On ‘China’s Instagram’, women find a space to discuss the routine and taboo
Al Jazeera
Xiaohongshu has become the go-to platform for young women to discuss everything from fashion to domestic violence.
Taipei, Taiwan – Alice Guo sparked a flurry of interest on Xiaohongshu, the Chinese social media and e-commerce platform, when she decided one day in 2021 to share advice on preparing for a job interview.
Chinese-born Guo was living in Toronto at the time, grounded by the COVID-19 pandemic after years of bouncing between jobs in Vancouver, Hong Kong, New York, Los Angeles and Shanghai.
“I started to do a few posts and one day, I just posted about the interview process that got me into a venture capital firm,” Guo, who is in her early 30s, told Al Jazeera.
“I woke up the next day, just all of a sudden, it went from maybe like 20 followers to 500 followers overnight.”
Before long, Guo’s page, called “Ali is Working Hard” in Chinese, built up an audience of about 45,000 followers, drawn by a mix of professional advice and updates on her daily life in Canada.
