"Navigating Chinese Social Media For Research" with Chu Yang

This week’s episode features researcher Chu Yang, a specialist in Chinese audience insights. She joins us to break down the most popular social media platforms in China, offering a clear overview of how they work and why they matter. Chu also shares practical tips for accessing these platforms from outside the country, along with useful tools for analysing trends both within China and across global Chinese communities.

The talk was hosted by Charlotte Maher on April 30th 2026. Music featured is courtesy of Artlist.

Recorded live in our Discord Server: https://discord.com/invite/bellingcat

Links:

The guide on Xiaohongshu written by Chu Yang: https://www.bellingcat.com/resources/2026/04/20/xiaohongshu-rednote-open-source-guide/

Mentioned resources:

weibo.com/hot

newrank.cn

whatsonweibo.com

chinadigitaltimes.net

citizenlab.ca

https://zh.greatfire.org/analyzer