Americans fleeing the looming TikTok ban have been warmly welcomed to app Xiaohongshu – or RedNote – despite China’s tight restrictions on what can be posted

“It is the coolest thing,” says Huang Ziyan, a longtime user of Chinese social media app Xiaohongshu, describing the experience as a “21st-century Tower of Babel”.

Huang is referring to the influx of US “TikTok refugees” fleeing the impending ban and the resulting cross-cultural exchange that has seen Americans warmly welcomed – and sometimes given a few helpful tips.