Influencers, algorithms, and Western disillusionment are reshaping the battlefield.
What these trips, and others like them, achieve is more than viral entertainment. They work to actively rewrite the story of China that Americans know through the Tiananmen Square massacre, forced labor among the Uyghurs, the surveillance state, the social credit system, and more.
Pew research suggests that while most Americans still have negative views of China, the share with a favorable view has risen six percentage points since last year and nearly doubled since 2023. Younger Americans have more positive views of China than their older counterparts, with about a third of adults under 50 (34%) holding favorable opinions of China, compared to just 19% of those over 50.
By early 2026 the effect had a name: Chinamaxxing. On TikTok and Instagram, Gen Z users began posting videos of themselves “becoming Chinese” — drinking hot water for digestion, shuffling around in slippers, queuing for congee, even adopting the occasional floral quilted jacket. NPR, The New York Times, and CNN all ran explainers on the trend, noting it reflected not just curiosity about China but deep disillusionment with American hustle culture, crony capitalism, and political dysfunction.
“Thou shalt not bow down thyself to them, nor serve them: for I the LORD thy God am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children unto the third and fourth generation of them that hate me; - Exodus 20:5
Something came to mind as a result of reading the post about the 2 gay men who mocked and abused their surrogate baby. Which shows how abnormal behaviors such as these gay men typify are attempted to be quickly normalized and adopted using the Internet. The Internet gives groups who would have been shunned and ignored before its advent a way to gain attention and acceptance. Only in rare cases like this does it backfire but they can regroup and try again. Fringe groups can thus gain outsized influence.
Anyway, that led me to think about how learning to do things works in a similar way. Let's say it's the 1970s and you want to learn how to garden. Some sources of information might be:
1. Subscription to a gardening magazine,
2. Books from the library,
3. A local elderly person who has decades of gardening experience in the local area,
4. A grandparent who also has decades of gardening experience but who is not in the local area.
Now fast forward to the 2020s. Probably you go pretty exclusively to the Internet.
Having done both, the 1970s option is better. Again, the 2020s information sources can easily gain outsized influence just by showing up online. Better information sources like your elderly neighbor who is out tending her garden and the library need you to show up.
While the periphery breaks down rather slowly at first, the capital cities of the hegemon should collapse suddenly and violently.