Chinamaxxing embraces thermoses and tai chi — but skips Hangzhou’s green tea, Sixth Tone says

The trend

It has been reported that a TikTok phenomenon called “Chinamaxxing” has swept Western feeds, in which users try to mimic everyday Chinese habits — carrying a thermos of hot water, wearing slippers indoors, practicing tai chi. The trend has become a viral shorthand for a kind of performative affinity: short videos, tidy aesthetics, a checklist of “authentic” gestures. Sixth Tone framed the pattern as incomplete. What’s missing, the column argues, is the simple, seasonal ritual of a green-tea brew.

The missing ingredient

The piece points to green tea from Hangzhou — notably Longjing (龙井) — as emblematic of that ritual: leaves picked at the first breath of spring, a quick, deliberate steep, a cup shared or savored alone. Tea is not merely a prop in China; it carries regional identity, seasonal timing, and centuries of social practice. Reportedly, many Chinamaxxing creators skip those subtleties in favor of visual shorthand. The result is an image of Chinese life flattened into a set of gestures rather than a living tradition.

Why it matters

For Western readers unfamiliar with China's cultural landscape, the spread of Chinamaxxing raises questions about cultural appreciation versus appropriation — and about online performance in an era when platforms shape perception. TikTok, the international app run by ByteDance (字节跳动), has become the main stage for this conversation even as the platform faces geopolitical scrutiny and regulatory pressure in Western capitals. The Sixth Tone column suggests that beyond the memes and aesthetics, deeper engagement — sipping a properly brewed cup of Hangzhou green tea, learning its seasonality and social meanings — would be a small but meaningful move toward genuine understanding.