‘This is me’: China RedNote users share actor Eddie Peng photos to welcome TikTok refugees
As people flood from soon-to-be-banned social media platform to Shanghai-based app, China users engage with ‘stolen’ identity of actor
Ahead of an expected ban on TikTok, so-called internet refugees from the United States are being warmly greeted by Chinese counterparts on the alternative RedNote platform posing as a famous Taiwan-born actor.
On RedNote, a leading social media app dubbed China’s Instagram, many Chinese users introduce themselves as the actor Eddie Peng Yuyan, by posting a picture of him.
“Hello, this is me. Nice to meet you,” they say as they leave comments on the accounts of new foreign users of RedNote, also known as Xiaohongshu in China, which means “little red book”.
Peng, 42, was born in Taiwan and has Canadian nationality. He is regarded as one of the most handsome actors in the Chinese-language film industry.
Besides a slew of blockbuster films like Operation Mekong released in 2016 and the 2020 film The Rescue, Peng is hugely popular in China due to his self-discipline, hard-working spirit, decent education background and the way he deals with fans.
On seeing the picture of Peng in online biographies, some foreign users fall for it, with some asking: “Oh my god, are you really Peng Yuyan?”
However, some are more shrewd and reply: “You do not have face”, a term in Chinese meaning shameless.