shares niche content that it calculates particular users will like. “I think the whole vibe of RedNote is somewhat wholesome and aspirational,” Tinari says, pointing to the promotion of hobbies, self-improvement and niche subjects (like an interest in art and culture) on the app.
But the main difference between the two platforms is that TikTok is all about short video content, while RedNote presents a carousel of images and the accompanying caption. In that sense, some have described it as a cross between Instagram and TikTok. “I think RedNote is kind of a sweet spot,” says Tinari. “It’s got its own kind of vernacular and its own characteristics, and it’s really, really good for just finding information.” Most of RedNote’s new American friends stopped using the app after TikTok was reinstated in the US, but with the final decision on TikTok’s fate in the country coming on 5 April, many content creators have chosen to hold onto their RedNote accounts, just in case.
