Little Red Book
A New American Cultural Revolution?
A short history lesson.
In the 1960s, Lin Biao, an ally of Mao Zedong compiled and published the Xiaohongshu (Little Red Book), a collection of Mao’s writings and sayings meant to enshrine Mao’s political, economic, moral, and cultural philosophies in the collective consciousness of China. It was one of the strategies Mao employed to make sure that his Communist revolution took root in China and became a cultural force that was impossible to overcome.
During this period, known as the Cultural Revolution, Mao’s government undertook a plethora of aggressive policies meant to eradicate counterrevolutionary elements, unify the population under the banner of explicit and evangelical Communism, and take firm control of every corner of the economy and the culture at large. They would hold rallies called “struggle sessions” where people accused of harboring Capitalist or pro-Western sentiments were abused; many people were imprisoned for ideological or political reasons; land was confiscated; the economy suffered disruptions in urban and industrial sectors.
Of course, the Cultural Revolution is generally viewed as a particularly dark period in China’s history. The modern Communist Party of China disavows the brutality and repressive practices it engaged in under Mao’s leadership. In general, the decisions made in this era are viewed as grave mistakes, even according to ranking Communist leaders and their documents, proclamations, laws, and yes, their actual practices today.
But why does any of that matter to meeeeee?
Well, there’s a new Xiaohongshu making the rounds today. Like the original, it too is at the center of a nascent cultural revolution. Unlike the original, this one isn’t a book. It is — like everything these days — a social media app. And the revolution it brings out also has some pretty obvious differences from the original Cultural Revolution.
To begin with, this revolution isn’t even Chinese. Sure, the app itself is Chinese — extremely so, in fact: almost everything on it is, or was until recently anyway, in Mandarin. That’s because unlike certain other “Chinese” social media apps, this one was always meant for people living in China.
But then the US Congress, in its very considered genius, decided to ban TikTok. They were afraid, you see, that the evil Chinese Communist Party would start collecting Americans’ very sensitive data — yes, the same data literally anyone can just buy on the open market anyway — and use it for their dastardly Communist scheme to, I don’t know, sell us stuff or something.
Anyway, Congress apparently forgot how petty Americans are, so what actually happened was millions of American’s decided to go find the most Chinese app they could get their hands on, and join that one instead. Almost entirely out of spite and just for the lulz.
And that’s when this new Little Red Book proved that it had something in common with Mao’s. Because within a few hours of American’s just sort of wandering around and looking at everyday Chinese people living their lives, they began to notice a few things. A few things that they hadn’t even seen on TikTok, for all that platform’s alleged ties to Chinese propaganda or whatever.
And what they saw was…
To start, you have to understand what Americans have always been taught about China, and particularly about Chinese citizens:
Chinese people are poor.
Chinese people are victims of a bleak authoritarian government that polices every word they say.
Chinese people live in backward, under-developed, third-world conditions because their cities look like something between a Soviet gulag and a 12th-century Parisian slum.
Chinese people are hungry.
And, most of all, Chinese people both hate and envy Americans for our freedom, our lifestyles, and our conveniences. Which (of course) we worked very hard for and definitely deserve.
So, imagine the surprise when a million Americans suddenly had a direct window into the lives of just average, ordinary Chinese people, and found out that, instead:
Chinese people aren’t poor. They pay roughly comparable taxes, but they actually get things like healthcare and infrastructure in return. They also get state-funded pensions, unemployment, education, and even housing. Though their salaries are generally lower than American salaries, the cost of living in China even lower.
Chinese people rag on their government a lot, actually. Of course, it’s usually about practical things like “it took too long (2 weeks) to build this street” or “economic development is too slow to reach the rural areas”. You don’t see much complaining about “Communism”, but that’s because they don’t actually object to Communist policies. Those policies are working.
Chinese cities are cleaner, more modern, safer, and more colorful and vibrant than literally any American city. Even a medium-size town has efficient mass transit, plentiful housing, and modern infrastructure and connectivity.
People are not starving. Certainly some have more than others, but to a much less noticeable and punitive extent than we routinely see in the USA. Food is plentiful and cheap — and that’s actual food, not the over-processed quasi-edible prepackaged trash we often eat here.
Chinese people actually admire Americans, but they admire us less the more they learn about us. Much of what they know about average Americans is mediated by the propaganda of the American consulate in China, which says absurd things like “The average American household has 1.5 million dollars in assets!” It turns out our government lies to us about the Chinese, and lies to the Chinese about us, too.
Look, it’s probably optimistic to say that what we are learning about China will, immediately anyway, lead to an actual “revolution,” cultural or otherwise. But it is enlightening. And it’s spreading. Probably the most revolutionary thing about this information is how obvious it is that the age-old, worn-out line that says “Socialism never works” is an utter fabrication. Nevermind that we can just look around ourselves and see just how well Capitalism “works”’; by comparison, there is no comparison. Socialism clearly works. It’s working very well, and not just for some tiny subset of Chinese society. It’s working for average people who shitpost on the internet, go to office jobs, drive cars that are 10x better and cost half of what we pay for ours, and post funny cat memes. Socialism works.
Aha! But China isn’t Socialist, they’re Capitalists now.
We hear a lot about Chinese “State Capitalism” and how they have supposedly abandoned their Communist beginnings to join the global (American) economic world order. Except, that isn’t really true.
In the first place, there’s nothing that even contradicts Marx, let alone Socialism, in using market-driven dynamics to industrialize and develop. In fact Marx himself noted that Capitalism is a requirement to do that, as you need Capitalism to build the infrastructure and the material conditions that make Socialism possible. Simply employing Capitalist principles in key sectors and under the direct authority of the state isn’t just in line with Socialism, it’s arguably more Socialist than Marx’ assumptions were.
Secondly, while China does use these market dynamics, they are always on a tight leash. You won’t find a single private enterprise in China that can possibly grow “too big to fail”. Key economic sectors like finance, heavy industry, and defense are directly operated by the state. Other sectors are free for market-driven experimentation and innovation, and they’re doing those at a much faster rate than we are. While our infrastructure crumbles, our jobs are off-shored, and our manufacturing capacity collapses, China’s economy thrives, driving down costs of housing, food, consumer goods, you name it. When a crisis arises in their markets, the state simply fixes it.
And this is all happening, it’s worth saying, under the guidance of the Communist Party, whose goals continue to be the development of the people. Over the last 30 years, China has lifted 800 million people out of poverty — a feat no neoliberal democracy could (or would) ever dream of. What’s more, China is able to do all that without onerous surcharges to private business owners in the form of ever-increasing profit margins.
Instead, the Chinese model ensures that profits are reinvested into society. Housing developments are constructed not to maximize the return for private investors, but to provide affordable shelter for citizens. Infrastructure is built with the goal of long-term economic and social benefit, not quarterly gains. Healthcare and education — two arenas where Americans are forced to mortgage their futures — are treated as basic rights, not privileges.
This isn’t just a difference in policy; it’s a fundamental difference in philosophy. And it’s one that’s becoming harder to ignore when you compare the results. Whatever you think about “Communism” or “Capitalism”, there’s no denying that China is capable of something the American system has lost — the ability to do things for their own sake.
In America, literally nothing is possible to do unless it is, essentially, a side effect of making someone rich. Our healthcare system is a labyrinth of greed and bureaucracy, where even basic medical procedures can bankrupt a family. Our education system, once a source of national pride, has become a pay-to-play racket. Our infrastructure, built during the New Deal and Eisenhower eras, is crumbling because maintaining it isn’t profitable enough for private contractors. Meanwhile “our” government bends over backward to protect corporations while shrugging at the struggles of ordinary people.
The contrast is stark. While Americans are told to fear Chinese authoritarianism, we’re quietly being bled dry by an oligarchy masquerading as a democracy (and besides, the US government is increasingly authoritarian and invasive anyway). While we’re taught to sneer at the idea of “big government,” it turns out that a government actually invested in its people’s well-being might not be such a bad idea after all. But here’s the kicker: none of this is a secret. It’s not hidden in dusty Marxist tomes or buried in academic journals. It’s on full display — for free, no less — on a Chinese social media app.
It’s ironic, isn’t it? For decades, we’ve been fed the idea that information is freedom. The internet was supposed to be the great democratizer, giving people the tools to question authority and think critically. And now, it’s doing just that — just not in the way anyone expected. Americans logging onto Xiaohongshu aren’t just learning about life in China; they’re being forced to reconsider everything they’ve been told about their own country. Why, they wonder, do Chinese cities seem so much better designed than ours? Why are Chinese workers able to complain about their jobs and their government without losing everything? Why does China seem to have solutions to problems we’re still arguing about?
And perhaps most importantly: why have we been lied to?
The uncomfortable truth is that the American ruling class doesn’t want us to see what’s possible. They don’t want us to question the narrative that capitalism is the only way, that government is inherently incompetent, and that the only alternative to our system is misery. Because if we start questioning those things, then we might start asking for more. More affordable housing, better healthcare, functional public transit, stronger labor protections. And those things would cost the people at the top — the ones who benefit from our complacency and desperation — quite a lot.
This is what makes Xiaohongshu’s cultural revolution so interesting. It’s not just that Americans are seeing a different way of life; it’s that they’re seeing it through the eyes of regular people, not governments or corporations. There’s no spin, no agenda. Just millions of Chinese citizens sharing their daily lives — their meals, their commutes, their jokes, their frustrations. It’s unfiltered and, in its own way, revolutionary.
I don’t actually think this is the spark that will ignite any sort of real revolution in America (ha! clickbaited again!). But we have a moral obligation to do anything we can do to pry as many Americans away from Capitalist Realism as we can. America is doomed either way — having more people who know about alternatives that actually work can only help us when the end arrives.