The US government says Chinese apps and online activities threaten Americans' security. But US internet users can't get enough of Chinese memes.

Industrial food-grade glycine is not a topic you'd typically expect to capture anyone's imagination. But since the summer of 2024, one Chinese amino acid manufacturer has found itself at the centre of a TikTok sensation in the US. American users of the social media site have become preoccupied with posts from the company, Donghua Jinlong, turning them into wildly popular memes as the company coyly played along. And so, word about Chinese industrial glycine quickly spread.

In recent weeks, a looming ban on TikTok in the US also saw Americans flock in surprising numbers to another popular Chinese social media app called RedNote, also known as Xiaohongshu – which literally translates as Little Red Book. Some three million users in the US signed up to RedNote in the days ahead of a law banning TikTok over national security concerns briefly came into force before President Donald Trump gave it a 75-day reprieve.

These self-proclaimed "TikTok refugees" joined around 300 million active users of Xiaohongshu, who are mainly in China, leading to a burgeoning relationship between Chinese and American citizens as they swapped jokes, memes and even helped each other with their homework.

It comes at a time when tensions between the US and China are especially heightened amid concerns over national security and fears of an impending trade war between the two countries. Yet social media appears to be providing American and Chinese citizens with an opportunity to overcome the "Great Firewall" that typically separates their country's internet activities. But could this collision of two rich but very different meme cultures be more than just a laugh? And can it provide a common ground between people so often separated by the rhetoric of their political leaders?

Certainly, while the migration to RedNote is new, American fascination with Chinese memes is not.

In 2024, Chinese memes and content burst into American digital culture in a strange and surprising way. During the summer, "glycine girlies" granted Hebei-based industrial glycine manufacturer Donghua Jinlong unexpected celebrity status. Glycine is an amino acid used in various food products. Separately, meme-makers also embraced bizarre videos about a character named "Little John" who uses galvanised steel beams to carry out absurd home renovations in a running joke that originated on China's BiliBili platform.

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