SubscribeLog in
Connect with us

Newsletter

Weibo Watch: Weibo’s Moral Compass

When the majority of netizens embark on a crusade against immorality, they can actually accomplish a great deal.

Published

on

PREMIUM NEWSLETTER | ISSUE #6 | READING TIME: 8 MIN

This week’s newsletter:
◼︎ 1. Editor’s Note – Weibo’s moral compass
◼︎ 2. What to Know – Highlighting hot topics
◼︎ 3. What Lies Behind – Spotted by news editor Miranda
◼︎ 4. What’s Trending – A closer look at the top stories
◼︎ 5. What’s Noteworthy – Small news with big impact by Zilan
◼︎ 6. What’s Popular – The latest buzz in arts & pop culture
◼︎ 7. What’s Memorable – Best reads from the archive
◼︎ 8. Weibo Word of the Week – The catchword to know

 

Dear Reader,

 

On the night of May 18, a movie-like scene played out at around 8500 meters altitude in the perilous “death zone” of Mount Everest. A 50-year-old female Chinese climber had found herself alone, exhausted, stuck, out of oxygen, and on the brink of death. If it were not for the fellow Chinese mountain climbers who spotted Ms. Liu, her face covered in ice frost, she would have never made it back to China.

The rare high altitude rescue went trending on Chinese social media, where the heroes of Mount Everest were praised for giving up on their own dreams of reaching the summit to rescue another climber. The story blew up this week when it turned out out that Ms. Liu was not prepared to pay the Sherpas who helped her get back to the camp the US$10,000 that was promised to them. Many people thought she was ungrateful, others even suggested she should not have been saved at all.

At the same time, another story also went viral. It concerned a local SOE official who went viral on TikTok while taking a stroll with his mistress, a co-worker who had joined him on a Chengdu business trip. The captured moment, skillfully snapped by a street photographer, showed the woman elegantly dressed in a fitted pink ensemble, adorned with a $5000 Dior purse, walking hand in hand with the official, who sported a coordinated t-shirt and carried shopping bags.

The topic garnered millions of views – it was the scandal everyone was discussing. While many individuals were simply enjoying the online spectacle and the resulting flood of memes, others criticized the executive and his co-worker for publicly showcasing their romance, flaunting their wealth, and setting a negative example. They expressed sympathy for the official’s wife, whose phone inevitably became inundated with news about her husband’s sudden notoriety.

These subjects, among others, were the topic of discussions this week as netizens utilized their own judgment and moral compass to comment on the unfolding events. While not everyone agreed on every aspect of these stories, almost everyone concurred that the actions and behaviors of those involved went against accepted moral standards.

Although there is often talk about how the social media era adversely affects society’s morals and ethics, it also serves as a platform for discussing moral values such as mutual respect, integrity, fidelity, kindness, gratitude, and fairness.

While discussions on morality are universal, there are numerous stories that have gone viral in China recently within the framework of a moral compass. Chinese social media dynamics, shaped by (traditional) cultural influences, prominently highlight the moral dimensions of trending news stories. Regardless of the magnitude of an incident, it can trigger millions of comments when people perceive it as unjust and contrary to what is considered appropriate.

Perhaps social media is not where moral values are being eroded, but rather, – especially in a time of rapid societal changes, increasing digitization, and constant modernization, – it is a place where social behavior is being scrutinized, evaluated, and examined. And when the majority of netizens embark on a crusade against immorality, they can actually accomplish a great deal. This week, it resulted in both the official and his mistress being relieved of their positions and the Chinese climber who was rescued stepping forward to express gratitude and offer repayment to those who saved her.

For all this and more, check out our latest stories below. Miranda Barnes and Zila Qian contributed to this week’s newsletter.

I always like to hear more about the China topics you’d like to know more about. Contact me via email or DM, or follow me on Twitter for the latest news and trends.

Best,
Manya

 

What to Know

Highlighting hot topics

One happy duck, one deflated one. Image via ChinaNews.

◼︎ National Exams. A record number of Chinese students sat the gaokao, college entrance exams, this week. According to China’s Ministry of Education, nearly 13 million students registered for the exams, which began on Wednesday. (Hashtag: “Gaokao, come on!” ##高考加油##, 800+ million views on Wednesday).

◼︎ Chinese top executive dismissed. If you want to stay under the radar, it’s best to avoid taking romantic strolls through the trendiest part of town with your mistress, especially during a supposed business trip. Hu Jiyong, a high-ranking executive and Party official, discovered this the hard way after street photographers captured the moment. The story gained widespread attention, resulting in the dismissal of both Hu and Ms. Dong from their positions. (Hashtag: “PetroChina’s Hu Jiyong Dismissed” #中石油胡继勇被免职#, 2.94 billion views).

◼︎ Anti-terrorism talks. China, Pakistan, and Iran held their first-ever trilateral counter-terrorism and regional security meeting in Beijing. The foreign ministries of Pakistan and China announced that the three nations have decided to institutionalize the meeting and hold it regularly. Although the meeting was widely reported on by English-language Chinese state media, the news was not disseminated on Weibo.

◼︎ Snooker scandal. After a long investigation, Chinese snooker players Liang Wenbo (梁文博) and Li Hang (李行) have been given lifetime bans by the World Professional Billiards and Snooker Association (WPBSA) for their involvement in a major match-fixing scandal. (Hashtag “Liang Wenbo Lifetime Ban” #梁文博终身禁赛#, 340 million views).

◼︎ Messi in China. Football superstar Lionel Messi arrived in Beijing to a jubilant reception from hundreds of fans. Messi is in China with Argentina to play an international friendly against Australia on June 15 at Beijing’s newly renovated Workers’ Stadium. Messi’s arrival generated significant buzz on Weibo. (Hashtag: “Messi Arrives in Beijing” ##梅西到北京了##, 510 million views)

◼︎ A Wuhan’s mother suicide. One story that just kept on trending this week is that of a heartbroken mother who jumped to her death just days after her young son was crushed to death by a teacher’s car at the school premises. The topic has triggered discussions on traffic safety and online bullying (Hashtag: “The Mother of the Primary School Student Crushed to Death at School Premises Has Jumped to her Death” ##校内被撞身亡小学生母亲坠楼身亡#
#/, 1.9 billion views).

◼︎ Xi Jinping in Inner Mongolia. Xi Jinping visited Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region this week for an “inspection tour” that was meant to highlight the region’s green development and modernization, with a special focus on curbing desertification. Although the topic was not necessarily big on social media, a related hashtag was pushed to Weibo’s top trending lists (Hashtag: #习近平在内蒙古巴彦淖尔考察#).

◼︎ Children book’s QR code leads to porn site. Another school textbook controversy has triggered discussions on Chinese social media this week after a QR code displayed on a children’s text book was disocvered to lead to a porn site. The QR code was actually meant to provide extra information about the book, but the domain name had expired. Worried parents are expressing their concerns, stating that authorities should do more to ensure the quality of school textbooks. (Read more here).

◼︎ Deflated Duck.Ten years after its initial appearance in 2013, the iconic giant rubber duck artwork by Dutch artist Florentijn Hofman returned to Hong Kong’s Victoria Harbour on Friday, accompanied by a new companion. Unfortunately, the duck’s new friend suddenly deflated on Saturday, on the first day of its officially exhibition. Organizers later explained that they took the initiative to deflate the rubber duck as the hot weather and rising air pressure had stretched it to a point where they considered it safer to deflate it. But on social media, many argue that the duck probably just preferred to stay single (see video here).

 

What Lies Behind

Note from the news editor, by Miranda

Woman accuses migrant worker of “being a pervert”

Several Chinese women have recently garnered significant attention on social media, becoming targets of online harassment. Among them were the distressed Chinese female climber, the Chengdu mistress, and the heartbroken Wuhan mother. However, there was another woman who faced public scrutiny this week.

I’m referring to the graduate student who found herself at the center of a social media storm after accusing an older migrant worker of taking pictures of her on the subway in Guangzhou. She publicly called him out and demanded to check his phone. As it turned out, the old man had not taken any photos of her. Neverthless, she still shared her experience online, along with a video of the old man, stating that he looked “like a pro” at taking girls’ pictures and labeling him a “pervert.” While some argued that “he didn’t do anything wrong,” she questioned why he hadn’t come forward to defend himself if he wasn’t trying to photograph her.

Naturally, the story faced backlash, and the girl was criticized for slander and violating others’ privacy. Subsequently, she apologized to the old man, whose son came forward to defend his father. Within the last 24 hours, the topic has been viewed a staggering 710 million times on Weibo.

The incident is unfortunate, given that women in China are encouraged to speak out when facing public harassment. While those who do speak out often receive widespread support and sympathy, it is important to recognize that this doesn’t justify distorting facts or making false accusations. Chinese social media users are discerning, and in these types of cases, the truth ultimately comes to light.

 

A closer look at the top stories

1: TikTok is Watching | A short video captured by a street photographer on China’s TikTok (Douyin) went completely viral this week, showcasing a Chinese official who held a high-ranking position at PetroChina enjoying a romantic stroll with his secret girlfriend at a trendy spot in Chengdu. The video’s widespread circulation led to the downfall of Hu Jiyong and Ms. Dong, who also worked at PetroChina. It also sparked a flurry of memes in China, with the pink dress worn by Ms. Dong becoming a massive hit in the e-commerce realm, as lookalike dresses sold like hotcakes.

Read here
 

2: No Good Deed Goes Unpunished | The extraordinary nighttime rescue of a female Chinese mountain climber at the treacherous altitude of 8000 meters on Mount Everest was already a notable news story in its own right. However, when it was revealed that the woman declined to assume the full US$10,000 rescue fee, the story quickly spread across Chinese social media platforms, garnering over 370 million views and sparking fervent discussions on courage and (in)gratitude.

Read here
 

3: “Calling a Rat a Duck” | Following the finding of a rat head in a cafeteria meal, this Jiangxi school maintained that it was actually a piece of duck, urging students not to discuss “rat head gate” anymore. The story blew up on Chinese social media, where some people have accepted the Kafkaesque situation of “calling a rat a duck,” which is a wordplay on an old Chinese idiom (“calling a deer a horse”) that means to deliberately misrepresent something.

Read here
 

4: Death of Wuhan Son & Mother | Just a week after her son was tragically crushed to death by a car driven by a teacher on the primary school campus, a devastated Wuhan mother took her own life. In the preceding week, she endured online harassment and bullying, with accusations of exploiting her son’s death for financial gain. Her tragic demise has sparked conversations about the issue of cyberbullying and the inadequate emotional support available for victims and grieving family members thrust into the spotlight of public scrutiny.

Read here
 

 

What’s Noteworthy

Small news with big impact, by Zilan

Tsai Ing-Wen’s Phone Call “Interrupted by PLA” | A peculiar moment involving Taiwanese President Tsai Ing-wen caught attention on social media today. According to Chinese media reports, Tsai was visiting stationed troops in southern Kaohsiung. During a phone call to boost the morale of the Taiwan air force, the conversation was interrupted by what appeared to be a voice from the People’s Liberation Army (PLA), saying, “Attention, I am the Chinese Air Force. You have invaded Chinese airspace, a serious violation of our sovereignty.” The chief officer of the war control unit swiftly intervened to close the channel, and Tsai Ing-wen displayed an awkward smile before continuing the call.

Videos capturing Tsai’s embarrassed expression quickly gained traction among netizens. While many interpreted this incident as a demonstration of the PLA’s influence, others thought it was done for show. One user on Bilibili remarked, “This incident once again demonstrates the entertaining nature of Taiwan’s news reports.” Another user commented on the embarrassment without delving into the sensitive political context, stating, “It feels like calling your girlfriend at night and hearing a male voice when someone picks up.”

Taiwan’s military correspondent, Xu Yuwei, explained that it would be possible for the PLA to interrupt because Taiwan’s military communication channels constantly monitor various frequencies and can pick up distant voices through relay stations. Xu further added, “This unintentionally revealed how busy the airspace above the Taiwan Strait is now.” Watch the video here.

 

The latest buzz in arts & pop culture

Expressing Frustrations, Accepting Reality | A viral meme originating from the Chinese TV series Three Kingdoms (三国) has gained significant traction on Chinese social media recently. In a memorable scene from the 2010 series, Cao Cao, a prominent warlord in Chinese history played by actor Chen Jianbin (陈建斌), angrily flips his rice bowl upon receiving news of a surprise attack, only to gather the spilled rice back into the bowl moments later. This scene featuring an enraged Cao Cao has resurfaced and struck a chord with young Chinese. “Cao Cao flipping the rice bowl” is now widely used in gifs, videos, and images to convey internal struggles about facing everyday realities.

Read here
 

 

What’s Memorable

Best reads from the archive

Waiting to Divorce ’til after the Exams | For this week’s throwback from our archive, and in light of this week’s gaokao, we’ve picked this article from five years ago about an ongoing trend of parents waiting to divorce until their child finishes the crucial exams. After China’s national exams are over, Chinese divorce rates are spiking. Soaring divorce rates after China’s national exams are so common that there is even a word to refer to these separating couples: “the gaokao divorce tribe” (高考离婚族, gāokǎo líhūn zú).

Read here
 

 

Weibo Word of the Week

The catchword to know

Our Weibo Word of the Week is 白人饭 báirén fàn, a trend referring to “white people food” that has recently gone vrial on China’s Little Red Book (Xiaohongshu) app and beyond.

The trend is inspired by the lunches of white people that Chinese people have observed in real life or in the media. These meals seemingly often consist of some raw vegetables, boiled eggs, chicken breast, processed meat, and whole fruits or bottled fruit juices. Most Chinese people do not consider a meal to be complete unless it includes warm dishes and rice or noodles. Netizens have summarized three characteristics of “white people food”: simple ingredients, simple preparations, and unappetizing taste.

Some Chinese netizens try out “white people food” out of curiosity, considering eating raw celery or baby carrots as a novel “challenge.” Others choose it because they are willing to trade the taste of food for the convenience of buying ingredients and preparing meals quickly. One user on Xiaohongshu shared, “After reaching the stage where I eat only for survival, I’ve started to appreciate ‘white people food’ because I can prepare it very quickly.”

However, this trade-off may be another sacrifice that young Chinese employees make to find more time for work. In response to the aforementioned comment, another user wrote: “Don’t deceive yourself. This isn’t the food of white people who have money and time. It’s just ‘workers’ food (打工人餐, dǎgōng réncān).”

 

This is an on-site version of the Weibo Watch newsletter by What’s on Weibo. Missed last week’s newsletter? Find it here. If you are already subscribed to What’s on Weibo but are not yet receiving this newsletter in your inbox, please contact us directly to let us know.

Stories that are authored by the What's on Weibo Team are the stories that multiple authors contributed to. Please check the names at the end of the articles to see who the authors are.

Continue Reading
Click to comment

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Dear Reader

Eye on Digital China: How Chinese Social Media Evolved from the Blog Era to the AI-driven Age

A look back at the three major phases of China’s social media — and why What’s on Weibo is evolving into Eye on Digital China.

Manya Koetse

Published

on

This edition of the Eye on Digital China newsletter by Manya Koetse was sent to premium subscribers. Subscribe now to receive future issues in your inbox.

 

“Do you still remember going to the internet cafe, paying 2 yuan ($0.30) per hour during the day or 7 yuan ($1) for an all-nighter? Staying up playing games and surfing around?”

It’s the kind of content you’ll often see today on platforms like Douyin or Bilibili — nostalgic videos showing smoky internet cafes (wangba 网吧) from the early 2000s, where people chatted on QQ or played World of Warcraft on old Windows PCs while eating instant noodles. These clips trigger waves of nostalgia, even among internet users too young to remember that era themselves.

Internetcafe in 2005, image via 021zhaopin.com

The current nostalgia wave you see on Chinese social media is indicative of how China’s digital world has evolved over the past 25 years, shifting from one era to the next.

As I welcome a new name for this newsletter and say goodbye to ‘Weibo Watch’— and, in the longer run, to the ‘What’s on Weibo’ title, I’m feeling a bit nostalgic myself. It seems like a good moment to look back at the three major stages of Chinese social media, and at the reason I started What’s on Weibo in the first place.

 

 

1. The Blogging Boom (2002–2009): The Early Rise of Chinese Social Media

 

 

When I first came to China and became particularly interested in its online environment, it was the final phase of the early era of Chinese social media — a period that followed soon after the country had laid the foundations for its internet revolution. By 1999, the first generation of Chinese internet giants — Alibaba, Tencent, Baidu, and Sina — had already been founded.

China’s blogging era began with the 2002 launch of the platform BlogChina.com (博客中国), followed by a wave of new platforms and online communities, among them Baidu Tieba and Renren. By around 2005, there were roughly 111 million internet users and 16 million bloggers, and the social impact was undeniable. 2005 was even dubbed China’s “year of blogging.” 1

Chinese writer Han Han (韩寒, born 1982), a high-school-dropout-turned–rally car racer, became one of the most-read figures on the Chinese internet with his sharp and witty blogs. He was just one among many who rose to fame during the blog era, becoming the voice of China’s post-1980s youth.

The rebel of China’s blog era, Han Han, became of voice of his generation.

 

When I moved to Beijing in 2008, I had a friend who was always out of money and practically lived in an internet cafe in the city’s Wudaokou district, not far from where I studied. We would visit him there as if it were his living room — the wangba was a local hangout for many of us.

Not only online forums and blogging sites were flourishing at the time, but there was also instant messaging through QQ (腾讯QQ), online news reading, and gaming. Platforms like the YouTube equivalents Tudou (土豆) and Youku (优酷) were launched, and soon Chinese companies began developing more successful products inspired by American digital platforms, such as Fanfou (饭否), Zuosa (做啥), Jiwai (叽歪), and Taotao (滔滔), creating an online space that was increasingly, and uniquely, Chinese.

That trajectory only accelerated after 2009, when popular Western internet services, including Twitter, Facebook, and YouTube, became inaccessible from within mainland China.

⚡ The launch of Sina Weibo in 2009 came at a crossroads for China’s social media landscape: it was not only a time when many foreign platforms exited China, but also when internet cafes faced major crackdowns.

As a foreigner, I don’t think I ever visited internet bars in Beijing anymore by that point — internet use had largely shifted to home connections. Laptop ownership was rising, and we all had (pre-smartphone) mobile phones, which we used to text each other constantly, since texting was cheaper than calling.

Some of the mobile phones in China’s 2009 top 10 lists.

 

Weibo came at just the right time. It filled the vacuum left by the online crackdowns across China’s internet while still benefiting from the popularity of blogging. Weibo (微博), after all, literally means “micro-blog” — micro because the number of characters was limited, just like Twitter, making short-form posts the main way of communication.

Weibo quickly became hugely successful, for many more reasons than just timing. Its impact on society was so palpable that its trending discussions often seeped into everyday conversations I had with friends in China.

In English-language media, I kept reading about what was being censored on the Chinese internet, but that wasn’t necessarily what I wanted to know — I also wanted to know what was on Weibo, so I could keep up with my social circles.

That question planted the seed for What’s on Weibo: the simple curiosity of “What are people talking about?” What TV series are popular? What jokes and controversies are everyone discussing (but that I never fully grasped)? I wanted to get a sense of an online world that was, in many ways, intangible to outsiders — including myself. As I had moved back to Europe by then, it was also a way for me to stay connected to those everyday conversations unfolding online in China.

With scissors, glue, and some paper, I started sketching out what a future website might look like.

Papercrafting the idea for a website named ‘What’s on Weibo’ in 2012.

 

And in March 2013, after doing my best to piece it together, I launched What’s on Weibo and began writing — about all kinds of trends, like the milk powder crisis, about China’s many unmarried “leftover men” (shengnan 剩男), and about the word of the moment, “Green Tea Bitch” (lǜchá biǎo 绿茶婊) — a term used to stereotype ambitious women who act sweet and innocent while being seen as calculating or cunning.

 

2. From Weibo to the Taobao MomentChina’s Mobile Social Era: (2010–2019)

 

Around 2014–2015, people started saying Weibo was dead. In fact, it hadn’t died at all — some of its most vibrant years were still ahead. It had simply stumbled into the mobile era, along with China’s entire social media landscape.

As mobile internet became more widespread and everyone started using WeChat (launched in 2011), new mobile-first platforms began to emerge.2 In 2012–2013, for example, apps like Toutiao and Xiaohongshu (小红书, RED) were launched as mobile community platforms. With the rapid rise of China’s new tech giants — Bytedance, Meituan, and Didi — a new mobile era was blossoming, leaving the PC-based social media world far behind.

Spending another summer in Beijing in 2014, I called it the “Taobao Moment” — Taobao being China’s most successful online marketplace, a platform for buying and selling practically everything from clothes and furniture to insurance and even Bitcoins. At the time, I thought Taobao captured everything Beijing was at that moment: a world of opportunities, quick decisions, and endless ways to earn and spend money.

On weekends, some of my friends would head to the markets near the Beijing Zoo to buy the latest dresses, purses, jeans, or shoes. They’d buy stock on Saturday, do a photo shoot on Sunday, and sell the goods online by Monday. You could often spot young people on the streets of Beijing staging their own fashion shoots for Taobao — friends posing as models, Canon cameras in hand.

During that period, What’s on Weibo gradually found its audience, as more people became curious about what was happening on Chinese social media.

Around 2016, Weibo entered another prime era as the “celebrity economy” took off and a wave of “super influencers” (超级红人) emerged on the platform. Papi Jiang stood out among them — her humorous videos on everyday social issues made her one of China’s most recognizable online personalities, helping to drive Weibo’s renewed popularity.


Witty Papi Jiang was a breath of fresh air on Weibo in 2016.

 

People were hooked on social media. Between 2015 and 2018, China entered the age of algorithm- & interest-driven multimedia platforms. The popularity of Kuaishou’s livestreaming and Bytedance’s Douyin signaled the start of an entirely new era.

 

 

3. The New Social Era of AI-fication and Diversification (2020–Current)

 

China’s social media shifts over the past 25 years go hand in hand with broader technological, social, and geopolitical changes. Although this holds true elsewhere too, it’s especially the case in China, where central leadership is deeply involved in how social media should be managed and which direction the country’s digital development should take.

Since the late 2010s, China’s focus on AI has permeated every layer of society. AI-driven recommendation systems have fundamentally changed how Chinese users consume information. Far more than Weibo, platforms like Douyin, Kuaishou, and Xiaohongshu have become popular for using machine-learning algorithms to tailor feeds based on user behavior.

China’s social media boom has put pressure on traditional media outlets, which are now increasingly weaving themselves into social media infrastructure to broaden their impact. This has blurred the line between social media and state media, creating a complex online media ecosystem.

At the same time, it’s not just AI and media convergence that are reshaping China’s online landscape — social relationships now dominate both information flows and influence flows. 3 Not everyone is reading the same headlines anymore; people spend more time within their own interest-based niches. It’s no longer about microblogging but about micro-communities.

China now has 1.12 billion internet users. Among new users, young people (aged 10–19) and the elderly (60+) account for 49% and nearly 21%, respectively. The country’s digital environment has never been more lively, and social media has never been more booming.

As a bit of a dinosaur in China’s social media world, Weibo still stands tall — and its trending topics still matter. But the community that was once at the heart of the Chinese internet has dispersed across other apps, where people now engage in more diverse ways than ever.

In China, I notice this shift: where I once saw the rise of Weibo, the Taobao boom, or the Douyin craze, I now see online and offline media increasingly converging. Social media shapes real-life experiences and vice versa, and AI has become integrated into nearly every part of the media ecosystem — changing how content is made, distributed, consumed, and controlled.

In this changing landscape, the mission of What’s on Weibo — to explain China’s digital culture, media, and social trends, and to build a bridge between Western and Chinese online spaces — has stayed the same. But the name no longer fits that mission.

Over the past few years, my work has naturally evolved from Weibo-focused coverage to exploring China’s digital culture through a broader lens. The analysis and trend updates will continue, but under a new name that better reflects a time when Weibo is no longer at the center of China’s social media world: Eye on Digital China.

For you as a subscriber (subscribe here), this means you can expect more newsletter-based coverage: shorter China Trend Watch editions to keep you up to date with the latest trends, along with other thematic features and ‘Chapter’ deep dives that explore the depth behind fleeting moments.

For now, the main website will remain What’s on Weibo, but it will gradually transition into Eye on Digital China. I’ll keep the full archive alive — more than twelve years of coverage that helps trace the digital patterns we’re still seeing today. After all, the story of China’s past online moments often tells us more about the future than the trends of the day.

Thank you for following along on this new journey.

 

By Manya Koetse

(follow on X, LinkedIn, or Instagram)

 

1 Liu, Fengshu. 2011. Urban Youth in China: Modernity, the Internet and the Self. New York: Routledge, 50.

2 Mao Lin (Michael). 2020. “中国互联网25年变迁:两次跃迁,四次浪潮,一次赌未来” [25 Years of China’s Internet: Two Leaps, Four Waves, and a Gamble on the Future]. 人人都是产品经理 (Everyone Is a Product Manager), January 3. https://www.woshipm.com/it/3282708.html.

3 Yang, Shaoli (杨绍丽). 2025. “研判2025!中国社交媒体行业发展历程、重点企业分析及未来前景展望:随着移动互联网兴起,社交媒体开始向移动端转移 [Outlook for 2025! The Development History, Key Enterprises, and Future Prospects of China’s Social Media Industry: With the Rise of Mobile Internet, Social Media Has Shifted to Mobile Platforms].” Zhiyan Consulting (智研咨询), February 7. https://www.chyxx.com/industry/1211618.html.

 

Spotted a mistake or want to add something? Please let us know in the comments below or email us. First-time commenters, please be patient — we will have to manually approve your comment before it appears.

Eye on Digital China, by Manya Koetse, is co-published on Substack and What’s on Weibo.
Both feature the same new content — so you can read and subscribe wherever you prefer. Substack offers community features, while What’s on Weibo provides full archive access. If you’re already subscribed and want to switch platforms, just get in touch for help. Both feature the same new content — so you can subscribe or read wherever you prefer. If you’re already subscribed on one platform and would like to move your subscription over, just let me know and I’ll help you get set up.

© 2025 Manya Koetse. All rights reserved.

 

Continue Reading

China Media

IShowSpeed in China: Streaming China’s Stories Well

Manya Koetse

Published

on

“This man is doing God’s work. In just six hours, he eliminated all Western media propaganda about China,” Chinese influencer Li Sanjin (李三金) said in one of his videos this week. The man he referred to, allegedly doing ‘God’s work,’ is the American YouTuber and online streamer Darren Watkins, better known as IShowSpeed or Speed, who visited China this week and livestreamed from various locations.

With 37 million followers on his YouTube account, Watkins’ visit hasn’t exactly flown under the radar. His streams from China have already accumulated over 17.5 million views on YouTube alone, and he also became the talk of the week on Chinese social media.

In China, the 20-year-old IShowSpeed is known as Jiǎkànggē (甲亢哥), or “Hyper Bro,” since the immensely popular YouTube star is known for being highly energetic.

Although IShowSpeed is originally known for soccer and gaming-related content, he’s been streaming live from various countries over the past year, from Ecuador to Bolivia, from Australia to Indonesia, from Romania to Japan, and also from the Netherlands, where a mob of fans harassed the YouTuber to such an extent that the influencer fled and panicked, until the police intervened and asked him to shut down the livestream for safety reasons — which he did not comply with.

It was not the only time IShowSpeed’s visit got chaotic. He also got into trouble during livestreams from other countries. While streaming from Norway, he injured his ankle and was swarmed by a crowd while trying to get out. In Greece and Indonesia, he had to ask for police support as well. In Thailand, he crashed a tuk-tuk into a temple wall.

In China, IShowSpeed’s livestreams went far more smoothly, and netizens, state media, and other official channels raved about his visit and its favorable portrayal of the country and its culture.

 
🔹 Symbol of Cultural Exchange & Positive Diplomacy
 

Jiǎkànggē” became one of the viral terms of the week, on Weibo, Kuaishou, Douyin, and Toutiao. During his China trip, the livestreamer hit several YouTube milestones — not only breaking the 37 million subscriber mark while on stream, but also surpassing the magic number of 10 million views in total.

Watkins, also known for being (sometimes aggressively) loud and chaotic, suddenly emerged as a symbol of cultural exchange and positive diplomacy. The past week saw hashtags such as:

#️⃣”IShowSpeed gives young foreigners a full-window view into China” (#甲亢哥给国外年轻人开了全景天窗#)
#️⃣”IShowSpeed’s Shanghai livestream breaks Western filter on China” (#甲亢哥上海直播打破西方对中国滤镜#)
#️⃣”American influencer IShowSpeed amazed by stable wifi on China’s high-speed train” (#美国网红甲亢哥被高铁稳定网络震惊#)
#️⃣”IShowSpeed praised deep tried tripe for being incredibly delicious” (#甲亢哥赞爆肚太好吃了#), or
#️⃣ “IShowSpeed bridges the cultural divide” (#甲亢哥弥合文化鸿沟#).

While in Chinese media, Watkins was lauded for shining a positive light on China, this message was also promoted on English-language social media, where he was praised by the Chinese embassy in the US (#驻美大使馆称赞甲亢哥中国行#), writing:

Post by Chinese Embassy in the US on X, March 26.

This 20-year-old American internet star is bridging cultural gaps through digital means and creating new channels for foreign audiences to better understand China.

So what exactly did IShowSpeed do while in China?

On March 24, Watkins livestreamed from Shanghai. He wandered around the city center, visited a KFC, danced with fellow streamers, stopped by a marriage market, ate noodles, played ping-pong, had hotpot, joined a dragon dance group and got acquainted with some traditional Chinese opera performance, and walked along the Bund.

On March 26, he streamed from Beijing, starting in Donghuamen before briefly entering the Forbidden City—dressed in a Dongbei-style floral suit. He later took a stroll around Nanluoguxiang and the scenic Houhai lake, rode a train, and finally visited the Great Wall, where he did backflips.

In his stream on March 28, Watkins traveled to Henan to visit the famous Shaolin Temple in Dengfeng, hoping to find a master to teach him kung fu. He trained with Shaolin monks—footage that quickly went viral.

Lastly, on March 29, he opened his own Weibo account and published his first post. On Douyin, he shared a video of his visit to Fuxi Mountain in Zhengzhou, featuring the popular “Stairway to Heaven” tourist spot.

On social media, many viewers were captivated by the content. One major talking point was the remarkably strong internet connection that allowed him to livestream for six-hour stretches without losing signal in Shanghai. (Though his Beijing stream started off patchier, the drop was minor.) For many, it symbolized the quality of China’s 5G services.

Foreign viewers also praised how safe, friendly, and clean the country appeared, and how his streams highlighted various aspects of Chinese culture—from everyday people to traditional arts and local cuisine.

 
🔹 Telling & Spreading China’s Stories Well
 

It is no wonder the success of the Jiǎkànggē livestreams is celebrated by Chinese official media in an age where China’s foreign communication aims to increase China’s international discourse power, shaping how the world views China and making that image more credible, more respectable, and more lovable.

That’s not just an observation — it’s an official strategy. Introduced by Xi Jinping in 2013, “Telling China’s Story Well” (“讲好中国故事”) is a political slogan that has become a key propaganda strategy for China and continues to be a priority in finding different ways of promoting Chinese culture — new ways of telling China’s story in the social media age – while countering Western dominant narratives about China.

In increasingly digitalized times, it is not just about telling China’s story well, but also spreading China’s message effectively — preferably through genuine and engaging stories (Cai 2013; Qiushi 2021).

Especially young, non-official ‘storytellers’ can make China’s image more relatable and dynamic. One major example, highlighted in a 2022 case study by Zeng Dan (曾丹), is Chinese influencer Li Ziqi (李子柒). You’ve probably heard of her, or seen snippets of her videos: she creates soothing, cinematic content depicting China’s countryside lifestyle, focused on cooking, crafts, and gardening. With 26 million followers on YouTube, Li Ziqi became a viral sensation who successfully communicated an authentic and appealing ‘China story’ to a broad global audience.

Li Ziqi in one of her YouTube videos.

Although the calm and composed Li Ziqi and the loud, chaotic IShowSpeed couldn’t be more different, they have some things in common: both have large international fanbases, including their millions of YouTube subscribers; they offer perspectives that differ from Chinese state media or official channels; and they have the capacity not just to tell China’s story well, but to spread it effectively through videos and livestreams.

 
🔹 Spontaneous Stream or Scripted Propaganda?
 

IShowSpeed’s China streams have triggered a wave of responses from fans and viewers, sparking discussions across international social media and even making newspaper headlines.

In English-language online media spheres, there appear to be a range of perspectives on Watkins’ China trip:

📌 One prominent view—also echoed by various foreign influencers on YouTube and other platforms—is that IShowSpeed’s visit counters “Western media lies” about China and has successfully shown the “real China” through his livestreams. The Shanghai-based media outlet Radii claimed that “IShowSpeed’s China Tour is doing more for Chinese Soft Power than most diplomats ever could.”

📌 Others challenge this narrative, questioning which dominant Western portrayals of China IShowSpeed has actually disproven. Some argue that the idea of China being a “bleak place with nothing to do where people live in misery” is itself a false narrative, and that presenting IShowSpeed’s livestreams as a counter to that is its own form of propaganda (see: Chopsticks and Trains).

📌 There are also those who see Watkins’ trip as a form of scripted propaganda. To what extent were his livestreams planned or orchestrated? That question has become one of the central points of debate surrounding the hype around his visit.

These rumors have been addressed by cameraman Slipz (@shotbyslipz), who took to X on March 28, 2025. Slipz posted that the team is “(..) not making political content, not any documentary and no journalism,” and later added: “Fact: amount of money IShowSpeed has received from Chinese Government = $0.”

But does the fact that IShowSpeed did not receive money from the Chinese government mean that it wasn’t also a form of China promotion?

➡️ Organized — it definitely was. Any media trip in China has to be. IShowSpeed would have needed a visa, he had translators with him, and throughout the streams it’s evident that local guards and public security officers were present, walking alongside and helping to keep things under control, especially in crowded areas and at major tourist spots — from Nanjing Road in Shanghai to an entire group of guards seemingly accompanying the entourage in the Forbidden City.

One logistical “advantage” to his visit was the fact that YouTube is blocked in China. While some Chinese fans do bypass the Great Firewall to access the platform, IShowSpeed remains far less known in China than in many other countries — a factor that likely contributed to how smoothly the streams went and helped prevent chaos. The team also launched a Douyin account during the trip, where he now has over two million followers. (To stream directly to their 37 million followers on YouTube, Watkins’ team either needed a VPN to access WiFi or had arranged roaming SIM cards to stay connected.)

➡️ Was it staged? Many parts clearly weren’t: casual public conversations, spontaneous barber visits in both Shanghai and Beijing (with barbers looking unsure of how to handle the situation), and wholesome fan encounters. There was even a moment when Watkins walked into a public restroom and forgot to mute the sound.

But other parts of the trip were undeniably staged — or at least framed to appear spontaneous. When visiting a marriage market in Shanghai, for instance, two actors appeared, including one woman with a sign stating she was looking for someone “capable of doing backflips.”

When Watkins took a “random” ride in what was described as the fastest car in China — the Xiaomi SU7 Ultra — the vehicle appeared to be conveniently parked and ready.

Similarly, when the streamer “ran into” Chinese-American TikTok influencer Miles Moretti (李美越) in Beijing, it turned out to be the person who would give him the now-iconic bright Dongbei flower suit and accompany him on his journey.

The ping-pong, the kung fu, the Peking opera, the hotpot, the Forbidden City tour — it all plays into the kinds of experiences that official channels also like to highlight. While likely planned by Watkins’ team in coordination with local partners, it was all far more orderly and tourism-focused than, for example, Watkins’ chaotic visit to the Netherlands.

Watkins and his entourage were also well-informed about the local dos and don’ts. At one point, Watkins even mentions “following the rules,” and when Moretti tells him mid-stream that “somebody very important lives on our left,” Watkins asks “Who?” — but the camera zooms out and the question goes unanswered, suggesting they may have been reminded that certain names or topics were off-limits (judge the moment for yourself here).

The livestream didn’t always go exactly the way Watkins wanted, either. When he attempted to take more random walks around the city, the crew appeared to be informed that some areas were off-limits, and he was asked to return to the car to continue the trip (clips here and here).

 
🔹 The “Nàge” Song
 

One major talking point surrounding IShowSpeed’s China livestreams was “the N-word.” No, not that N-word — but the Chinese filler word “nàge” or “nèige” (那个). Like “uhm” in English or “eto” in Japanese, “nàge” is a hesitation marker commonly used in everyday Mandarin conversation. It also functions as a demonstrative pronoun meaning “that.”

The word has previously stirred controversy because of its phonetic resemblance to a racial slur in English. In 2020, an American professor at the University of Southern California’s Marshall School of Business was even temporarily suspended after using the word during an online communications class — some students misunderstood its context and took offense.

The word — and the song “Sunshine, Rainbow, White Pony” (阳光彩虹小白马) by Chinese singer Wowkie Zhang (大张伟), which repeatedly features the word nàge in its chorus — popped up multiple times during Watkins’ trip. The catchy tune essentially became the theme song of his visit.

The first nàge moment actually already appeared within the first five minutes of Watkins’ Shanghai stream, when a Chinese comedian approached him on the street, trying to recall a joke. “What?!” Watkins reacted, with laughter in the background. “That’s not a joke, you said n**! It’s my first five minutes in China!” he exclaimed, before patting the man’s back in a friendly gesture, clearly not offended.

🔄 It resurfaced again within the first hour when Watkins visited a marriage market and one of the performers sang the Wowkie Zhang song. Watkins initially acted shocked, then demanded they sing it again — only to burst out laughing and start singing along.

🔄 Later, he sang the song again with a street saxophonist and encouraged others to join in.

🔄 At other moments, he played up the drama again, feigning anger when a crowd broke into the chorus, and it became a recurring gag throughout the streams.

These incidents all seem staged. One of the main reasons Watkins is known to many netizens in China is because of an older video clip showing his exaggerated reaction to the nàge song — dating back to at least 2022. So while it may have looked spontaneous, Watkins was already familiar with the word and the viral song long before his China trip.The attention given to the nàge ‘controversy’ was likely amplified for views and engagement.

While Watkins was clearly in on this part of the show — as with others — he also seemed genuinely, and at times amusingly, unaware of many things in China. He repeatedly referred to RMB as “dollars,” mistook elderly women for retired YouTube streamers, and even assumed that a woman livestreaming near the Forbidden City was reading his chat and trying to collaborate with him — although she seemed totally uninterested and was just minding her own business.

 
🔹 A Win-Win Situation
 

In the end, IShowSpeed’s visit highlighted two sides effectively doing their job. Watkins and his team successfully arranged a YouTube trip that generated high ad revenue, attracted millions of new subscribers, and boosted his brand and global fame.

On the Chinese side, there was clearly coordination behind the scenes to ensure the trip went smoothly: avoiding controversy, ensuring safety, and showcasing positive aspects of Chinese culture. From traditional opera and kung fu to ping pong, IShowSpeed’s content gave center stage to the kinds of cultural highlights that align closely with China’s official narratives and tourism goals. Even if the government didn’t pay the YouTuber directly, as his team has emphasized (and there’s no reason to doubt them), the trip still fit seamlessly into China’s soft power strategy.

IShowSpeed’s China visit has created a unique media moment that resonates for several reasons: it’s the encounter of a young modern American with old traditional China; it is a streamer known for chaos visiting a nation known for control. And it brings different benefits to both sides: clicks and ad revenue for IShowSpeed, and free foreign-facing publicity for China.

No, IShowSpeed didn’t undo years of critical Western media coverage on China. But what his visit shows is that we’ve entered a phase where China is becoming more skilled at letting others help tell its story — in ways that resonate with a global, young, online audience. He didn’t do “God’s work.” He simply did what he always does: stream. And with China’s help, he streamed China very well.

There’s so much more I want to share with you this week — from Chinese reactions to the devastating Myanmar earthquake, to a recent podcast I joined with Dutch newspaper De Telegraaf (link in Dutch, for those interested). But it also happens to be my birthday today, and I’m really hoping to still grab some birthday hotpot — so I’ll wrap this up here. I’ll keep you informed on the other trends in the next newsletter.📨.

Best,
Manya
(@manyapan)

 

References:

Cai, Mingzhao 蔡名照. 2013. “Telling China’s Stories Well and Spreading China’s Voice: Thoroughly Studying and Implementing the Spirit of Comrade Xi Jinping’s Important Speech at the National Conference on Propaganda and Ideological Work [讲好中国故事,传播好中国声音——深入学习贯彻习近平同志在全国宣传思想工作会议上的重要讲话精神].” People’s Daily 人民日报, October 10. http://politics.people.com.cn/n/2013/1010/c1001-23144775.html. Accessed March 29.

Qiushi 求是网. 2021. “Xi Jinping: Telling China’s Story Well, Spread China’s Voice Well [习近平:讲好中国故事,传播好中国声音].” Qs Theory, June 6. http://www.qstheory.cn/zhuanqu/2021-06/02/c_1127522386.htm. Accessed March 29.

Zeng Dan 曾丹. 2022. “How to Tell China’s Story Well: Taking Li Ziqi as an Example [如何讲好中国故事——以李子柒为例].” Progress in Social Sciences 社会科学进展 4 (1): 10–19. https://doi.org/10.35534/pss.0401002.

 

What’s Featured

Recommended Read

Quite terrifying and interesting, as this trending story touched upon so many different issues.

What started as a single snarky comment on Weibo spiraled into an online witch hunt, exposing not just some dark sides of online Kpop fandom but also, most importantly, the vulnerabilities in China’s digital privacy.

Read the story, the latest by Ruixin Zhang 👀

Read more 👇

Read here

 
This is an on-site version of the Weibo Watch newsletter by What’s on Weibo. Missed last week’s newsletter? Find it here. If you are already subscribed to What’s on Weibo but are not yet receiving this newsletter in your inbox, please contact us directly to let us know.

Continue Reading

Popular Reads