The Xiaohongshu-for-foreigners bubble has burst. Months after the hype, when Americans flocked to RedNote, the app's now riddled with loopholes: accounts flagged as “security risks”, need to submit passport, face+ID photo, phone verification, only for the process to fail. Exit for foreign creators?

My first ever talks in Holland coming up soon/Leiden Oct 22, this in The Hague on Oct 23 leidenasiacentre.nl/event/jeffre... & Nowhere bookstore in The Hague on Oct 24. (Btw, I’ve long found lots of value in What’s on Weibo by @manyapan.bsky.social so delighted to see the 23rd talk mentioned by her)

Before heading into the new week, let’s dive into some of the stories that trended. ➡️ During Nanchang’s fireworks show, a man drew attention shouting and holding something that sparked panic. Moments later, he was kicked down and taken away by police. It turned out to be a major misunderstanding.

That's a particularly sweet SWAT officer

Traditional 哭嫁 (crying marriage), the bride parts with her family. The "happiest day of your life" comes with sorrow & some added drama. OP wrote: "I’ve heard of 喜丧 (joy-in-mourning: funeral for long-lived elder),but this is the first time I’ve seen 丧喜"(mourning-in-joy, made up word for this scene😅)

Whenever reports surfaced about the harsh conditions on the set of renowned director Wong Kar-wai, mainstream media and fans often brushed off his tyrannical habits as the "quirks of a genius." This time, it feels different. Read more at: www.whatsonweibo.com/the-wong-kar...

Different take: This strain of content regulation feels written by a parent-teacher association: well-intentioned but poorly thought through, heavy-handed enforcement of vague concepts. But the sentiment- fear of social media blackpills is very relatable. chinamediaproject.org/2025/09/26/t...

Really, you don't wanna mess with the dancing grannies. You can interfer with their music, spray them with water, but they're gonna come for you in the end. Better invest in earplugs for those early morning dance routines 😅

China is facing a serious donkey shortage. And the headline “We have cows and horses, but no donkeys” (“牛马有的是，就缺驴”) is sparking viral discussion online, not just because of the actual donkey crisis but due to wordplay in Chinese of having too many obedient workers in the workplace vs stubborn ones.

48-year-old Li Junyong (李俊永), who runs a small fried chicken stall in Jingdezhen, has a snappy multitasking style and tight rules on who he serves, when, and how. His earnest approach to his chicken stall business has turned him into a viral sensation under the nickname "Chicken Chop Brother" (鸡排哥)

Soft power stond voor China lang voor kalligrafie, kookkunst en Confucius instituten. Maar nu meet China zich een heel ander imago aan. Hoe krijgt het dat voor elkaar? Met @tomvandeweghe.bsky.social , @manyapan.bsky.social en @silviasun.bsky.social vrtnws.be/p.LNx8PJne1

A great deep-dive into viewers' true opinions!

How did "731", one of the most anticipated recent Chinese war films, go from patriotic hype to online backlash? I dove into official narrative, audience reception & everything particular about this movie - that was a "10" but dropped to 3.1 acc to IMDb: www.whatsonweibo.com/evil-unbound...

Perhaps you’ve heard about the online controversy surrounding the Chinese restaurant chain Xibei and the debate on pre-made food. If you have no idea what’s going on and need a clear explainer, we’ve got you covered. Read this one to stay updated: www.whatsonweibo.com/chinas-prefa...

Een Chinees AI-filmpje met een soldaat uit de tweede wereldoorlog.

Vergeet het leed, China overwon! Dat is het verhaal dat China over WOII wil vertellen. China noemt het zelf: het einde van de ‘verzetsoorlog tegen de Japanse agressie en oorlog tegen het fascisme’. Met AI brengen ze zelfs soldaten uit de Tweede Wereldoorlog tot leven. @manyapan.bsky.social vertelt.

From the "BBC smog" to "AFP filter": for years, Chinese netizens have joked about how Western media photos make China look darker and gloomier. But during this year’s VDay parade, China's "villain look" was embraced with some netizens thinking AFP wasn't AFP-ing enough, fixing their photos for them.

China herdenkt de oorlog met spierballen en spektakel. Het controversiële gezelschap van Xi Jinping was een grote blikvanger maar @manyapan.bsky.social vindt het minstens zo belangrijk om te kijken naar wat er op het plein in Peking en de Chinese online-mediakanalen gebeurde. tinyurl.com/2s8bcaan

Just in case it wasn't clear enough, an extra military parade public-facing message, emphasizing: this is not for decoration nor for show. All it takes is one command and all of these soldiers and their weapons, tanks, drones, missiles are ready for the battlefield.

Yao Ming can never really keep a low profile at these events, can he. #militaryparade

"Can you sell?" "No those are not for sale. Those colorful balloons, however! You could take some with you" 😅 #militaryparade #meme

"Kim Jong-un looking at Xi Jinping pointing at things."

The meme you knew would come #militaryparade

Wanted to cancel my Netflix account because I feel Netflix lately isn't keeping its facts straight. Then it told me this and it kinda confirmed that for me.😂

It's the final countdown. Wednesday is 🇨🇳 V-Day. What's behind China's social media storylines about the major military parade? I've looked at 225 official media hashtags so you don't have to. For that and more, check out the latest packed premium newsletter 👉 www.whatsonweibo.com/newsletter/n...

The 55,000 yuan ($7,783) Louis Vuitton "lobster"🦞 purse is trending on Chinese social media because people think it resembles a cockroach. It does, though! 🪳

It's the train topics that always go trending. There's a big discussion about instant noodles on China's high-speed trains, as some stations have stopped selling instant noodles in light of broader measures to "maintain cleanliness." This triggered the big noodle debate.

What's trending on Weibo today? Here's a quick top 3 overview I just published, from Lhasa to Labubu: www.whatsonweibo.com/china-trend-...

Good news after the scandal involving the corrupt abbot of the Shaolin Temple: the high price of 400 yuan ($55) for burning incense at the temple has now been canceled. You get 3 sticks for free! Wonder if they'll still sell those monk ice-creams though 😅

Just sent out the latest What's on Weibo newsletter. From Telegram to temple, diving into #Maskpark Gate, the Shaolin scandal, and more. Subscribers will find it in their inbox now, or you can subscribe & read it online here 🙌: whatsonweibo.com/newsletter/n...

On July 16, residents in Yuhang, Hangzhou, noticed something fishy about their tap water - it turned brown and smelled foul. Since then, the “stinky water incident” has been trending, with growing anger over the official response and media handling. Read: www.whatsonweibo.com/something-in...

CNN just published a feature on the young Chinese people who call themselves 'rat people': living nocturnal lives, staying in bed, and doing the bare minimum to cope with everyday pressures. I also shared some thoughts for the piece 🐀 Watch it here: edition.cnn.com/2025/07/23/w...

Hot off the press 🔥 my newsletter packed with insights on major trending topics > a deep dive into the 'Sister Hong incident', the controversy around a Chinese student expelled over a fling with the Ukrainian 'Zeus', the Wahaha inheritance battle, and more. Read: www.whatsonweibo.com/newsletter/n...

"Nanjing Sister Hong" became one of the biggest trending topics on Chinese social media this July: a man crossdressing as a woman, offering sex to 100s of men, secretly filming them to sell the footage online. Story got so big that people are now joking that even Trump was among the secret visitors.

China’s digital governance, the power of Chinatown, or EU-China relations-I’ve created an event calendar listing all kinds of interesting China events. Many of them are accessible online. Check it out here & let me know if there’s an event that should be added: www.whatsonweibo.com/events/

In recent months, we have lost a significant portion of our funding. Yet we remain committed to helping the world better understand China at this critical juncture in global politics. We are asking for your help to keep our websites up and running. giving.chinadigitaltimes.net/page/serverc...

In 1990, Yearnings (渴望), China's first soap opera, brought millions of families together around one screen. Now, AI-generated nostalgia videos are helping netizens remember what that felt like. Read: Yearnings, Dreamcore, & the rise of AI nostalgia in China: www.whatsonweibo.com/yearnings-dr...

Setting aside the downsides AI is bringing to our media world—I just love how AI is empowering independent creators with no budget to finally bring their visions to life. Douyin AI creator 见脚青AI is producing eerily fascinating work that makes me wonder what Dalí might have done with these tools.

This was a week people in Rongjiang certainly will not forget anytime soon, as record-breaking rainfall hit Guizou Province and caused havoc. You might have seen this video of a truck becoming stuck on 6/24 after a highway collapse - the driver was successfully rescued.

The mysterious ways of Deepseek keep surprising me. There's an apparent difference in censorship strategy for Chinese vs English. Deepseek refuses to speak to me about Deng Xiaoping in English, but when I switch to Chinese, he'll be kind enough to give me at least a short bio🙄

We've hit the next phase of Labubu madness: after designer couture and flower headbands, owners of the popular keyring doll have now moved on to getting orthodontic braces for their famously crooked teeth.

Found this Chinese real estate ad from 1990 promoting Beijing apartments in Shunyi, in an area with schools, public transport etc. Price: 2180 yuan [$300] per square meter. ⏩ Fast forwarding to 2025: the very same residential community now sells for more than 29600 yuan ($4100) per square meter.

Throwback to 10 years ago in the pre-TikTok era when we'd spend our online time plastering our faces in these kinds of videos - still cracks me up today. The viral song was the 2014 "My Skateboard Shoes" "我的滑板鞋"

X is full of people posting about how much they hate X. Substack is heading in the same direction (seeing more Substack posts complaining about Substack). Has Bluesky started self-loathing yet?😅

I love localized translations that keep a certain flow & emotion in Chinese. Gone with the Wind is a classic example: 乱世佳人. The meaning is completely different, but captures the vibe. 乱世 (luànshì) = turbulent world, 佳人 (jiārén) = beautiful woman, so the title is like: Beauty in Troubled Times.

My brother sent me a pic asking, “Is this a Chinese Heineken beer glass? What does it say?” 😂😂😂 I just replied: “It’s almost Chinese.” (Should’ve said: “Drink a few more and it will be Chinese.”)

🧵 Thread: the mysterious death of celebrity cat Wukong 👇 The meeting between Chinese cyclist Zhao Shuo & the kitten he named Wukong seemed straight from a novel. The little kitten scratched at his tent at 4 am, and the two became inseparable.

For this latest newsletter, I'm diving into China's biggest medical scandal of 2025 (so far): who are the people involved, what events led up to the Dr Xiao scandal & which key issues turned it into a nationwide talking point? Go premium for all that & more 👉 🔗 whatsonweibo.com/newsletter/n...

Oh no, not again. A car plowed through pedestrians in Fuzhou on Friday night during a busy holiday evening, at least 2 people have been confirmed dead.

The restaurant fire in Liaoyang had such a high fatality number: 22 people died at the popular Sanli Chuniang 三里厨娘, where some who were having lunch on the 2nd floor had no escape as the smoke engulfed them within minutes. Brief write-up on the incident here: www.whatsonweibo.com/the-liaoyang...