We Were China Maxxing Before It Was Cool
Everyone on TikTok is suddenly in their "most Chinese time." We've been living ours for three years — with Mandarin lessons, regular trips to China, and a five-year-old who thinks she's Chinese.
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I am not a heavy social media user. I'm often late on trends — maybe it's my age, or maybe I'm just not that interested in whatever is going viral this week.
But recently, even I have heard of a trend called "China maxxing."
If you haven't encountered it yet: "maxxing" is internet slang for going all-in on something. And China maxxing means going all-in on Chinese culture — drinking hot water instead of iced lattes, wearing house slippers indoors, doing traditional Chinese morning routines, buying the viral Adidas jacket that looks like a Tang dynasty robe. On TikTok and Instagram, people joke about being in "the most Chinese time of their life."
The trend was partly fueled by popular streamers and influencers who visited China and came back stunned by the futuristic cities, the infrastructure, the food, and the warmth of ordinary people. Videos from places like Shanghai and Chongqing — dense skylines, trains passing through apartment buildings, neon-lit street food alleys — went viral and made millions of people reconsider everything they thought they knew about modern China.
I find this fascinating. Because when we first went to China in 2023, almost nobody around us was interested. It was still very much post-pandemic — lots of anxiety about whether travel was even feasible, tourist numbers way down, and very little English-language content to help you plan a trip.
Since then, things have shifted dramatically. China has made a real effort to attract international visitors — relaxed visa policies (including visa-free entry for many nationalities), improved payment systems so foreigners can actually use AliPay and WeChat Pay, and a serious push to invite influencers and press to showcase different regions.
The best example of how fast things changed is Chongqing. When we visited in early 2024, I barely knew anything about the city. We only went because my Chinese teacher is from there — she kept sending me videos and insisted we had to see it. There were almost no English-language travel resources for Chongqing at the time. Fast forward a year, and the city — now dubbed "cyberpunk city" — became an internet sensation, popping up on everyone's feed.
So when I see people online announcing they're in their "most Chinese time" because they started drinking hot water... I have to smile a little. Because we've been doing this for three years now.
We are deep in our most Chinese time, and it didn't start as a trend for us — it started with a flight to Beijing and a toddler who refused to eat anything but 米饭 (mifan, Chinese name for rice) for five straight days.
Me and my daughters are learning Mandarin — I passed HSK3, and they go to immersive Chinese school here in our home city. We visit China at least twice a year. We drink Chinese tea. We read books about China. We cook Chinese food (my 麻婆豆腐 (mapo tofu) and 热干面 (reganmian) is getting pretty good). We celebrate Chinese festivals. We drink hot water — yes, even in summer. We buy Xiaomi tech. We shop like billionaires on Temu and AliExpress.
And if that's not enough — our five-year-old daughter Hanna, when recently trying to list all her nationalities, confidently declared that she is Chinese. We gently corrected her that she is learning Chinese, without actually being Chinese, before she will start telling this to everyone at kindergarten.
But yeah. Definitely a very Chinese time in our lives.
Now here's what I think sets real "China maxxing" apart from the TikTok version: actually going. The trend is fun, and honestly, anything that makes more people curious about China is a good thing in my book. But drinking hot water and wearing slippers is not quite the same as navigating a Chongqing metro station, or trying to order food in a restaurant where nobody speaks English and you're keep confusing everyone with every word you say.
The real magic of China — the thing that keeps pulling us back — isn't something you can replicate from a TikTok trend. It's the aunties dancing in the park and my daughters joining in. It's the friendly stranger who helps us find the right bus. It's the feeling of walking through a neighborhood that feels like home even though your are there for the first time, and realizing that this enormous, complicated, beautiful country is nothing like what you imagined before you came.
If the China maxxing trend makes even a few people curious enough to book a flight, I consider that a win. And if you're one of those people — well, you've come to the right place.
We've been China maxxing before it was cool. And we're just getting started.
Magda Sawyer
Magda Sawyer
