Recently, the internet seems to be collectively entering a “very Chinese time of their life.” On social media, we’re seeing a surge in creators gaining a massive following by cherry-picking the “palatable” parts of East Asian culture and “teaching” these lifestyle practices like guasha, brewing red date and goji berry tea and topping off every meal with Lao Gan Ma as if they discovered them.
This modern shift echoes Edward Said’s "Orientalism". Said explored how Western powers have historically curated an “image” of what the “Orient” is, to serve their own colonial interests. It’s not about the real, lived culture, but about the collection of ideas and exotics that outsiders can make a career out of. Today, we see the digital version of this: creators building a brand off Asian aesthetics but the real culture and people remain unrepresented.
What was once dismissed as "uncool" or "weird" in the West has suddenly become an object of fascination when it is filtered through someone outside the culture (BBC, 2026). But as this fad goes viral, we have to ask: is this cultural appreciation or cultural appropriation.
This binary is not as simple, Claire (@_glassmuseum) explains this perfectly in her TikTok, through her use of Bell Hooks notion of “commodification of difference,” a racialized desire, a “otherness,” a consumable resource that works as an aesthetic to liven up or enhance white identity. It’s seen as progressiveness toward other cultures but in reality their cultures are “eaten, consumed and forgotten.”
The issue with treating cultures as "aesthetics” is the lack of accountability. For those within the culture, “[it] is not something [they] can take off like a winter coat when the weather gets warm,” when the trend cycle moves on, which it inevitably will, those participating will hang up their coats and move onto the next aesthetic (Couverture 2026).
That's why there is an understandable suspicion and frustration towards the sudden shift in people “self-diagnosing” as Chinese for the vibe, when not long ago, during the pandemic, the world saw an increase in sinophobia and racially motivated attacks.
Ultimately, we have to ask: does our love for a culture actually extend to advocacy and understanding our own privilege? This isn't just about East Asian cultures, we’ve seen this pattern repeat time and time again. Loving a culture's aesthetic is not the same as respecting and standing with individuals who come from it.
