TikTok users migrate to RedNote in an unexpected success for Chinese soft power

“Quotations from Mao Zedong” the official name, and PRC nationals probably get deducted social points credits for calling it anything other than that.

But the fact that it's published as a "little red book" fails to escape the obvious reference, if you're familiar with Chinese history, and the Cultural Revolution.

One quotation from a French newspaper, even a respected one, doesn't change that.

In fact, given the Chinese Communist Party's control over education, I question what the "Mandarin speakers in Rednote" actually learned about the Cultural Revolution and its awfulness. Likely a similarly filtered version to what the Japanese today learn about what the Imperial Army did in WW2.

The picture of people across the globe doomscrolling religiously through the "little red book" on their phones without knowing where it came from is subversive(?), ironic(?). I can't think of a good word right now.