WEBVTT - Why Everyone Is ‘Becoming Chinese’ On TikTok - Week in Tech 0:00:14.600 --> 0:00:18.040 From Kaleidoscope and iHeart podcasts. This is tech stuff. I'm 0:00:18.000 --> 0:00:20.920 as Voloscian and I'm care Price. A handful of stories 0:00:20.920 --> 0:00:23.400 stood out to us this week, and they have one 0:00:23.440 --> 0:00:27.800 thing in common. China. First, why Chinese regulators are investigating 0:00:27.800 --> 0:00:31.800 a deal between Meta and an AI company based in Singapore, 0:00:32.080 --> 0:00:35.400 And why everyone on TikTok is drinking hot water, eating 0:00:35.440 --> 0:00:38.159 dim sum and coming out as Chinese. 0:00:38.479 --> 0:00:40.920 Then a few other things that caught our eye this week, 0:00:41.400 --> 0:00:44.720 including a type of factory work where humans are folding 0:00:44.800 --> 0:00:50.520 laundry for hours while humanoid robots watch. Then TikTok wants 0:00:50.520 --> 0:00:52.720 more of your attention, this time in a new app 0:00:52.920 --> 0:00:57.960 hosting microdramas like love at First Bite. And finally, Silicon 0:00:58.040 --> 0:01:01.800 Valley's new favorite hire is a act engineer. Will explain 0:01:01.840 --> 0:01:02.680 what that means. 0:01:02.680 --> 0:01:05.720 All of that on the Weekend Tech. It's Friday, January 0:01:05.760 --> 0:01:12.480 twenty third. Hello Cara, Hello Azzie. How much time do 0:01:12.560 --> 0:01:14.800 you spend thinking about animal intelligence? 0:01:15.080 --> 0:01:17.360 I mean I spend enough time thinking about animals? 0:01:17.680 --> 0:01:18.000 Yeah? 0:01:18.120 --> 0:01:19.400 Yeah, not animal intelligence. 0:01:19.520 --> 0:01:20.200 You're getting a dog? 0:01:20.640 --> 0:01:23.000 Well, I had, I was fastering a dog. It got adopted, 0:01:23.280 --> 0:01:29.360 not by you, no, unfortunately, sad. Yeah, I'm sad. 0:01:29.440 --> 0:01:30.520 Well, you can always got it. 0:01:30.520 --> 0:01:32.080 I can always get it. I can always get a 0:01:32.120 --> 0:01:35.240 robo dog when they come. I'll talk to Barston Dynamics 0:01:35.240 --> 0:01:35.600 about it. 0:01:35.840 --> 0:01:38.360 I got more interested than I had previously been in 0:01:38.400 --> 0:01:43.440 animal intelligence because I was actually in the Windy Impenetrable Forest, 0:01:43.840 --> 0:01:47.840 which is on the border of Congo, Rwanda and Uganda, 0:01:48.480 --> 0:01:50.480 and I got to see the mountain gorillas and it 0:01:50.520 --> 0:01:52.120 was absolutely Did. 0:01:52.000 --> 0:01:52.840 You feel a kinship? 0:01:53.360 --> 0:01:55.600 You can't not. I saw gorillas and chimpanzees, and I 0:01:55.640 --> 0:01:58.760 mean it's absolutely stunning. I mean really, So I've been 0:01:58.800 --> 0:02:01.840 more interested in animal and intelligence in the last few weeks, 0:02:02.040 --> 0:02:05.559 which is probably why a story about a cow caught 0:02:05.560 --> 0:02:07.200 my eye this week. Have you have you? Have you? 0:02:07.280 --> 0:02:08.720 Are you familiar with Veronica the cow? 0:02:08.800 --> 0:02:10.359 No, I've never heard of Okay. 0:02:10.520 --> 0:02:14.360 So basically what people are fascinated with in terms of 0:02:14.400 --> 0:02:18.720 the great apes is their ability to use tools. Chimpanzees 0:02:18.720 --> 0:02:22.800 are more closely related to us than gorillas are, and 0:02:22.840 --> 0:02:27.040 they also use tools. In particular, they use multi purpose tools, 0:02:27.120 --> 0:02:31.320 so they can use they can use a stick to 0:02:31.520 --> 0:02:35.520 open a termite's nest, to get honey, and to beat 0:02:35.560 --> 0:02:35.959 each other. 0:02:36.240 --> 0:02:38.600 So they're using a fork basically for everything. 0:02:38.680 --> 0:02:42.480 Yes, the exact one that's extendable for Yeah. So this 0:02:42.600 --> 0:02:46.640 week it was revealed that a cow used the tool. 0:02:47.240 --> 0:02:50.320 Really what, Veronica, and in fact, what made it particularly 0:02:50.360 --> 0:02:52.560 interesting was that, just like a chimpanzee, was actually a 0:02:52.639 --> 0:02:57.600 dual use tools. So Veronica, the cow that doclemented picking 0:02:57.680 --> 0:03:00.560 up a broomstick with her tongue, and then she used 0:03:00.560 --> 0:03:03.399 the bristle end of the broom to scratch her back 0:03:03.440 --> 0:03:06.639 while holding it in her mouth, and she used the 0:03:06.680 --> 0:03:09.880 flat side with no bristles, the more gentle side to 0:03:09.919 --> 0:03:10.520 scratch her. 0:03:10.480 --> 0:03:12.959 Udder, really because the others are more sensitive. 0:03:13.000 --> 0:03:13.680 Exactly right. 0:03:13.800 --> 0:03:14.720 That's incredible. 0:03:14.960 --> 0:03:17.440 You know, we think we're so kind of far along 0:03:17.480 --> 0:03:20.440 in terms of our observations of the universe, but hiding 0:03:20.480 --> 0:03:23.360 in plain sight was the fact that cows can use tools. 0:03:23.760 --> 0:03:27.320 And the BBC said that the perceived lack of intelligence 0:03:27.320 --> 0:03:30.000 of cows may say more about a lack of observation 0:03:30.120 --> 0:03:31.800 than about the animals themselves. 0:03:32.160 --> 0:03:33.840 Interesting, huh. 0:03:34.000 --> 0:03:36.040 I wanted to bring you the story because we talk 0:03:36.120 --> 0:03:38.960 so much about artificial intelligence. I was at a panel 0:03:39.000 --> 0:03:41.960 at a conference last week called DLD in Munich, and 0:03:42.000 --> 0:03:44.360 this guy called Stuart Russell is like a very famous 0:03:44.400 --> 0:03:48.360 AI researcher and pioneer was being interviewed and he kept insisting, look, 0:03:48.520 --> 0:03:51.440 before we talk about artificial intelligence, I need to give 0:03:51.480 --> 0:03:54.800 you my definition of intelligence, which is the ability to 0:03:54.920 --> 0:03:57.840 achieve goals in the world. And he was saying, it's 0:03:57.920 --> 0:04:00.640 very scary because AI has its own goals and is 0:04:00.760 --> 0:04:03.800 achieving them. But you know, a cow can do it too. 0:04:04.080 --> 0:04:06.360 A cow can do it too. It's so interesting to 0:04:06.400 --> 0:04:09.240 me that is this the first time, the. 0:04:09.320 --> 0:04:11.920 First time a cow has ever been seen using a 0:04:11.920 --> 0:04:14.360 tool and it raised really serious questions. I think about 0:04:14.480 --> 0:04:19.520 how smart cows are and I mean obviously using to 0:04:19.560 --> 0:04:20.520 do what we do to them. 0:04:20.600 --> 0:04:20.920 Yeah. 0:04:21.000 --> 0:04:24.240 Absolutely, So I promised this episode is going to be 0:04:24.320 --> 0:04:27.400 about China, and we were wondering how to pivot out 0:04:27.400 --> 0:04:29.000 of this story. I was going to say, our super 0:04:29.000 --> 0:04:32.040 producer Eliza found a transition. 0:04:32.200 --> 0:04:32.960 Tell me so. 0:04:33.080 --> 0:04:36.240 Whired released a special issue of the magazine about the 0:04:36.279 --> 0:04:39.919 twenty three ways You're already living in the Chinese century. 0:04:40.360 --> 0:04:43.800 Number three was You'll be drinking frank and milk. 0:04:44.200 --> 0:04:46.040 So she found it the Franken milk connection. 0:04:46.360 --> 0:04:48.640 So there's a there's a super cow in China which 0:04:48.640 --> 0:04:52.400 has been cloned and it produces forty pounds of milk 0:04:52.440 --> 0:04:55.000 per year, which is almost double what the output of 0:04:55.040 --> 0:04:56.760 American cows. I mean, I was pretty shocked. 0:04:56.839 --> 0:04:57.760 This a type of cow. 0:04:58.040 --> 0:05:00.279 It's a special type of cow that's been cloned, owned 0:05:00.839 --> 0:05:04.880 and has double the output. So we're kind of drinking 0:05:05.279 --> 0:05:09.600 potentially genetically modified cloned count China. 0:05:09.600 --> 0:05:12.000 According to Wyatt, what are some of the other tells 0:05:12.040 --> 0:05:14.839 for sort of how we're living in the Chinese century. 0:05:15.200 --> 0:05:17.080 Well, one of the big ones, of course, is the 0:05:17.200 --> 0:05:20.440 rise of the Chinese battery industry and the electric vehicle industry. 0:05:20.760 --> 0:05:22.640 I hadn't realized until I read the piece in Wired 0:05:23.120 --> 0:05:27.520 that China sells ten times more electric vehicles globally every 0:05:27.600 --> 0:05:29.920 year than US company. So it's just an order of 0:05:29.960 --> 0:05:31.440 magnitude bigger the car industry. 0:05:31.440 --> 0:05:31.719 There. 0:05:32.240 --> 0:05:34.240 The other one which I liked was Your Next co 0:05:34.480 --> 0:05:37.640 Worker is a two legged Chinese robot, which we'll be 0:05:37.680 --> 0:05:39.839 discussing later this episode. 0:05:39.560 --> 0:05:40.200 Very frightening. 0:05:40.600 --> 0:05:44.320 Two other of my favorites were your precious Woo Woo crystals, 0:05:44.880 --> 0:05:47.840 the product of a small town Chinese venture. You're a 0:05:47.920 --> 0:05:48.719 crystal queen. 0:05:48.680 --> 0:05:49.520 Huge crystal queen. 0:05:49.680 --> 0:05:52.760 So the detail from this piece is that when Mao 0:05:52.839 --> 0:05:55.760 Zedong died he had a crystal coffin to see through 0:05:55.839 --> 0:05:56.560 crystal coffin. 0:05:56.640 --> 0:05:58.200 Good for him, and that's cool. 0:05:58.279 --> 0:06:00.400 The area of China where that crystal comes from is 0:06:00.400 --> 0:06:02.520 now the area that produces all of the kind of 0:06:02.920 --> 0:06:05.440 crystals for the wellness and healing industry. 0:06:05.560 --> 0:06:07.400 We should go. That would be such a that would 0:06:07.440 --> 0:06:12.400 be a great fun. People, well, they'll flies to China. China. 0:06:12.480 --> 0:06:14.279 And then the final one, which I liked, was the 0:06:14.320 --> 0:06:16.280 toy you want most in the world is still a 0:06:16.360 --> 0:06:16.880 La buobu. 0:06:17.080 --> 0:06:20.240 My friend and business partners texted me, I loved my 0:06:20.240 --> 0:06:22.080 flight attend this morning. She was so cute. She had 0:06:22.080 --> 0:06:23.000 a La boobo in her bag. 0:06:23.120 --> 0:06:25.520 Yeah, it's interesting why I pointed out that Labubu is 0:06:25.560 --> 0:06:30.920 the first basically China generated ip craze to sweep the world. 0:06:31.080 --> 0:06:32.440 It's true. I think that that's true. 0:06:32.520 --> 0:06:34.400 Is there a Luba movie it's happening. 0:06:34.960 --> 0:06:38.520 Yeah, it's it's in development. As they say. There's one 0:06:38.560 --> 0:06:40.640 that I can add to the list, actually, which is 0:06:40.640 --> 0:06:44.039 that everyone on TikTok is in their Chinese era. 0:06:44.320 --> 0:06:45.320 Wow. I love an era. 0:06:46.480 --> 0:06:47.120 Everything's in era. 0:06:47.240 --> 0:06:49.760 Everything's an error. But before we get there, I have 0:06:50.080 --> 0:06:54.599 a China business story that really got me thinking about 0:06:54.600 --> 0:06:58.440 this kind of dizzying shadow conflict between the US and 0:06:58.560 --> 0:07:01.560 China in the world tech. I want to take you 0:07:01.640 --> 0:07:06.560 back to January twenty twenty five, the Deep Seak Freakout. Okay, 0:07:06.680 --> 0:07:08.360 you remember that, the oh. 0:07:08.320 --> 0:07:10.040 Yeah, of course, of course, yes, this was last year 0:07:10.040 --> 0:07:11.360 when we started the show exactly. 0:07:11.480 --> 0:07:15.160 So there was this Chinese AI model called deep Seak, 0:07:15.240 --> 0:07:15.600 and all. 0:07:15.480 --> 0:07:17.640 Of a sudden, everyone's like, open ais Square. 0:07:17.520 --> 0:07:20.960 It's done. The US yeah crashed, etcetera, etcetera, before it 0:07:21.000 --> 0:07:24.800 recovered spectacularly. Shortly after, though, another tech product was released 0:07:24.800 --> 0:07:29.080 in China called manus Aim and manus Ai. Manus Ai 0:07:29.280 --> 0:07:31.320 was a little bit more of a storm in a teacup, 0:07:31.320 --> 0:07:33.680 people like, oh my god, it's happening again Deep Seat 0:07:33.760 --> 0:07:36.960 freak Out V. Two. It didn't spook the US markets 0:07:36.960 --> 0:07:38.920 in the same way, but it was a very impressive 0:07:39.360 --> 0:07:43.480 AI agent, capable of independently building websites and doing basic coding, 0:07:43.920 --> 0:07:47.440 kind of ahead of the Aargentic era of AI which 0:07:47.480 --> 0:07:50.880 emerged later in the year in the US. So today's 0:07:50.880 --> 0:07:51.720 story is about. 0:07:51.440 --> 0:07:54.120 Manus Okay, tell me about manus. 0:07:54.040 --> 0:07:58.280 Meta actually agreed to acquire it last month. Reportedly in 0:07:58.320 --> 0:08:01.400 the two to three billion dollars. When the deal was 0:08:01.440 --> 0:08:04.920 first announced, there were rumors that US regulators might block 0:08:04.960 --> 0:08:08.800 the deal, but as it happens, Chinese regulators may have 0:08:08.840 --> 0:08:09.600 stolen a march. 0:08:10.200 --> 0:08:13.640 So is this surprising? Like the US government has meddled 0:08:13.640 --> 0:08:15.280 with Chinese companies before. 0:08:15.400 --> 0:08:18.000 That's right, but it's now it's the boots on the 0:08:18.000 --> 0:08:20.360 other foot, and China are trying to block the sale 0:08:20.800 --> 0:08:22.560 of this company to the US. 0:08:22.800 --> 0:08:24.200 The US, Okay, And you're. 0:08:24.160 --> 0:08:26.679 Right obviously, I mean, you know, whether it's export bans 0:08:26.680 --> 0:08:29.160 on the most advanced in video chips or this kind 0:08:29.240 --> 0:08:33.600 of forced quasi sale of tiktoks us operations, tariffs. The 0:08:33.720 --> 0:08:36.400 US has been very on the front foot in terms 0:08:36.400 --> 0:08:39.959 of finding ways to you know, constrain or punish Chinese 0:08:40.000 --> 0:08:42.520 tech industry. But what's kind of interesting now is that 0:08:42.640 --> 0:08:46.280 China is investigating where this acquisition violates its laws on 0:08:46.320 --> 0:08:47.360 technology exports. 0:08:48.400 --> 0:08:49.720 Is Manus a Chinese company? 0:08:49.880 --> 0:08:52.400 Well, that's why I wants to share this story. Okay, 0:08:52.480 --> 0:08:56.400 this is where it gets really fascinating. Manus, according to Manus, 0:08:56.880 --> 0:08:58.040 is not a Chinese company. 0:08:58.120 --> 0:08:59.400 According to Manus. 0:08:59.040 --> 0:09:02.640 It's based in Singapore. According to China, it is a 0:09:02.720 --> 0:09:06.880 Chinese company interesting, so hence they can block a sale. 0:09:07.040 --> 0:09:10.199 This is sort of like the Greenland of the much 0:09:10.320 --> 0:09:12.480 so very much so possession. 0:09:12.559 --> 0:09:13.560 Is it's going to win. 0:09:13.600 --> 0:09:16.560 Nine tenths of the law. Well, I'm pretty sure China 0:09:16.600 --> 0:09:18.599 will win, honestly, but it remains. 0:09:18.559 --> 0:09:19.679 Because China has more power. 0:09:19.960 --> 0:09:23.040 Well, I mean, there's this phenomenon known as Singapore washing, 0:09:23.120 --> 0:09:25.800 where like, Singapore is an independent country and an independent 0:09:25.880 --> 0:09:30.040 jurisdiction and like a useful place for Western companies to 0:09:30.040 --> 0:09:34.240 do business with Chinese companies, but ultimately Singapore is is 0:09:34.280 --> 0:09:38.600 closer to China than Venezuela is to Washington, and so 0:09:38.840 --> 0:09:42.360 that their likelihood is that the Singaporean regulators will probably 0:09:42.440 --> 0:09:45.400 not resist the Chinese regulators. But I thought it was 0:09:45.440 --> 0:09:50.079 pretty interesting because Manus last year actually relocated Singapore, and 0:09:50.200 --> 0:09:53.360 China basically said no, like, you were founded in China 0:09:53.520 --> 0:09:56.280 by Chinese citizens. Yeah, you can go to another jurisdiction. 0:09:56.400 --> 0:09:59.160 That's that's totally fine, But when the rubber meets the road, 0:09:59.360 --> 0:10:01.960 we're going to contin you to treat you as Chinese. 0:10:02.120 --> 0:10:04.199 And the reason I was fascinated by this story is 0:10:04.200 --> 0:10:06.640 that somebody at the conference said to me, this could 0:10:06.679 --> 0:10:11.800 be kind of a watershed moment because previously Chinese entrepreneurs 0:10:11.840 --> 0:10:14.560 believe they could found a company in China, relok at 0:10:14.600 --> 0:10:18.160 it Singapore, sell it to Facebook right off into the sun, 0:10:18.600 --> 0:10:21.239 and China are basically saying no, no, no, you can't. 0:10:21.440 --> 0:10:24.920 So what this person said to me was maybe one outcome. 0:10:24.960 --> 0:10:28.560 One possibility here is that Chinese entrepreneurs will leave China 0:10:28.880 --> 0:10:31.960 before they even found their businesses, because if they ever 0:10:32.040 --> 0:10:34.240 want to be able to leave, they've got to start 0:10:34.280 --> 0:10:37.120 the business basically as far away as China from possible. 0:10:37.200 --> 0:10:39.280 So this is not so much interesting to you because 0:10:39.280 --> 0:10:41.320 of what manness is. This is interesting to you because 0:10:41.360 --> 0:10:45.640 it's kind of a harbinger for how Chinese companies might 0:10:45.679 --> 0:10:46.720 be founded in the future. 0:10:46.960 --> 0:10:49.600 Yeah, I mean, it's it's an interesting sort of story 0:10:49.600 --> 0:10:53.520 about a potential, you know, brain drain moment. And you know, 0:10:53.559 --> 0:10:57.400 and here's China saying Singapore maybe an independent sovereign country 0:10:57.400 --> 0:11:00.720 and independent jurisdiction, but if one of our folks or 0:11:00.760 --> 0:11:04.600 companies goes there, we're not going to respect that. It's 0:11:04.600 --> 0:11:08.120 a different jurisdiction. So it is interesting combination of tech 0:11:08.120 --> 0:11:11.000 and geopolitics. And also I was, you know, I was 0:11:11.000 --> 0:11:13.640 attracted to this story because of this idea of like 0:11:13.720 --> 0:11:16.840 China fights back. And another story that really caught my 0:11:16.840 --> 0:11:21.320 eye last week was the Chinese customs officials recently blocked 0:11:21.559 --> 0:11:24.760 an inbound shipment of Nvidia H two hundred. 0:11:25.000 --> 0:11:25.720 Me into China. 0:11:25.880 --> 0:11:30.000 They've blocked a shipment into China in video chips. Why, Well, 0:11:31.880 --> 0:11:35.000 we don't know. I was quite shocked as well. And 0:11:35.240 --> 0:11:39.240 obviously the background to this is Jensenfwangan Nvidia were at 0:11:39.280 --> 0:11:43.320 great pains last year to persuade the Trump administration to 0:11:43.360 --> 0:11:45.720 allow them to export these chips to China, and they 0:11:45.800 --> 0:11:49.640 won the battle and were allowed to export them. And 0:11:49.640 --> 0:11:52.120 then all of a sudden, China are apparently turning around 0:11:52.480 --> 0:11:55.040 and saying no, no, no, you can't bring this into the country. 0:11:55.280 --> 0:11:57.680 We don't know why, but we do know is this 0:11:57.760 --> 0:12:02.679 could be hugely significant because suppliers who make the parts 0:12:02.760 --> 0:12:06.360 required to go into in video chips have already started 0:12:06.360 --> 0:12:09.880 throttling production because they're so worried that the demand may 0:12:09.920 --> 0:12:11.600 go down so much without China. 0:12:12.360 --> 0:12:14.600 But I sort of understand, if you're China, why are 0:12:14.640 --> 0:12:15.680 you blocking these chips. 0:12:16.000 --> 0:12:17.920 Well, we don't know if it's China or if it's 0:12:17.960 --> 0:12:21.199 like customs officials at a certain point. So like the 0:12:21.240 --> 0:12:23.920 ft who broke this story asked for comment. The Chinese 0:12:23.960 --> 0:12:27.400 government didn't respond. Is unclear whether this was a one off, 0:12:27.679 --> 0:12:31.760 you know, customs thing, or if in fact this is 0:12:31.800 --> 0:12:34.720 a new Chinese policy. But there's a few kind of 0:12:34.760 --> 0:12:37.120 explanations that have been floated. One is that this will 0:12:37.200 --> 0:12:40.680 encourage domestic chip companies in China's develop their own chips faster. 0:12:41.000 --> 0:12:43.720 Another is that it's some kind of bargaining tactic, because 0:12:43.720 --> 0:12:45.959 of course it could be a huge financial hit to 0:12:46.000 --> 0:12:49.240 in Video, which represents something like more than five percent 0:12:49.280 --> 0:12:52.840 of the total market cap of the US stock market. Essentially, 0:12:52.880 --> 0:12:55.960 now if they can't export their chips to China. We 0:12:56.000 --> 0:12:58.120 also know there's a lot of smuggling of the highest 0:12:58.160 --> 0:13:00.960 quality chips into China, which is also lucrative business. So 0:13:02.440 --> 0:13:05.920 it's a sort of you know, international cat and mouse game. 0:13:06.120 --> 0:13:08.760 And it's possible that yeah, that China are in any 0:13:08.760 --> 0:13:11.400 case have that chips and getting to eat them too. 0:13:12.040 --> 0:13:16.640 I can't no. Also, for you, what chips are very different. 0:13:16.800 --> 0:13:22.960 That's true. Chips are fries and for you they're crisps. Crisps. 0:13:23.679 --> 0:13:27.000 So today we've been talking a lot about China. And 0:13:27.600 --> 0:13:30.800 it's very funny because as online as I am, my 0:13:30.920 --> 0:13:33.840 friends are actually more online. So a lot of things 0:13:33.840 --> 0:13:36.560 that come to me come to me because people are like, 0:13:36.559 --> 0:13:39.319 you should post about this on your dumpster fire Instagram. 0:13:39.800 --> 0:13:42.280 And a trend that I got asked a lot about 0:13:42.280 --> 0:13:43.920 this week and that a friend of mine was like, 0:13:44.160 --> 0:13:46.680 very hot on was the following. But I'm gonna let 0:13:46.679 --> 0:13:47.560 my girl take it away. 0:13:48.000 --> 0:13:50.240 If you are someone that likes hot hot dim sum 0:13:50.320 --> 0:13:52.440 Sechhue cuisine beyond bell noodles, do you know that there's 0:13:52.440 --> 0:13:56.160 actually a really interesting reason why. The reason is because 0:13:56.679 --> 0:13:59.920 you are Chinese. You didn't know it, but you are Chinese, 0:14:00.000 --> 0:14:01.440 and so for that reason, every single time you have 0:14:01.440 --> 0:14:04.640 a crazing for like dumplings or something, it's because you 0:14:04.720 --> 0:14:08.040 are Chinese. Your body just longs for that Wanton You know. 0:14:08.920 --> 0:14:10.200 I think I am Chinese. 0:14:10.400 --> 0:14:11.840 You know what the best line is? And I don't 0:14:11.840 --> 0:14:16.079 think she knew this, like you know like wanton lust, Yes, 0:14:16.760 --> 0:14:19.360 longing for Wanton great little play. 0:14:20.040 --> 0:14:23.160 Well, you obviously you are Chinese. I must be hungry 0:14:23.240 --> 0:14:25.680 than you because I wasn't. I has missed the play 0:14:25.680 --> 0:14:26.960 on words. I was just thinking about how much I 0:14:27.000 --> 0:14:29.040 would like to be eating one of those things right now. 0:14:29.640 --> 0:14:32.040 So this video, just for a little context, is by 0:14:32.040 --> 0:14:35.120 a Chinese American creator named Sherry. Her handle is spelled 0:14:35.480 --> 0:14:39.000 s h E r R y x I I R 0:14:39.200 --> 0:14:41.080 U I I. If you want to follow her guides, 0:14:41.080 --> 0:14:42.520 I'm not going to say it again. You had to 0:14:42.520 --> 0:14:46.160 be listening. And she has millions of views, and now 0:14:46.200 --> 0:14:51.160 Americans on TikTok are posting videos saying things like you 0:14:51.240 --> 0:14:53.240 met me at a very Chinese time in my life. 0:14:53.400 --> 0:14:57.800 But this is very funny and very very weird. 0:14:58.640 --> 0:15:03.560 It's very strange. It does toe the cultural appropriation line. 0:15:03.600 --> 0:15:07.440 You know, there is something mildly unsettling about seeing comments 0:15:07.440 --> 0:15:10.840 on TikTok like first day of being a Chinese baddie. 0:15:11.160 --> 0:15:13.080 I'm all for it. I'm looking forward to living in 0:15:13.120 --> 0:15:15.840 a very Chinese time in my life. Yeah, what exactly 0:15:16.040 --> 0:15:19.080 what does this mean? Chinese body obviously likes Chinese food. 0:15:19.360 --> 0:15:22.720 They drink hot water, they're eating bao, you know, they're 0:15:22.720 --> 0:15:24.680 wearing slippers, indoors. 0:15:24.400 --> 0:15:26.080 La boo boo, they have la boo boo. 0:15:26.200 --> 0:15:30.520 Yeah, it's I mean, it's basically anything that is prioritizing 0:15:30.600 --> 0:15:33.960 Chinese culture as their predominant culture. It's I think one 0:15:34.000 --> 0:15:37.320 of the things again that's important, is that Chinese influencers 0:15:37.360 --> 0:15:42.960 are bestowing this onto American TikTok users to say, you 0:15:43.000 --> 0:15:44.840 are doing these things, you are Chinese. 0:15:44.960 --> 0:15:47.880 Hello, my Chinese besties, If you're watching this, you're Chinese. 0:15:48.000 --> 0:15:49.560 It has occurred to me that a lot of you 0:15:49.600 --> 0:15:53.400 guys has not come to terms with your newfound Chinese identity. 0:15:53.960 --> 0:15:57.480 And let me just ask you this. Aren't you scrolling 0:15:57.520 --> 0:16:02.240 on this Chinese app probably a Chinese made phone, wearing 0:16:02.400 --> 0:16:06.600 clothes that are made in China, collecting dolls that are 0:16:06.680 --> 0:16:11.760 from China, most importantly, living in a very Chinese time 0:16:11.920 --> 0:16:14.800 of your life. So yes, you're Chinese. So you better 0:16:14.840 --> 0:16:17.520 go get that kettle and start drinking hot water, get 0:16:17.520 --> 0:16:20.920 your rice coocaretti, get your hot ho machine ready, and 0:16:20.960 --> 0:16:23.320 we will have some baijo next time we have launch 0:16:23.360 --> 0:16:23.800 and dinner. 0:16:24.520 --> 0:16:26.920 We actually talked about this in my interview with the 0:16:26.960 --> 0:16:28.360 New Yorker writer Kyle Chaika. 0:16:28.880 --> 0:16:30.920 The most brain rotted thing to me, the most like 0:16:32.280 --> 0:16:34.760 where are we? What the fuck is happening? Is like 0:16:35.160 --> 0:16:39.960 the whole merger of Chinese Internet and US Internet. 0:16:40.720 --> 0:16:43.000 And he told me his favorite piece of brain rot 0:16:43.040 --> 0:16:45.840 was actually the meme that preceded this trend. 0:16:46.480 --> 0:16:49.720 It's Donald Trump given an Ai Mandarin voice and he's 0:16:49.760 --> 0:17:02.680 singing these dramatic, like maoist Chinese songs. Ah and that 0:17:03.200 --> 0:17:06.960 and many other memes have built up to this joke 0:17:07.080 --> 0:17:09.240 of like you have met me at a very Chinese 0:17:09.240 --> 0:17:10.159 time in my life. 0:17:10.320 --> 0:17:14.080 It is interesting. Obviously, Asian culture kind of trending in 0:17:14.160 --> 0:17:18.480 American pop culture is not a new phenomenon, but historically 0:17:18.560 --> 0:17:21.800 it's been focused around kind of Japanese and Korean trends 0:17:21.840 --> 0:17:25.200 like animes and K dramas and K pop and Korean 0:17:25.240 --> 0:17:28.520 makeup and all that kind of stuff. And now, at 0:17:28.520 --> 0:17:30.439 the same time as the story I brought about, this 0:17:30.560 --> 0:17:35.120 kind of deep geopolitical tension and competition and shadow conflict 0:17:35.800 --> 0:17:38.120 kind of the other side of the coin is this 0:17:38.320 --> 0:17:43.320 very sort of odd and fascinating cultural merger on TikTok. 0:17:43.840 --> 0:17:47.160 It's true, and you know, there's a few theories as 0:17:47.160 --> 0:17:50.320 to why this might be happening. One is that last year, 0:17:50.359 --> 0:17:52.240 when TikTok was going to be banned in the US, 0:17:52.720 --> 0:17:55.720 many users flocked to a Chinese app called Red Note. 0:17:55.800 --> 0:17:56.879 I remember that in protest. 0:17:56.960 --> 0:17:59.760 Yeah, we actually reported on it, which led to this 0:18:00.440 --> 0:18:05.600 interesting bridging of cultures, and many users actually started learning Mandarin, 0:18:06.040 --> 0:18:09.199 which is crazy. Others have said that it could be 0:18:09.200 --> 0:18:11.879 because gen Z is acutely feeling the loss of the 0:18:11.920 --> 0:18:15.040 American dream and that the economy is unstable and there 0:18:15.080 --> 0:18:17.639 are fears of global climate change, so they're like looking 0:18:17.760 --> 0:18:22.240 outside of their home country for hope and romanticizing life 0:18:22.560 --> 0:18:25.080 in China, which is a country that is, you know, 0:18:25.880 --> 0:18:29.080 a communist country, you know, maybe not one that we 0:18:29.119 --> 0:18:32.280 would necessarily feel so free and if we were actually there, 0:18:32.320 --> 0:18:35.960 but that seems to have a very sort of robust 0:18:36.040 --> 0:18:40.040 infrastructure and a thriving clean energy industry. There's actually a 0:18:40.040 --> 0:18:42.359 Bloomberg article which cited one creator who put it, I 0:18:42.400 --> 0:18:46.000 think very very well, and in the article, this creator said, 0:18:46.440 --> 0:18:50.040 they're engaging with a hyper real China, a symbolic version 0:18:50.080 --> 0:18:55.640 that absorbs everything. Americans fear that they're losing community structure, competence, limits, 0:18:55.840 --> 0:18:58.200 cultural continuity, and care for elders. 0:18:58.600 --> 0:19:01.040 Really really interesting. I mean, it's interesting we look back 0:19:01.080 --> 0:19:04.440 now on the collapse of the Soviet Union as though 0:19:04.480 --> 0:19:06.679 it was kind of inevitable and the Soviet Union was 0:19:06.680 --> 0:19:10.199 always the loser, But I think there were certainly, you know, 0:19:10.359 --> 0:19:13.240 in the sixties a lot of Americans and Brits who 0:19:13.240 --> 0:19:16.560 were quite admiring of Soviet culture and the way Soviet 0:19:16.640 --> 0:19:19.560 society was organized and stuff. So when you live in 0:19:19.560 --> 0:19:23.120 this kind of bipolar world, which we do again now, 0:19:23.320 --> 0:19:26.400 the thrill and the appeal of the other is very 0:19:26.440 --> 0:19:29.280 real as well as the fear. But I thought there 0:19:29.320 --> 0:19:30.960 was a guy we had on the podcast last year 0:19:30.960 --> 0:19:34.000 called Dan Wong who wrote a book called Breakneck, and 0:19:34.280 --> 0:19:36.159 he had lived in China and moved back to the US, 0:19:36.480 --> 0:19:38.880 and he basically said, look, you know, if you live 0:19:38.920 --> 0:19:42.080 in China and you look out of your window once 0:19:42.119 --> 0:19:44.760 a year, in a space of three years, you might 0:19:44.800 --> 0:19:48.000 see a whole new city emerge. If you live in 0:19:48.119 --> 0:19:50.480 New York or San Francisco, the best you can hope 0:19:50.520 --> 0:19:52.720 for in that time period is a new coffee shop 0:19:52.720 --> 0:19:56.400 to open. So I do think there's something as much 0:19:56.400 --> 0:19:59.080 as people fear the authoritarian aspects of Chinese culture, those 0:19:59.119 --> 0:20:02.800 things that you mentioned in the quote, like community structure, competence, 0:20:03.160 --> 0:20:07.520 cultural continuity, I mean, these are things which are understandably attractive. Yeah, 0:20:07.600 --> 0:20:09.280 would you say that you're in a very Chinese time 0:20:09.280 --> 0:20:10.360 of your life? Now not at all. 0:20:10.400 --> 0:20:13.160 I'm not trying, but it's I think what's really interesting 0:20:13.280 --> 0:20:16.080