My first week on social media in China.

RedNote and Weibo users are excited to hear from a US doctor...who likes Table Tennis...I think.

Social media has always been an important part of my work as a doctor, both to bring information to the public and to help my busy healthcare colleagues stay up-to-date.

This week, I joined RedNote (Xiaohonshu) and then Weibo. These are two massive social media sites in China. RedNote was apparently the most downloaded app to iPhones this week, as the US TikTok ban loomed.

I was never into TikTok, but probably should have been. As public educators, we should go where people are. MedPage Today posted clips of my interviews on its account, but I didn’t post on my own account, as I do on Instagram, Threads, Bluesky, and Twitter/X (albeit less these days).

On the advice of our friend Benjy Renton (who happens to be fluent in Mandarin), I decided to join RedNote and then Weibo (when their staff came looking for me after making a splash on RedNote).

My early experience as an American physician on these sites has been interesting and overwhelmingly positive.

Here are some initial observations, both about the health, science, and medical aspects of things over there and just my general reaction to the somewhat crazy scene.

It’s also the unlikely story of how in one week’s time, I seem to have temporarily become one of the more popular American accounts on all of Chinese social media, having reached millions of people already.