Amid the endless chaos and cruelty of U.S. President Donald Trump’s second term, China, America’s main geopolitical rival, is enjoying a resurgence of interest online. Posting under the hashtags #BecomingChinese, #NewlyChinese, and especially #Chinamaxxing, youthful influencers are playfully adopting traditional Chinese medicine-based wellness routines maintained by pensioners in Beijing, celebrating the Blade Runner aesthetic of Chongqing, the megacity in China’s southwestern hinterland, and marveling at Chinese mass transit.
In many ways, the trend is refreshing. It breaks from the overwrought national security focus of most debates about the People’s Republic in Washington, D.C. And, at the same time, the interest of Chinamaxxers in quotidian life across the Pacific contrasts with the monumental image projected by Chinese authorities themselves during events such as state visits and the 2008 Beijing Olympics opening ceremony. Similar to the exchanges that happened between Chinese and Americans on the app Xiaohongshu a year ago, when TikTok looked set to be banned in the United States, at its best, Chinamaxxing is a positive, human-scaled conversation across cultures.
Amid the endless chaos and cruelty of U.S. President Donald Trump’s second term, China, America’s main geopolitical rival, is enjoying a resurgence of interest online. Posting under the hashtags #BecomingChinese, #NewlyChinese, and especially #Chinamaxxing, youthful influencers are playfully adopting traditional Chinese medicine-based wellness routines maintained by pensioners in Beijing, celebrating the Blade Runner aesthetic of Chongqing, the megacity in China’s southwestern hinterland, and marveling at Chinese mass transit.
