How Candise Lin became an unofficial ambassador of Chinese Internet Culture

One day in mid -January California -based influencing social media Candiz Lynn woke up and found that hundreds of thousands of so -called Tactok refugees suddenly flown to a red note, Chinese Social media She uses every day. Lynn does not want to claim that everything has happened because of her, but the trend is a good example of how her videos have become an essential connection that connects the parallel worlds of Western and Chinese social media. For many people who otherwise do not know much about China, Lynn has become a factual ambassador to the country of Internet culture.

Since December 2023, Lynn, who has more than 2.3 million combined Tiktok and Instagram combined followers, upload a series of viral videos Presentation of Red Note (known as Xiaohongshu in Chinese) to Western audience as a destination for people looking for brutally honest transformation suggestions. Videos prompted the beauty -influenage to start downloading the app, which led to its first trafficking in unstable speakersS When Tittok was close to to be banned In the United States, in January, it was the creators of beauty that suggested people move to Red Note.

But long before Red Note offers millions of Americans the opportunity to live the Chinese Internet directly, Lin gives them a rare view of it. “Dr. Lynn’s content is like a magic portal on the other side of the world, where everyone is just like you, but a little different, “says Lucy White, a 22-year-old Scottish bartender who follows Lynn on Instagram.

In return, Lynn has become a minor celebrity and earns a stable income from Tiktok, who subsidizes his daily work as a canton teacher. But her online presence also opens her for contradictions and hatred of both the pro-Chick voices online. “If I say something nice about China, I’m called CCP Bot, but if I say something bad about China, I’m called CIA spy,” says Lynn Wired. As a result, she tries to stay away from politics and focus on more conventional and fun trends.

Every day, Lin interferes with the Chinese Internet, looking for a new celebrity enmity, the hottest meme, or perhaps a viral challenge for a college hostel, which then translates into English and explains in a minute video. Each clip has the fact that it gives the camera the same type of Deadpan signature. Lynn often wonders why he doesn’t laugh in his videos and explains that it is because I have to shoot four or five times to get the best. No matter how funny jokes they are, they are old until the end of this. “That’s why I’m like a robot,” she says. Still, sometimes Lynn can’t help but break into a smile, which pleases her fans.

Lynn’s audience loves to learn about what funny things, the so -called Chinese “Netsi”, have done lately. Chinese social media are a world that Westerners do not have access to because they do not speak the same language or use the same platforms as people in China, says Joseph Burton, a 39-year-old writer and a former American diplomat who follows Lyn on Instagram. “I can’t communicate with him or reach him, but there are” all men are brothers “(in knowledge) of this ridiculous thing is happening online,” he says. “China is presented as this completely other place where no one jokes around, this censored, barren, hell, which is a completely hyper propaganda … But no, people are joking around. Daily life exists. Members exist. “

Fun facts about Canton

Candiz Lin was born in the Chinese city of Guangzhou and immigrated to the United States with her family when she was in high school. She received a PhD in Educational Psychology and later works as a postgraduate teacher, and at one point tried to open an online skin care store.

Then the pandemic locks struck, and as they bored at home, scrolling over his phone, Lynn decided to start posting to Tiktok. In April 2020 she made 24-second video Licking six English names that sound terrible in Canton: the name “Susan”, for example, sounds like “the god of bad luck.” The video unexpectedly blew up, gathered 5 million views and over 10,000 comments. “So, I continued to do it in a series and realized there was an audience for it,” Lynn says.