“After realizing I am human, I cried for the whole afternoon…” Seeing a Xiaohongshu post with a title like this, paired with an AI-generated rat image, you might be asking yourself: what on earth is going on? Clicking into the full post, you’ll find this is just another creature of the “Abstract Internet” (抽象文化) culture trend.
Similar posts are flooding Xiaohongshu. People claim they cried after discovering they are human, or American, or from Henan, or even a spotted dove. The whole joke here is about having an “11.45% DNA test result” for these identities, and using it as a starting point to throw out stereotypes that might feel too blunt to say in daily conversations. For example, being laid-back and always in a hoodie because you’re from “Southern California.”
Users went wild with this trend, even going the lengths of creating APA-style reference lists for every post that inspired them, tracing the lineage all the way back to the original viral post about discovering oneself as Northern European.
But identity discovery isn’t the only genre of Xiaohongshu literature. Another popular one is the “xxx ruins my daughter” template. The original post appeared right before the National Judicial Exam (法考)—China’s bar exam for future lawyers. In that post, the blogger wrote in third person, dramatizing her study process in an over-the-top, self-mocking way. The style later evolved into expressing obsessive passion for hobbies like birdwatching or fandom for the likes of Chiikawa (ちいかわ, a Japanese mascot character).
Similar micro-genres of “literature” keep emerging on Xiaohongshu. Assisted by AIGC images, netizens pour their creativity into these text-image performances. Whether ironically or sincerely, “Xiaohongshu Literature” feels ready to be treated as a university major—something readers could analyze for its hidden life lessons and the genealogy of its meme templates.
Cover image via Xiaohongshu.
