People's Daily (人民日报) praises Zhang Xue, Feng Ji and Wang Xingxing as China sees more interest-driven innovations

State endorsement and the signal

People's Daily (人民日报) ran a piece praising creators Zhang Xue, Feng Ji and Wang Xingxing as exemplars of a rising wave of interest-driven innovation in China. The endorsement from the Party’s flagship newspaper is notable: it signals that grassroots creativity — from hobbyist projects to playful personality quizzes — is being framed as a positive force for cultural and technological vitality. For Western readers, that matters because state media praise can both boost a creator’s visibility and shape which kinds of online activity are encouraged or tolerated.

The viral SBTI quiz that illustrates the trend

A recent example is a parody personality quiz built on an MBTI-like framework and branded “SBTI,” which assigns tongue-in-cheek labels such as “尤物” and “送钱者ATM-er.” It has been reported that the test’s interface even declared “MBTI is outdated, SBTI is here,” and that the surge in interest reportedly overwhelmed pages and links — forcing many users to experience the quiz only via screenshots. The quiz’s author, who posted the original version on Bilibili (B站), reportedly said the project began as a joke to persuade a friend to stop drinking and apologized for any offense, adding that they are not a psychology professional and that the test was meant for fun rather than scientific use.

Compliance, commercialization and the broader context

The author has said adjustments were made for platform compliance and warned against turning the quiz into a commercial product. That caveat is important in a Chinese tech ecosystem now balancing encouragement of domestic innovation with tighter content and platform regulation. At a time when Chinese tech firms face both domestic compliance demands and international geopolitical pressure to show self-reliance, state media signals can help define the space for “edutainment” and hobbyist creativity — but they also raise questions about quality, accountability and where regulators draw the line. Fun and experimentation can thrive — but can they do so without professional rigour or commercial exploitation?