Thawing Cold Wars with Cultural Exchange

The TikTok/RedNote cultural exchange is giving me flashbacks to the Cold War in the 1980s when I was part of bringing Americans to the USSR for in-home visits with Soviets. Then as now, there were a lot of built-up misconceptions about the other side, and it was always wonderful to see the heartfelt connections being made when people recognized their shared humanity. Many friendship started on those trips that are still thriving today!

I guess I'd thought we don't need explicit cultural exchange anymore, because it's so much easier with the Internet to reach out and connect with people from other cultures. Back then, we had to get on a plane and fly half across the world, but now everyone is just a few clicks away! And yet so many of us just don't think to do it.

So, I'm cheering you on for taking this leap! You've stepped outside our usual bubble and opened up to the wonderful people "over there". I hope the seeds planted now grow into beautiful friendships for years to come.

I know you're all doing it for a variety of reasons, but through your actions, you're doing your part to help thaw US/Chinese relations. We all share this one planet… we'll be happier if we all get along!

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Comments

Sensitive-King-3736•over 1 year ago•1

yes

Logical-Dare-4103•over 1 year ago•1

https://zh.m.wikipedia.org/zh-hans/%E7%BD%91%E7%BB%9C%E8%AF%84%E8%AE%BA%E5%91%98

Morichh•over 1 year ago•1

Absolutely correct.

PapaBobcat•over 1 year ago•1

I was thinking that too. While I'm not a Tiktok refugee, I'm signing up there anyway.

Extension-College783•over 1 year ago•1

I downloaded TikTok for the first time just a few days ago. I got rid of my FB years ago and never had Insta. Reddit less than a year.

I wanted to see what all the fuss was about. It was much different than I thought. More of a community. Lot of silly stuff for sure and no doubt some people hawking bad products and in general kinda scammy folks. But also, a lot of really cool people. I didn't expect that. Before it was shut down I jumped on the Red Note app. That is a lot of fun in just the day I've been on it.

So, now that 'the clock' is back I'll stay there until Zuck gets a firm grip which it appears is already happening. And I'll continue with Red Note for sure. It's great learning about what China is like, day to day life, etc.

Stunning_Working8803•over 1 year ago•1

Make no mistake: the new Cold War is still taking place. This app is soft power exerted by the Chinese. The people view themselves as part of the collective and are being friendly so to keep not only Americans but also other nationalities on the app. The collection of data significantly impacts the AI race (training data). Also, the Chinese are asking Americans innocuous questions demonstrating to the Americans how much better the Chinese system is so as to undermine Americans’ trust in their own government (although, frankly, the Americans who have gotten to the stage of giving an even more Chinese app than TikTok their data out of spite probably have crossed the point of no return). And they have the right to do that as much as Westerners have preached about human rights and democracy to ā€œless civilisedā€ non-Westerners since the end of World War 2.

Source: I’m a Singaporean ethnic Chinese and my country is neutral and will not side with either the US and China for as long as possible (we are militarily more aligned with the US and economically more connected to China, and culturally it depends on which generation we are talking about). I work in AI and I foresee China leading the AI race and being way more likely than the US to implement universal basic income. Would I welcome a world where China topples white supremacist identity/ideology of the past couple centuries? Yes. I’m just pointing out how the Chinese think about warfare and how shrewd they are about it.

ptulongyou•over 1 year ago•1

The Berlin Wall of the Internet is falling. Both sides discover that they are human beings rather than demons. This could be a historic moment. Politicians on both sides are as slow as ever. I wonder who will blink first (ban rednote).

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