What’s happening on RedNote? A media scholar explains the app TikTok users are fleeing to – and the cultural moment unfolding there
- Written by Jianqing Chen, Assistant Professor of East Asian Languages and Cultures and of Film and Media Studies, Washington University in St. Louis

TikTok refugees fled by the millions to RedNote, a Chinese app, in response to the TikTok ban, which went into effect Jan. 19, 2025. The company shut down the app shortly before midnight on Jan. 18.
Through cat memes, shared jokes about the...