22 newyork| november11–24, 2019
WeWillImport OurPopCulture
FromChinaIN2017,aninfectiousRomanianpartysong
called“Panama”somehowfounditsway to
Thailand,where it becamethesoundtrackofa
viraldancecraze.If thisdoesn’t soundfamiliar,
it’ s becausethesongtraveledfromRomaniato
ThailandviaChina,specificallyviaDouyin,the
Chinesecounterpart oftheappyouknowasTik-
Tok.Thisunexpectedculturalexchangenever
registeredonAmerica’s pop-cultureradar.
Notthat longago,it wouldbehard toimag-
inetheU.S.entirelysidelinedinany global
pop-culture phenomenon, but this may
quicklybecomelesstheexceptionthanthe
rule.Outsidea fewscience-fictionnovelsand
mobilegames,China’s mediaindustryhasstill
notquitefiguredouthowtoconsistentlyman-
ufactureculturethat resonateswithinterna-
tionalaudiences,buttheexplosive global
popularityofTikTok—asocialplatformfor
sharingandremixingshortformvideoswitha
powerfullyaddictiverecommendationalgo-
rithm—iscreatinga jarringnewrealityfor
AmericansandEuropeans,whohaveuntil
nowhada nearmonopolyontheplatforms
thatcapture theworld’s attention.
Andoverthenextdecade,theriseofTikTok
willbeonlyonesmallpartofa muchmore fun-
damentalshiftinculturalpower. TheChinese
governmentis currentlybettingbigona much
moremassiveplatformplay: theBeltandRoad
Initiative,anambitiousset ofinfrastructural
projectsinovera hundredcountries.Theini-
tiativeis off toa rocky startbymany accounts,
buttransformationsdon’t havetobetotaltobe
significant—anddisorienting.Evenif it failsto
liveuptotheChinesegovernment’simmense
expectations,theeffortwillstillshake upthe
arteriesbywhichpowerandinfluenceflow
aroundtheworld.
Alleyesare oncensorshipofpoliticalspeech
asChinarises,butit isunlikelythat theChi-
nesegovernmentwillevercontroltheglobal
newsfeedwithanironfist—afterall,ithas
neverevenmanagedthiswithinitsownbor-
ders.Instead,itsinfluencewillbenegotiated
ininfrastructuralroadmapsandmarketing
decisions,connectingpreviouslydisconnected
regionsandallowingfornewculturalcolli-
sions—Nollywoodfilmstakingoff inIndone-
sia,say, orThaiandBrazilianprotestersshar-
ingtactics.Theglobalcalendarofcommerce,
alreadypartiallyorientedaroundChineseholi-
daysowingtomanufacturing,may shift fur-
thertoaccommodateChineseconsumptionas
well—companiesmayracetogetgoodson
shelvesbyChina’s megashoppingholiday,
November11,ratherthanChristmas.
—CHRISTINAXUFEB 27
The Royal
Society finds
microplasticsin
theworld’s
deepestmarine
ecosystems.
By 2050, there will be
more plastic in the
water than fish. And
straws account for
only one-40th of one
percent of the 8 million
tons of plastic that
flow into the world’s
rivers and oceans now
every year, and five
Asian nations (China,
Indonesia, Thailand,
the Philippines, and
Vietnam) dump more
plastic waste into the
ocean than the entire
rest of the world
combined (including
the U.S.). Which
means that plastic-
straw bans like those
that swept across
the guilty-feeling
liberal West over the
course of 2019 will
have no effect at all
on the nauseating
amount of plastic that
has already
accumulated in the
world’s oceans. But it
may have the effect of
irritating plenty of
conserva tives, who
already suspected
that the Green New
Deal meant liberals
were coming for
their hamburgers;
the plastic bans were
proof they were
coming for your Big
Gulps, intensifying
a cycle of inconse-
quential but mutually
maddening
political theater.
PHOTOGRAPH: DONAL HUSNI/NURPHOTO VIA GETTY IMAGES—DAVID WALLACE-WELLSFEB 26
TikTok passes
1 billion
downloads
around the
world.