Chinamaxxing: China has become the aesthetic everyone wants to live in
From drinking hot water instead of coffee to Labubu keychains, via skincare, feng shui, and traditional medicine: the Chinamaxxing phenomenon shows how Chinese culture is becoming one of the most desired imaginaries for Gen Z.
AUTHOR
Lucia Antista
PUBLISHED
30 June 2026
Hot water instead of coffee. Labubu as keychains. Mahjong on Friday nights. Jianbing for breakfast. Skincare routines inspired by traditional Chinese medicine. More and more young Westerners are taking to social media to share that they have entered their “Chinese period”. On TikTok, the phenomenon already has a name: Chinamaxxing.
The response to this Chinese influence is called Chinamaxxing – the trend that has swept through TikTok and Instagram in recent months, prompting young Americans and others to declare that they have entered their “very Chinese period”.
Pop Mart in Bangkok: The World’s Largest Labubu Store
On the surface, it seems like little: someone drinks hot water instead of cold brew, someone follows a skincare routine inspired by traditional Chinese medicine.
But looked at closely, the phenomenon tells us something more precise about the way Gen Z is rewriting its cultural coordinates – and how aesthetics circulate in the world today, increasingly independent of the geopolitics that produce them.
China as an Everyday Imaginary
This is not the first time a non-Western cultural imaginary has been absorbed by the West through memes and lifestyle content. The difference, this time, is the context in which it occurs: while relations between the United States and China remain formally tense, a generation raised on TikTok – itself a Chinese platform – is developing a familiarity with that country’s culture that completely bypasses geopolitical discourse.
Not China as a systemic rival, not China as a technological threat: China as a source of daily rituals, of objects, of an aesthetic of care and slowness that clearly has something to say to those who have grown up in the permanent acceleration of the digital West.
There is something structurally interesting in this short circuit. Chinamaxxing did not start as a political gesture (perhaps for some) – it started as an aesthetic gesture, and for that very reason, it ends up being more effective than many stances. Anyone adopting an herb-based beauty routine or starting to drink tea instead of coffee is not necessarily declaring a political position: they are choosing an imaginary, a way of being in the world. And it is precisely in that seemingly superficial choice that we can measure something that soft power analysts – a country’s ability to influence through attraction rather than coercion – still struggle to quantify.
It is no coincidence that the trend found its main amplification right on TikTok, which by its very architecture builds familiarity with what it shows – and it shows a great deal of Chinese daily life, its rhythms, its objects, its domestic aesthetics.
Between fascination and appropriation
The result is a generation that knows China not through newspaper headlines but through cooking videos, skincare tutorials, Chengdu apartment tours, and Chinese or sometimes expat creators. A fragmented knowledge, superficial in some ways, but also unusually direct.
The other side of the phenomenon is less comfortable to look at. Part of the Chinese diaspora has reacted with growing annoyance, and it is not hard to see why: seeing traditions, practices, and knowledge condensed into an aesthetic that anyone can adopt, without history or context, produces a form of symbolic erosion that those belonging to that culture recognize immediately.
Chinamaxxing is ultimately a textbook case of how aesthetics work in the social media era: they detach themselves from the body that produced them, circulate freely, are adopted, reworked, emptied, and filled with new meaning. It is a process that has always existed – cultures have always contaminated, hybridized, and copied one another – but today it happens at a speed and with a ubiquity that make it almost impossible to draw clear lines between appreciation and appropriation, between curiosity and consumption.
What remains, beneath the trend, is something more interesting than the trend itself: a generation looking elsewhere – geographically, aesthetically, culturally – for what its own context can no longer offer.
Featured image: Photo from Adobe Stock
very interesting that current western youth pop culture lingo is inc*l terminology. Says a lot about the times.
The Guardian view on perceptions of superpowers: the world isn’t Chinamaxxing, it’s America-avoidant
Startling new research shows that in many countries – including old US allies – the public prefers Beijing to Washington
Earlier this year, a spate of western TikTok and Instagram creators announced that they were at “a very Chinese time in my life” – drinking hot water and wearing slippers around their homes. The Chinamaxxing phenomenon primarily reflected the constant need of influencers for novel content. But social media trends also reflect a growing fascination with China, as the economic historian Adam Tooze has noted.
While it broods over China’s economic, military and technical advance, the Trump administration is accelerating Beijing’s diplomatic progress, as striking new polling by the Pew Research Center shows. For the first time, China and Xi Jinping are seen more favourably than the US and its president in most of the 36 major countries surveyed – including Canada, Mexico and Australia. Only in six countries did people rate the US more highly. While Beijing has seen significant improvements in some places, the slump in Washington’s standing is more dramatic. Across 20 countries, the median percentage with a favourable view of China rose from 32% to 46% between 2023 and this year; for the US, it fell from 58% to 36%. Views of China were much more positive in Latin America, Africa and parts of south and south-east Asia than in wealthier European and east Asian countries.
On Thursday, Mr Trump accused China of interfering with the 2020 election – casting doubt on polls ahead of midterms that are forecast to hit Republicans hard. Never mind the lack of evidence; he offered Argentinians a $20bn economic incentive to vote in line with his preference last October. In nearly every country surveyed, more people thought the US interfered in other countries than thought China did so. Mr Trump’s demands to take over Greenland, the abduction of Venezuela’s then leader Nicolás Maduro and the illegal war on Iran have all left their mark. Even the World Cup, which should have been an easy US soft power win, has been tarred by his exclusion and bullying.
Xi Jinping and Donald Trump.Photograph: Mark Schiefelbein/AP Pool/AP
Grave concerns about Beijing remain. Though it has dialled back displays of aggressive “wolf-warrior” diplomacy, it is forceful in its dealings. But it may benefit from lower expectations, and it looks predictable beside Trump-created turmoil. Famously, Beijing has just one ally: North Korea. Washington has more than 50 – but seems to accord them less respect than adversaries. Beijing detained two Canadian citizens for more than 1,000 days in retaliation for Ottawa’s arrest of the Huawei executive Meng Wanzhou due to a US warrant. But Mr Trump announced that Canada will be the 51st state.
China is increasingly investing in overseas influence operations, including working with or amplifying local social media content creators. Content may range from paid-for Xinjiang travelogues intended to erase concerns about the persecution of Uyghurs, to softer material about food or technology.
The Pew findings may further convince it of Washington’s hegemonic decline. China is keen to encourage the belief that it is leaping into a shiny new future of cyberpunk cities, while the west struggles with a declining standard of living – not least because it is useful in the face of domestic disillusionment.
But public perceptions of other countries are often complex and volatile. US standing rebounded after dropping sharply over the Iraq war; China’s favourability ratings fell during the pandemic, reflecting its handling of the outbreak. The lasting lesson for both superpowers should surely be that presentation shapes opinion, but others will judge them on their actions – and respond accordingly.
Explainer: How to train at a Shaolin kung fu centre, like Victor Wembanyama and IShowSpeed
STORYVARVARA RODCHENKO
Jul 24, 2026
San Antonio Spurs star Victor Wembanyama visited a Shaolin Temple in Zhengzhou, China, last June. Photo: @wemby/Instagram
The San Antonio Spurs star and YouTube sensation IShowSpeed have both travelled to China to experience Shaolin martial arts – here is how you can do it too
Celebrities like NBA stars Victor Wembanyama and Jaylen Brown, and multimillionaire streamer IShowSpeed, have one thing in common – they all underwent professional training in one of China’s Shaolin centres. With the “Chinamaxxing” trend on the rise, many are drawn to martial arts such as kung fu, chasing physical and mental strength by living and training with monks in temples tucked away in high mountains.
But how does one join the programme, and what should one expect from life in Shaolin? Here is what you need to know.
What is a Shaolin Temple?
Interest in and visits to China’s Shaolin Temples have been on the rise in recent years amid the “Chinamaxxing” trend. Photo: Baidu
The original Shaolin Temple is a Buddhist monastery at the foot Mount Song, founded in 495 AD in Henan, China. It is considered the birthplace of Zen (Chan) Buddhism and is world‑renowned as the cradle of Shaolin kung fu, where monks developed martial arts as both a spiritual practice and physical discipline. Today there are multiple regional and overseas temples operating under the Shaolin name.
Where are the Shaolin training camps?
The original Shaolin Temple is located at the foot of Mount Song in China’s Henan province. Photo: Baidu
There are dozens of Shaolin-affiliated schools globally. China Daily reported in 2018 that the Shaolin Temple founded more than 40 cultural institutions abroad, with more than 300 Shaolin practitioners based overseas teaching martial arts to locals.
For international students looking to experience authentic Chinese monk life and martial arts training, there are Shaolin Zhong Wu, Shaolin Youngzhi and Shaolin Tagou, with the last one situated right at the foot of Mount Song, close to the original temple.
While European schools offer programmes as short as three days, the institutions in China usually start at one week and can last up to one year. During your time in the camp, you eat, sleep and train inside the temple, following a strict schedule – because it takes discipline to live like a monk and be in tune with your body and mind.
Who can get into a Shaolin Temple school?
There are dozens of Shaolin-affiliated schools globally. Photo: Baidu
Anyone can apply to join the Shaolin Temple training camps. To do so, you just have to visit one of the centres’ websites and book your stay. The prices range from around US$300 to around US$1,800 per month, including accommodation and meals.
Be sure to plan your experience in advance, as places get booked up quickly, especially in the summer, according to TikTok influencer Rivata Dutta, who talked about her Shaolin school journey online. Shaolin Yunnan, the temple Dutta trained at, was open to foreigners, she says, adding that while the training difficulty was tailored to one’s level, the monks would “challenge” her.
What is your day like in Shaolin?
Welsh athlete Ash Dykes training at Shaolin Temple in BBC’s documentary, The Great Wall with Ash Dykes. Photo: Handout
According to a training schedule on Shaolin Zhong Wu’s website, students are expected to wake up at 5.30am, and they get a total of around four hours of Shaolin kung fu training throughout the day. There are also language and culture classes.
At Shaolin Tagou, students can expect to learn Shaolin acrobatics, Sanda (Chinese kickboxing) takedowns, punches and kicks, and power stretching. On some days, students end their days with calligraphy classes after dinner, which is often strictly vegetarian or vegan.
In terms of living conditions, some bloggers who visited these Shaolin schools say the facilities were “extremely basic” with no electricity. “Rooms are typically shared and are extremely basic: dusty, no light, with nothing more than two ‘beds’ (i.e. two pieces of wood with a tiny mattress on top),” Ivan D’Avanzo, who visited Wu Wei Si in Dali, wrote on Medium in 2017.
The humble surroundings, however, allow visitors to regain mind space and focus, the blogger added: “Although it may seem rough on the surface, be sure that anyone would adjust to the lifestyle and end up going with the flow. For me, it was very helpful to find a peaceful balance, reconnect with my body and enjoy every single moment of the day.”
Training at a Shaolin school involves acrobatics, kicks, punches and power stretching. Photo: Getty Images
Another author shared in his Stevie on the Move travel vlog that his experience staying in the same temple made him more self-conscious. “I came to learn kung fu, but I found a heavenly place where the most I learned was about myself,” he wrote.
In the comments, the author answered one of the most frequently asked questions: can you leave the temple during your stay? “You can leave the monastery once a week,” his reply read.
Varvara is an intern at Style Magazine, contributing articles and social media posts on beauty, celebrities, and fashion. She is currently a student at HKU majoring in Journalism and Cognitive Science. Her other interests include strategic communications, having won in-course case championships by Allianz Global Investors and L’Oreal Paris HK in 2025 and 2026, respectively.
The photo of the ex-Abbot leads me to believe that the author didn’t do her research.
Hmm, I wonder if this trend would help chinamen get barbarian concubines. This is truly a good omen, a portent from the elder gods.
Chinamaxxing: is the trend really about China or Gen Z fleeing Western fatigue?
From viral candy wrappers to hot water routines, Western Gen Z appears obsessed with all things China. But is it true love?
Source: SCMP
Update: Aug 17th, 2026 2:01 AM
Illustration: Dennis Yip
Matteo Rikabi, an architect from Italy, is among the Western travellers whose visits to China have exceeded expectations and shifted their perception of the country. Photo: Handout
The iconic wrapper of White Rabbit, a six-decade-old Chinese milk confectionery, has recently gone viral in the West.
Shared this month in a post on social media he retro packaging was hailed as an “absolute masterstroke of graphic design”.
Its distinctive waxy paper – featuring a white rabbit against a red circle, with blue-and-white rabbit motifs lining both edges – has since racked up more than 6 million views and 260,000 likes.
In the comments section, online users from around the world have shared custom creations such as tattoos, phone cases and T-shirts inspired by the wrapper.
The aesthetic frenzy surrounding this piece of candy wrapper is part of a wider trend that has swept Western social media: Chinamaxxing.
Young foreigners – especially Gen Z Americans and Europeans – are “maxing out” on Chinese lifestyle elements, posting videos of themselves sipping hot water, drinking goji berry tea, eating congee, practising tai chi and wearing viral Adidas “Tang” jackets with traditional pankou toggles and mandarin collars.
Some Western youths have even translated their cultural curiosity into real-world journeys by travelling to China – experiencing its dramatic landscapes, from the stunning sandstone pillars of Zhangjiajie National Forest Park to the sprawling skylines of metropolises such as Shanghai and the “cyberpunk city” of Chongqing.
As Chinamaxxing took off, content creators on TikTok and Instagram joked about entering a “very Chinese time” in their lives.
Experts say this trend reflects growing dissatisfaction among Westerners with life at home, alongside a growing fascination with Chinese culture and aesthetics, while some caution that it is unlikely to translate into greater political goodwill in the short term.
The buzzword “Chinamaxxing” peaked early this year, with related social media hashtags such as “#becomingchinese” and “#verychinese” accumulating billions of views so far.
Chinese-American TikTok influencer Sherry Zhu played a central role in popularising the meme.
In a viral video posted last December with over 350,000 likes, Zhu joked: “If you love hotpot, dim sum, Sichuan cuisine and biang biang noodles, then you are Chinese. Your body is simply yearning for that wonton.”
TikTok users reacted rather enthusiastically, with many commenting: “First day being a Chinese, kinda nervous”.
Zhu also posted content on Chinese wellness and household customs, which sparked widespread imitation. Western social media users began sharing their newly adopted Chinese daily habits, such as making digestion-aiding apple tea and wearing house slippers to avoid cold floors.
Samuel Corseaux, a former pilot from France, also took inspiration from this online trend, as seen in his new habit of drinking hot water now and then. Corseaux views Chinamaxxing as a fun way to celebrate Chinese culture, heritage and daily habits.
“Overall, I think this trend is also a way to push back against the negative narratives and propaganda that the West has spread about China for years,” he said.
Young Westerners have also extended their everyday engagement with Chinese culture to travelling to the country for a first-hand experience.
Driven by expanded visa-free policies to revive the domestic economy, China recorded 23 million inbound foreign trips in the first half of the year, up by more than a fifth from the same time in 2025, and with nearly 80 per cent using visa-free entry, according to official immigration figures.
Among this growing wave of overseas visitors was Matteo Rikabi, an architect from Italy, who said his trip to the city of Chongqing far exceeded his expectations.
“It feels like a real-life cyberpunk city, with skyscrapers, neon lights, roads built on multiple levels, and trains passing through buildings. It has such a unique atmosphere that I’ve never experienced anywhere else,” he said.
Rikabi also visited other iconic Chinese destinations, including Shanghai, Beijing and Zhangjiajie in Hunan province.
Photos posted to his social media show him posing in a viral Adidas jacket – designed in the style of a traditional Chinese Tang suit – against a backdrop of misty skies and dense primeval forests.
The journey, he noted, somewhat shifted his assumption that Chinese-made products lacked quality.
Corseaux similarly explored multiple regions, including the provinces of Yunnan and Guangdong.
As an influencer with 26,000 followers, Corseaux regularly documents his global travels. His social media posts about China quickly garnered widespread attention and likes, as viewers were intrigued by the country’s modern infrastructure, advanced technology and striking landscapes.
Corseaux said his content had even inspired some viewers to travel to China and experience it for themselves.
In response to growing follower requests, Corseaux began organising small group tours to China. His followers asked for a mix of modern urban experiences – like those in Chongqing – alongside immersive lifestyle activities, including 24-hour Chinese spas, traditional Chinese medicine and acupuncture.
“It’s funny because China really embodies these ‘two worlds’: extreme modernity and deep tradition,” Corseaux said.
Few had expected this trend, given the long-standing Sinophobia surrounding the Covid-19 pandemic, alongside recurring “China threat” rhetoric in Western media.
However, overall Western attitudes towards China appear to be undergoing a subtle yet profound shift.
A new Pew Research Centre survey across 20 countries reveals a clear shift in global public opinion: favourable views of China rose from 32 per cent to 46 per cent between 2023 and 2026, while those for the United States fell from 58 per cent to 36 per cent.
Wang Wen, dean of the Chongyang Institute for Financial Studies at Renmin University, noted that “Chinamaxxing” reflected how the Western Gen Z was actively exploring and embracing Chinese lifestyles and development models within a specific social context.
“Many young people in the West feel disillusioned by political polarisation and social fragmentation in their home countries and are searching for a lifestyle paradigm that offers greater continuity and certainty,” Wang said.
Beyond domestic frustration in the West, the trend was equally driven by the practical appeal of everyday Chinese living, he argued.
From drinking hot water and practising to using mobile payments and riding high-speed rail, these viral trends reflect a distinctly Chinese emphasis on a pragmatic, human-centric approach, according to Wang.
For young Westerners seeking a sense of control in an unpredictable world, this practical efficiency offered a reassuring sense of order, he said.
Furthermore, Beijing’s expanding visa-free travel policies had allowed young foreigners to see a real, vibrant China, gradually pushing past long-standing stereotypes reinforced by traditional mainstream media.
This fascination carries striking historical parallels.
Jessica Imbach, assistant professor in Chinese studies at the University of Freiburg in Germany, echoed Wang’s view on Western political fatigue.
She noted that the trend resembled the 1980s cyberpunk wave and its projection of futuristic visions onto a rising Asian power – first Japan, and now China.
For Wang, Chinamaxxing is reshaping China’s global image, marking a new phase in the country’s soft power development.
He said the trend had effectively dismantled the long-standing “China threat” narrative in Western discourse, reframing the country’s image from an abstract geopolitical concept into something tangible, relatable and humanised through everyday life.
“This organic shift in public perception, originating from the grass roots, carries far more persuasiveness and resonance than top-down official messaging,” Wang said.
Imbach also said China’s image in the West was gradually shifting, citing positive coverage of other Chinese cultural exports, such as the TV drama The Untamed or the video game Black Myth: Wukong.
“It thus speaks to a larger and quite noticeable pivot away from China’s predominantly politics- and economy-centric portrayal in Western media,” she said.
Still, Imbach remained sceptical about whether China’s aesthetic momentum in Western media would translate into greater political goodwill.
“China on TikTok remains largely a projection screen for Western youth contrarianism and lifestyle aspirations,” she noted.
In line with its ongoing efforts to enhance soft power, Beijing has embraced the trend, with state media highlighting it as a sign of China’s growing cultural clout.
However, Wang cautioned against heavy-handed intervention by official agencies or overly polished marketing.
# From mahjong clubs to ‘Chinamaxxing,’ why Chinese culture seems to be everywhere
By Ann Scott Tyson Staff writer
Aug. 18, 2026, 1:03 p.m. ET|BEIJING AND SEATTLE
It’s a warm weeknight in Seattle’s trendy Capitol Hill neighborhood, and hundreds of 20-somethings cluster around green felt table tops, talking and laughing as they clack the white tiles of a 19th-century Chinese game.
The Emerald City Tile Club began last year with just a handful of mahjong players, and quickly “blew up,” says founder Sean Herrera. These days, it meets twice a month, and table reservations are snapped up within minutes.
Chinese culture suddenly seems everywhere, from the mahjong groups springing up nationwide to the surging interest in Chinese trinkets and video games. On social media, Westerners extol the benefits of “Chinamaxxing” by embracing traditional Chinese wellness habits, such as wearing house slippers, and influencers beam gee-whiz China tours to millions of viewers – helping amplify an idealistic, state-sanctioned image of the Asian superpower.
WHY WE WROTE THIS
Americans are embracing Chinese culture with an enthusiasm not seen since before the pandemic. The shift, welcomed and promoted by Beijing, comes as China works to raise its global standing and displace the U.S. as the world’s preeminent superpower.
In sharp contrast to the pandemic years, when the country’s popularity hit rock bottom, China and many things Chinese are now regaining favor in the American mainstream. Polls show that the percentage of Americans with positive views of China, while still a minority, has nearly doubled since 2023, with young people’s attitudes the most favorable. Beijing is taking note, as are ordinary folks in China.
“It’s good that Chinese culture is being absorbed and inherited – before it was suppressed and ignored,” says Wang Feifei, a teacher from China’s southern Anhui province, posing for photos with her sister in traditional Chinese garb at the Temple of Heaven in Beijing.
“Foreigners come to learn some of our Chinese culture, understand some of our customs and lifestyles, and then start imitating us,” she adds. “We’re very proud.”
Ann Scott Tyson/The Christian Science Monitor
Wang Feifei (left), a teacher from China’s southern Anhui Province, and her sister pose in traditional Chinese garb at the Temple of Heaven in Beijing, May 18, 2026.
China maximizes its soft-power boom
Such U.S. enthusiasm for Chinese culture, however superficial, would have been hard to imagine a few years ago. When the pandemic hit in early 2020, China closed its doors to most foreigners, limited internal travel, and imposed draconian lockdowns. U.S. President Donald Trump often attacked Beijing for what he called the “Wuhan virus,” fueling anti-Chinese sentiment, fear, and a spike in hate crimes against Asians.
It was a low point for many Chinese Americans, including Sherry Zhu, a social media influencer raised in New Jersey, who has recalled in media interviews being teased as a child for her cultural heritage.
But in 2025, she saw the pendulum swinging the other way. On social media, Americans were embracing Chinese culture and lifestyle habits, praising Chinese technology, and even joining the Chinese social media app Rednote. Ms. Zhu, a self-described “Chinese baddie” whose parents were both born and raised in China, joined in.
“I’m gonna let you in on a little secret, OK?” she jokingly told her TikTok followers early this year. “Tomorrow, you are turning Chinese.”
Ms. Zhu proceeded to post rules for “becoming” Chinese: drinking warm water, eating congee and hot pot, and celebrating Chinese holidays. In recent weeks, she’s posted about traveling in China and popular Cantonese TV dramas. Her posts went viral, racking up millions of views and adding fuel to an emerging “Chinamaxxing” trend.
From welcoming a record number of foreign tourists – including growing numbers of U.S. citizens – to selling more hot-water thermoses, China is already reaping gains from its growing soft-power influence.
State-run media and officials are eager to promote the trend, seeing it as complementary to the country’s growing hard power – showcased by breakthroughs in artificial intelligence, green energy, and e-commerce. In May, China’s ambassador to the United States, Xie Feng, described Chinamaxxing as part of an “unstoppable” force bringing the U.S. and China closer together.
A one-sided view of China
Still, researchers warn that Americans are not gaining a full picture of China.
A series of studies published last year found that TikTok and other made-in-China social media platforms featured more pro-Chinese Communist Party content than American apps, and suppressed posts on sensitive topics such as the Chinese government’s human rights abuses. U.S. influencers who travel to China – sometimes on Beijing’s dime – tend to highlight China’s skyscrapers and high-speed rail, while glossing over signs of its stagnant economy. They often present their experience as the “real China.”
J. Scott Applewhite/AP
TikTok users gather outside the Capitol as the House was considering a bill requiring the platform’s China-based parent company to sell the popular social media app or face a nationwide ban, in Washington, March 13, 2024.
During a trip to China in April, Ms. Zhu echoed that position in a Chinese-language interview for Xinhua. “Not many people get to travel to China, so I want to make propaganda about what China is really like,” she said.
Tianyu Fang, a Harvard University researcher focused on Chinese technology trends, says “there’s this fascination with Chinese futurism” that ignores how the country is built by a low-paid, less-educated labor force that lacks protections or upward mobility.
“There is always this Western expat who goes to China, and everything is cheap and convenient,” he says. Yet the Chinamaxxing trend is “blind to a lot of the real problems in China,” including human rights abuses and the challenges of living in an authoritarian surveillance state.
Ultimately, he says, these trends might say more about Americans’ needs than China’s inherent cultural appeal.
For instance, the explosion in mahjong get-togethers across the U.S. – up 235% during the first half of this year – reflects a broader Gen Z shift away from digital life to in-person gatherings such as trivia nights and bird-watching, according to data from the ticketing platform Eventbrite. Several of the young tech workers at Seattle’s Emerald City Tile Club said it was a cool place to socialize.
“It keeps growing, friend to friend,” says organizer Thomas Loftus. “It’s very much a social club.”
On a deeper level, young Americans might be feeling pessimistic about their own prospects and could be looking elsewhere for answers, says Mr. Fang. “I observed this wave of [young people] seeming more positive about China as the U.S. was scaling down its globalist aspirations,” he says, leading some to conclude that “we need to be more like China.”
Donald Keough contributed reporting to this story from Boston.
# How ‘Pursuit of Jade’ signals China’s growing popularity in the west
The C-drama is part of the growing social media trend of “Chinamaxxing,” or imitating China-related lifestyles, wellness habits, and more
Xiwei Tian and Linghe Zhang in “Pursuit of Jade.”
Still frame from “Pursuit of Jade”
Words by Kayti Burt
When Pursuit of Jade dropped its final episode on Netflix earlier this spring, the Chinese historical fantasy drama about a romance between a pig butcher and a fallen noble finished its 40-episode run as the first C-drama to rank on the streamer’s Global Top 10 list for non-English series. Its metrics on Netflix are particularly impressive given that the U.S.-based streamer, which is not available in China, is only one of the platforms on which the series streamed. In other words, the Netflix numbers don’t just represent a fraction of the drama’s popularity, but a fraction of its popularity outside of mainland China. More than a month after the drama’s final episode dropped, Pursuit of Jade is still garnering more Google search requests than some of Netflix’s most watched series this past week, including Devil May Cry and Man on Fire.
Of course this isn’t the first time a C-drama has become popular outside of China, including in the west. During the pandemic, The Untamed, an idol wuxia drama based on a popular boy love webnovel called The Grandmaster of Demonic Cultivation, was one of Tumblr’s most active fandoms. Since then, series like Hidden Love, Love Between Fairy and Devil, Eternal Love, Fly Towards You, and First Frost have made a social media-visible splash. More recently, Chinese-made microdramas have broken into social media feeds. In a recent report, the Wall Street Journal noted episodes of this 90-second, vertical format have been watched by one in 10 American adults.
However, compared to a TV industry like South Korea’s, for example, the Chinese TV industry has not broken through in the west (yet). (Meanwhile, western TikTok users are claiming Pursuit of Jade is changing their brain chemistry and pulling in viewers who have never before watched an Asian drama with its “adorable and funny” vibes.) This isn’t because China doesn’t make good TV. China has been churning out bangers for years. It has more to do with the increasingly tense relationship between the United States and China.
Historically, Chinese television hasn’t been that popular in the United States. The U.S. market—which has its own strong, domestic TV industry that exports to the rest of the world—has been resistant to foreign-language media. This has begun to change in recent years, especially as U.S.-based streamers like Netflix, Amazon Prime, and Disney+ invest in foreign production as a way to grow subscriber bases in international markets.
However, China has not been a part of that push, as China is resistant to American influence and interference in their economy. None of the major U.S. streamers are available in the country. Compare this relationship to the one the United States has with South Korea, which has a U.S. military protectorate. It’s also worth noting that, unlike South Korea, China has a massive domestic population and market, which makes the industry less reliant on exporting its media.
So what is shifting to allow a drama like Pursuit of Jade to break through? As you might have guessed, a lot. As Netflix looks to expand in Asian markets where C-dramas are already popular, it is investing more money in international distribution rights for series like Pursuit of Jade. Meanwhile, the international arms of Chinese streamers like iQiyi, Youku, or Tencent Video (called WeTV internationally) are making headway. For example, iQiyi’s international version saw a 114.5 percent increase in views from 2024-25.
But it’s more than accessibility. China is having a moment on American social media that suggests a broader shift in how people, especially younger folks, in the United States perceive China and Chinese culture. “Chinamaxxing” is the term for the trend of imitating China-related lifestyles, wellness habits, and online curiosity that reached viral status on social media platforms in 2025 and has continued this year. On TikTok and Instagram, non-Chinese users are in a self-described “Chinese era” of their lives, drinking hot water, wearing house slippers, eating congee, and scouring e-commerce sites for Adidas’ Chinese New Year Jacket.
Soft power is the term used to describe when countries use persuasion rather than military or economic force (aka hard power) to influence other countries and cultures, and it’s considered a vital part of modern foreign policy and strategy. Sustained economic power comes from the international perception of a country that goes beyond a single film, TV drama, or social media reel. It’s one part of how the United States has been able to hold onto world power for so long. Our command hasn’t been just military or economic in nature, but also cultural. “Absent military action, Taylor Swift is more important than Tomahawk missiles,” former Under Secretary of State for Public Diplomacy Richard Stengel recently wrote in The Guardian.
While the United States’ soft power has been on the decline in the past few years (nations engaged in military conflict, aka an exercise in hard power, tend to take a soft power hit), the perception of China around the world has improved slightly. In 2025, Pew published a study finding that a median of 49 percent of adults around the world have a favorable view of the United States compared to 37 percent who have a favorable view of China. When asked which country is the greatest threat to their own, people in most European and Latin American countries surveyed tended to name the United States over China. In Canada, the share of people who view the United States favorably has decreased by 20 percentage points from 2024, while the share of those who view China favorably has increased by 13 percentage points.
In 2025’s Global Soft Power Index, China ranked second (behind only the United States) for the first time ever. Attributes that saw a particular uptick in ranking included: “generous,” “friendly,” “good relations with other countries,” “easy to communicate with,” and “fun.” While some of this shift comes from spheres of influence outside of media, pop culture has historically been a massively influential tool when it comes to soft power. From Pursuit of Jade to the two-week tour American YouTuber IShowSpeed took of China last year, the west’s perception of China is changing in fascinating, complex ways.
Published on May 18, 2026
