For years, Chinese entrepreneurs lived out of suitcases. They crisscrossed the globe with samples in hand, hustling for customers at trade show booths across Europe, America, Japan, and South Korea. That was just how business got done.
But the tables have turned. Now it's overseas bosses who are chartering flights and rushing into China in groups. They're lining up to learn from Chinese companies.
CCTV Finance's long-running program “Dialogue” recently revealed this quietly emerging trend. They call it 'reverse business travel'. The program selected several concrete cases to illustrate the phenomenon which is quite captivating.
Overseas Clients on a Pilgrimage
In the August 17 episode of Dialogue, host Chen Weihong sat down with several founders of Chinese tech companies. They talked about the shift. In the past, foreign companies held the power to define technology. Chinese firms toiled as contract manufacturers, earning hard money.
But today the script has completely flipped. In cutting-edge fields like low-altitude economy, large AI models, and humanoid robots, some Chinese companies have seized the initiative. Now it's overseas clients who proactively organize groups to fly to China to learn from the Chinese experience. The program dubbed this 'reverse business travel'.
The program also revealed a set of eye-catching figures. According to the latest weekly ranking from global AI model invocation platform OpenRouter, as of August 3, the top five spots on the global leaderboard were all dominated by models developed by Chinese companies. Over the past 28 days, Chinese models accounted for 63.5% of total invocations.
In other words, the AI most used by global users today is very likely 'Made in China.' The speed of this shift has surprised even many industry insiders.
'Reverse business travel' takes hold in China — overseas buyers weave through expo halls, samples in hand.
One Robot Expo, 3,000 Foreign Buyers
The program pointed to a telling example of just how intense this pilgrimage-style business trip craze has become. The second Hangzhou International Humanoid Robot and Robot Technology Exhibition, which wrapped up in May, pulled in more than 80,000 professional visitors over three days. Among them, 3,178 were from overseas. By the time it ended, the event had produced 56 formally signed projects and 237 cooperation intentions. The total value topped RMB 21.3 billion.
That scale is unprecedented. It has far outstripped any previous edition of a similar exhibition. Many industry insiders now say China's robotics industry has officially shifted from the product showcase phase into large-scale commercial deployment.
The humanoid robot expo pulled in professional crowds — many overseas buyers flew in just to see the latest tech in action.
The program also shared a more vivid detail. A Nordic automotive supply chain company flew to China three times in just nine months to visit an AI technology firm. After witnessing the speed of technology iteration and product deployment at Chinese enterprises, the Nordic company made a bold move. It relocated its annual global innovation summit directly to the Chinese company's laboratory.
In other words, they didn't come to China to "attend a meeting." They came to "hold a summit." That was almost unheard of before.
30-Minute Supply Chains, $100 Billion Drug Deals
The CCTV program then went through the mechanics behind this "China speed".
Take humanoid robot maker AgiBot. Nine out of ten components in its supply chain are sourced locally within the Yangtze River Delta, and for core parts, suppliers respond in a matter of hours. A technical drawing goes out, and the first sample comes back that very night — a level of efficiency overseas firms have never experienced.
Then there's Shanghai's Brain-Intelligence World. Numerous brain-computer interface companies cluster there. A high-frequency feedback loop among talent, technology, supply chain, and users has taken shape. The result is a deployment efficiency that is frighteningly fast.
From Selling Products to Selling Solutions
Chinese innovative drugs are storming the world just as fiercely as robots and AI.
In the first half of 2026, mainland innovative drug out-licensing deals hit 81, with a potential contract value of around $110 billion. That already matches 80% of the total for all of 2025. A new record.
Industry database PharmaCube puts the figure slightly lower, at $99.7 billion. But the trend is unmistakable: Chinese innovative drugs are accelerating from follower to leader. At an industry summit in Shanghai on August 5, that figure left attendees breathless, as insiders described.
From Selling Products to Selling Solutions
The program's analysis: in the past, the global industrial division of labor was simple. Overseas companies defined the products. China buried its head in production. Now, Chinese enterprises do more than execute plans. They dive into problem definition, product design, scenario validation, and continuous iteration.
In other words, someone else is calling the shots now.
From smart home solutions entering European households to intelligent inspection systems deployed in overseas mines and factories, Chinese companies are now delivering more than mere goods. They bring complete problem-solving packages to the table.
Chinese firms now call the shots in frontier tech — foreign companies flock to China on study trips, going straight into the labs for answers.
The program's final take: the suitcases of 'reverse business travel' carry more than orders. They are vivid proof of China's industrial leap.
Will this 'reverse business travel' trend keep heating up, or will it prove a flash in the pan? The answer lies in the number of overseas buyers at a string of international exhibitions in the second half of this year.
Mao Paishou
** 博客文章文責自負,不代表本公司立場 **
A new meme word is taking over Western social feeds: Chinamaxxing. It captures a sudden, strange shift: young people are now mimicking Chinese daily life.
Some are drinking hot water, eating porridge, and wearing slippers. They're bingeing Chinese dramas, practicing qigong, and even declaring they've entered a 'China era.'
Take the White Rabbit candy wrapper. Born in 1959, it suddenly exploded on overseas social networks. In just three days, it racked up over 6 million views and 265,000 likes. Netizens called it 'this absolute masterstroke of graphic design.'
The White Rabbit wrapper, born in 1959, suddenly went viral. Netizens hailed it as a masterpiece of graphic design.
Then there's the 34-second AI-generated 'Chinese Heavenly Court' video. No dialogue. Just rolling seas of clouds, vast celestial stairways, flying eaves and jade towers floating among the clouds, and immortals with fluttering robes. It left countless people stunned.
No dialogue, just pure visual awe: the AI-generated 'Chinese Heavenly Court' video stunned overseas viewers.
And when 'Spider-Man 4' dropped a China-exclusive art poster, it reimagined a Western hero story with Eastern aesthetics. Foreign netizens were quick to praise: 'China never misses.'
Chinese aesthetics have truly gone viral overseas, all of a sudden.
But if you only scroll through mainland social platforms, a nagging question pops up: Are trends like Chinamaxxing, #becomingchinese, #iwannabeChinese, and #veryChinese actually sweeping the West? Or is this just another round of packaging a few overseas anecdotes as 'Chinese style conquering the world'?
This time, the answer is clear. This online phenomenon, at least, is not some fabrication by mainland media.
Where Did 'Chinamaxxing' Come From?
The term "Chinamaxxing" is born from the "maxxing" suffix, a staple of English internet slang.
You see it in words like "looksmaxxing". The idea is to push a trait or lifestyle to the extreme. Then someone applied that logic to different cultures and lifestyles. And "Chinamaxxing" was born.
Online sources trace the earliest usage to no later than 2025. By January 2026, it was spreading fast.
Know Your Meme now lists "Chinamaxxing" as an internet slang term and hashtag born on American TikTok. The site records the trend heating up from late 2025 into early 2026.
But here's the interesting part: it's not just Chinese media covering this.
CNA reported on February 25 that "Chinamaxxing" exploded in January. It noted that many Western Gen Z TikTok users were showcasing Chinese-style habits: drinking hot water, eating meals, foot soaking.
Drinking hot water? It's now a lifestyle experiment for Western youth.
That same month, US Business Insider jumped on the story. It listed activities like drinking hot water, eating congee, cooking apples, wearing house slippers, and practicing qigong.
By March, the UK's Guardian had weighed in. It described young people on TikTok and Instagram weaving Chinese cultural elements into their daily lives.
Then in April, the term landed in Know Your Meme's internet meme database.
Meme or Genuine Love for China?
Make no mistake: this wasn't Chinese Mainland cooking up an English buzzword and then announcing that 'Chinese style is sweeping the globe.'
The term genuinely took off in Western online spaces first. Only later did Chinese media sit up and take notice.
However: does Chinamaxxing mean Westerners actually like China now? Or is it just another internet meme rush?
The answer? Probably both.
The earliest viral content was strikingly lifestyle-oriented: drinking hot water, eating congee, cooking apples. Wearing slippers, soaking feet, practicing qigong. Watching Chinese dramas.
Cooking apples with goji berries and red dates: health-preserving diets are hitting daily menus.
All of it came wrapped in Chinese music, Spring Festival elements, or Chinese-style clothing.
Some TikTok videos even drop lines like 'You met me at a very Chinese time in my life.' Roughly translated, that means 'you met me when I was in the most Chinese period of my life.'
From Hot Water to Hot Pot: The Content Expands
Sure, these videos have a meme-like quality. But here’s what’s so interesting about it: Western Gen Z is truly mimicking the everyday lifestyle habits that Chinese people have long taken for granted.
Hot water. Slippers. Congee. Foot baths. The most ordinary things imaginable. Suddenly, they've become the 'Chinese lifestyle' on TikTok.
Business Insider picked up the trend in February this year. It noted that non-Chinese American creators were posting these videos, some racking up over a million views.
CNA also pointed out that the trend is spreading mainly among Western Gen Z TikTok users.
And the trend didn't stop at the punchline of 'drinking hot water'.
The content has ballooned. It now spans Chinese cuisine, Chinese film and TV, tai chi, qigong, Chinese cityscapes, Chinese tech products, and even travel to China.
Tai chi and qigong are pulling foreign tourists into urban parks for real-life practice.
When Spain's El País reported on 'Chinamaxxing' from Beijing on June 20, it drew a direct line to foreign young people's interest in Chinese tai chi, hot pot, traditional Chinese medicine, and technology.
The Offline Shift: When Memes Become Travel Plans
By August, Chinamaxxing had jumped from the screen to the street. On August 5, mainland media reported that overseas travel bloggers were sharing their China trips on platforms like Xiaohongshu, linking the trend with deep immersion into Chinese life.
The content had expanded far beyond hot water, congee, and qigong. Now it was riding high-speed trains, using mobile payments, strolling through city neighborhoods, tasting local cuisine, and visiting museums and art galleries. In short, a TikTok meme had morphed into a real-world travel experience for some foreign tourists 'entering Chinese life.'
A country's cultural elements start being imitated, consumed, and repackaged by another society. That's no longer just 'someone joking around online.'
The real story isn't how many Americans suddenly switch to hot water. It's the subtle shift in how young Westerners see China.
For a long time, the Western cultural current flowed one way. American movies, European fashion, Japanese anime, Korean pop music, and more swept the globe.
Young people elsewhere learned, imitated, and even idolized them.
China, meanwhile, more often appeared in Western news as the 'world's factory,' an 'export powerhouse,' or a 'geopolitical rival.'
The Bigger Picture: China's Cultural Position Shifts
But the tide is turning. Chinese brands, short videos, internet culture, films, and city life are becoming raw material for Western youth to watch, imitate, and consume.
On August 11, the Beijing Daily's new media account 'Chang’anjie Zhishi' weighed in. The biggest backdrop, it argued, is China's hard power surge. As China moves to the center of the world stage, the world feels its charm intuitively, from high-speed rail and EVs to robots, from complete infrastructure and refined social governance to inclusive livelihood security.
The Western perspective on the East is becoming more equal. It's no longer a condescending curiosity; it's a natural appreciation.
At its core, the chase for Chinese aesthetics and lifestyle is an instinctive pursuit of stability, health, and spiritual richness. "It is not about being deified overseas; it is inherently 'divine'".
Social media poured fuel on the fire. In January 2025, as the U.S. TikTok ban loomed, American users flooded into Xiaohongshu (Little Red Book). For the first time, many Americans saw the daily lives of ordinary Chinese netizens directly. Compared with the old way of 'seeing China' through Western media, this direct cross-platform contact sparks cultural collisions at the life level.
That's the soil in which 'Chinamaxxing' took root. Western media are now framing it as a soft power play in the Sino-American rivalry.
On July 19, The Guardian even ran the headline "the world isn’t Chinamaxxing, it’s America-avoidant". The paper argued that the growing interest in China is tied to America's declining image.
It cited a Pew Research Center survey showing that in most of the 36 countries surveyed, China and President Xi Jinping enjoyed higher favorability than the United States and its president.
Soft Power and the America-Avoidant Factor
The shift is clear: China is no longer just a subject for Western study and commentary. Some Western young people are now imitating it.
Chinamaxxing is, at its heart, a meme. Some people genuinely love it. Others are just playing with the trend. And plenty simply find Chinese elements novel and fun.
Some videos even deliberately exaggerate Chinese customs. But that doesn't erase the cultural significance.
Can a lifestyle be imitated? Can a cuisine become a trend? Can a country's cityscapes, brands, films, and daily habits inspire content from foreign youth? All of that is cultural influence.
But what's being imitated this time isn't some polished, high-end image China deliberately crafted. It's the most ordinary daily life.
Western young people are suddenly discovering a different world. Hot water, drunk this way. Slippers, worn indoors. Porridge as breakfast as. Hot pot as a ritual. And China's slick urban transit and tech gadgets? They become social media novelties.
Cultural output rooted in daily life seeps into ordinary lives far more effectively than any grand national image campaign.
The Real Takeaway
Forget proving that Americans finally love China. The real takeaway from Chinamaxxing is far more practical. China is gradually shifting from a distant object of Western observation into a cultural source that some Western young people can directly use, imitate, and consume.
Sure, some people drink a few cups of hot water, slip on some slippers, and declare they've entered their 'China era.' How many of them truly understand China? That's a different question entirely.
But here's what matters: Chinese culture is now being played with, learned from, filmed, and even adopted as a lifestyle by Western young people. That shift alone is worth watching.
