From 4chan to Xiaohongshu: How "Chudjak" Became the Face of Chinese Gen Z Despair

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In this Baihua group chat, a look at how a grim American meme became the face of China’s youth nihilism.

afra, CyberPink host: One gift of being terminally online across the porous borders of the U.S. and Chinese internet is watching your mind build an encyclopedic map of memes spanning both worlds. Eventually, those worlds collide. Dark memes have become the language of choice for a disillusioned Gen Z in both countries—a shared language for the chaotic, the angry, and those desperate to obliterate a stagnant status quo. In this issue, we look at a bizarre case of this convergence: how an American mass shooter, radicalized by domestic extremism, became the face of Chinese Gen Z’s economic…

From 4chan to Xiaohongshu: How "Chudjak" Became the Face of Chinese Gen Z Despair

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