One day in mid-January, California-based social media influencer Candise Lin woke up and found that hundreds of thousands of so-called TikTok refugees were suddenly flocking to Red Note, a Chinese social media app she uses every day. Lin doesn’t want to claim the whole thing happened because of her, but the trend is a good example of how her videos have become an essential link connecting the parallel worlds of Western and Chinese social media. For many people who don’t otherwise know much about China, Lin has become the country’s de facto ambassador of internet culture.
Starting in December 2023, Lin, who has more than 2.3 million combined followers on
→ Continue reading at WIRED
