曼谷（美联社）——你“变身中国人”了吗？最近几个月，全球各地的20多岁年轻人接管了社交媒体，纷纷发布自己拥抱中国生活方式的帖子。打着“Chinamaxxing”标签的视频，或是宣称自己处于“非常中式的生活阶段”的视频，获得了数百万次的播放量。视频中，用户们分享着喝枸杞温水、吃饺子、在室内穿拖鞋，或是飞往中国赞叹其现代基础设施的经历。
随着经济和地缘政治的崛起，中国政府多年来一直尝试在国际舞台上推行软实力。但这些官方努力从未达到如今“变身中国人”这一梗所取得的成功。中国驻美大使谢锋近期也提到了这一互联网热潮，他在推广新的免签过境政策时，敦促更多美国人“亲自体验一个真实、动态和全景的中国”。
TikTok上的这一趋势是最新的例子，展示了中国产品和消费品如何享有前所未有的全球文化威望。从电影到音乐、泡泡玛特旗下的Labubu玩具，甚至连喝温水这样的日常习惯，现在都被许多人视为“酷”的表现。
纽约大学专业研究学院全球事务中心教授沙宇元表示：“中国正在获得真正的软实力，你可以从中国文化和‘中国性’如何在日常生活中变得熟悉、可复制且全球可消费中清楚地看到这一点。这种正统性是通过品味、实用性和娱乐性赢得的。”这种软实力的上升得益于中国在诸多行业的发展：从保持1.2万亿美元贸易顺差的制造业，到开发出让TikTok风靡全球的成瘾性算法的社交媒体，再到其自身的消费者文化。
BANGKOK (AP) — Have you “become Chinese”?In recent months, 20-somethings around the world have taken over social media with posts enthusing about how they’re embracing Chinese ways of life. Videos proclaiming users are “Chinamaxxing,” or “in a very Chinese time of their lives” — namely by drinking hot water with boiled goji berries, eating dumplings or wearing slippers in the house, or flying to China and gushing about its modern infrastructure — are racking up millions of views.Along with its economic and geopolitical rise, China’s government has tried for years to push its soft power on the global stage. But those official efforts never came close to the success the “becoming Chinese” meme is enjoying now. Even senior Chinese diplomats have noted the trend. Xie Feng, the Chinese ambassador to the U.S., referenced the internet craze recently as he promoted a new visa-free transit policy and urged more Americans to “experience for yourselves a real, dynamic and panoramic China.”
The TikTok trend is the latest example of how Chinese products and consumables are enjoying a cultural cachet they’ve never had before globally. From movies to music, Labubu toys and even ordinary habits like drinking hot water, Chinese things are now seen by many as cool.
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“China is gaining real soft power, and you can see it most clearly in how Chinese culture and ‘Chineseness’ are becoming familiar, repeatable, and globally consumable in everyday life,” said Shaoyu Yuan, a professor at the New York University School of Professional Studies’ Center for Global Affairs.
“That legitimacy,” Yuan said, “is earned through taste, utility, and entertainment.”That soft power rise is enabled by China’s development in many industries: From manufacturing, where it holds a record $1.2 trillion trade surplus with the rest of the world, to social media, where it developed the addictive algorithms that made TikTok, to its own consumer culture, where homegrown names compete head to head with global brands.
Mixed feelings among Chinese Americans Sherry Zhu, a 23-year-old from New Jersey, posted a couple of videos last year joking about how if you liked noodles and hotpot and wore slippers at home you were Chinese. One of her videos was shared almost a million times in December, and other TikTokers quickly caught on with the “becoming Chinese” meme.But the trend has also raised thornier questions. For many Chinese people who have long faced discrimination in the West, the internet’s fascination with Chinese culture seems to be the latest form of cultural appropriation.“Appreciation does not erase the racism that many Chinese people grew up with,” said Elise Zeng, 28, from Brooklyn, New York. A video she posted critiquing the social media phenomenon was liked by more than 36,000 people.She recalls how during the COVID-19 pandemic she was afraid for her parents stepping out of the house because they heard about people getti
