People Online Are 'Turning Chinese' – And It's Not As Racist As It Sounds

You’ve probably noticed that a whole lot of people are in “a very Chinese time in their lives” lately.

On TikTok and in memes across the internet, people, especially Gen Zers, are boasting of becoming Chinese, “Chinamaxxing” or becoming “Chinese baddies,” all of which essentially involves indulging in traditional Chinese wellness habits: drinking apple herbal tea, leaning into acupuncture, slipping on house slippers as soon as they enter the front door, or having congee or bone broth for breakfast. 

The internet’s embrace of Chinese culture has been building for some time, but this particular meme took off at the end of the year, when content creator Sherry Zhu began doling out tongue-in-cheek tips on how to tap into your inner Chinese person.

“Now that you’re Chinese you need to stop walking around your house barefoot, OK? ’Cause Chinese people, we don’t do that, we wear 拖鞋 (tuō xié) around the house,” Zhu says in one clip that has over 6.2 million views. (Culturally, taking your shoes off shows a sense of deference to other people’s homes, but it’s obviously just a good hygienic practice beside that.)

Soon, content creators and celebrities like comedian Jimmy O. Yang and podcaster Hasan Piker got in on the action. In Yang’s video, the Crazy Rich Asians star wears the viral “Chinese” Adidas jacket and croons the 1983 Mandopop song “Yi Jian Mei” by Fei Yu-ching. (You may have heard it in 2024, when someone turned debate footage of Joe Biden and Donald Trump into a romantic “duet” of the tune.) 

Now Chinamaxxing is everywhere. Sara Jane Ho, the Hong-Kong-born etiquette expert and star of Netflix’s Mind Your Manners, is especially happy to see Americans embracing drinking hot water. It’s a health habit she’s been pushing on her friends and followers for years.

“I had a viral video in 2024 where I said, I’m going to tell you why everyone in China drinks hot water, and you should, too: It’s for your digestion. If you want to poop like this, this is what you got to do,” she told HuffPost. 

The cultural exchange (and digestion tips) are all in good fun, but there may be something deeper in the zeitgeist driving younger Americans’ desire to lean into Chinese culture.

While Trump is in a very anti-China time in his life – establishing tariffs against the country and repeating the anti-China rhetoric that’s been a part of his playbook since the beginning of his political career – Gen Z is very much into China and Chinese culture: they’re embracing the country’s tech, its pop culture (retro Cantopop,Chinese dramas on Netflix) and buying China-made toys like Labubu, a plush doll that catapulted the Beijing-based Pop Mart brand to $1.8 billion in revenue last year.

And as Wired recently noted, at a moment when America’s infrastructure and democratic norms feel to many like they’re fraying, China looks comparatively appealing. “When people say it’s the Chinese century, part of that is this ironic defeat,” Tianyu Fang, a Ph.D. researcher at Harvard who studies science and technology in China, told the site.

Sure, some of this content could be Chinese state-sponsored, but much of it feels largely organic. Chinese American content creators big on TikTok we spoke to said the mood around China began to shift as Gen Z grew concerned in early 2025 that the U.S. government might shut down TikTok.

“I actually believe that all generations are now subtly rebuking the anti-China rhetoric, thanks to social media,” said RoRo, a first-generation Chinese-American content creator who grew up in San Francisco. 

Driven by anxiety over potentially losing TikTok, Americans began gradually migrating to Xiaohongshu – known in the U.S. as the RedNote app – and realised how welcoming the Chinese are to foreigners.

“That, coupled with travel content being documented in China, has truly opened the eyes of Americans,” said RoRo, who posts online using her first name only. “I think people are realising that we were fed propaganda to think that China is a terrible place and even a third-world country, when it’s quite the opposite.” 

She saw that shift firsthand when she travelled to China for the first time in 2019 and was “blown away” by what she encountered: the sheer scale of urban housing development compared to the U.S., rapidly expanding subway systems and cities that felt modern, efficient and unexpectedly clean.

“It was the complete opposite of what I heard and was told growing up,” she said. “The skies were blue and pollution-free, the food was fresh and delicious, the historical sites were breathtaking, and the technology was way more advanced than anything I’ve seen in the States.”

While RoRo is happy to see Americans embracing Chinese culture, she admits her feelings are complicated when she considers how recently China and Chinese Americans were targets for so much xenophobia and blamed for the Covid-19 pandemic. That’s a sentiment shared by many.

“I mentioned on one of my TikTok videos that while I’m leaning in to the trend and joining in on the fun, giving ‘Chinese big sister advice’ and traditional Chinese medicine tips, I can’t help but also reflect on those dark times of pure chaos,” she said. “But six years later, I am moving forward with open arms and will continue to shed light on my culture.”

Lulu Ge, a Chinese herbalist and the founder of the menstrual wellness brand Elix Healing, admits that when she first heard about the “becoming Chinese” trend, it initially rubbed her the wrong way.

“As a Chinese immigrant who grew up in America being teased and bullied for my cultural differences, I was initially skeptical but then I saw the genuine curiosity and openness coming from the community around this trend,” she told HuffPost.

Now she’s posting about it herself. In one TikTok video, she offers “Asian Mom tips for the newly Chinese”: ditch your iced drinks and drink warm teas, she says, eat nutrient-dense earthy foods that soothe the nervous system like sweet potatoes and mushrooms, and try to incorporate blood and qi-nourishing herbs into your diet. 

As to why the trend has taken off, Ge believes it reflects people’s growing disenchantment with the American health care system, and, in some cases, with Western medicine as a whole.

“Americans are sicker than ever with poorer health outcomes than other developed nations of the world and people are looking for simple everyday practices to take back their agency around their health and wellness,” she said. 

Felice Chan, a doctor of Chinese herbal medicine and acupuncture, said she genuinely loves seeing Chinese wellness, food and fashion culture being foisted into the mainstream.

Surface-level stuff or one video where you say you’re at a “very Chinese time” in your life feels a bit like clout-chasing, though. 

“It really comes down to the right way to engage with a culture so you’re not appropriating,” she said. “I think the best approach is, if you’re posting a trend, add a reference point that creates depth: Maybe you refer to a Chinese medicine doctor’s TikTok or Instagram. Maybe you reference a local Chinese market you went to, or a Chinese-owned business nearby. There just needs to be some intention behind it.”

And if it’s something health-related you’re posting, it’s important to make sure what you’re sharing is accurate.

“I’d say before posting something about Chinese culture or Chinese medicine, do more digging, check your references and spend time learning the context,” she said. “You always have to make sure the people you’re citing are legitimate, especially when it comes to medical information.”