Culture and travel, sometimes cultural travel, is a popular term used in the Chinese travel sector. People travel across the country for cultural experiences, from museums to intangible cultural heritages (ICHs). The IShowSpeed trip to China is more aligned with the youth or internet culture of China, which is surprisingly compatible with the American or global one, given the divergent evolution they have undergone due to the isolation of platforms in China.

IShowSpeed, often referred to as Speed, is an American YouTuber and livestreamer, also known in China by his slightly ableist nickname “???” (lit. “Hyperthyroidist” due to his excitable temperament. He is also well-known among football fans for his love of the game and Cristiano Ronaldo.

When Speed’s first China stream came out on 24 March, netizens to state-owned media outlets in China praised the streamer for tearing down the “Chinese filter” (????) created by Western media. It is, fittingly, a reference to a meme, the “Mexican filter,” where Mexico and sometimes Middle Eastern countries are stereotypically portrayed on screen with a yellowish filter. Chinese filter usually refers to Western outlets such as the BBC showing China in a dull grey to indicate smog or pollution.

His first two stops, Shanghai and Beijing, are what most of these articles refer to, where Speed saw the modern skyscrapers of the cities, clean streets and uninterrupted high-speed mobile internet. Advanced transport ranged from bullet trains to EVs from Xiaomi and Huawei. This quickly earned him praise from state-owned media, saying a 20-year-old young man from the United States has “destroyed years of anti-China propaganda”. He also earned goodwill from ordinary netizens on Chinese social media. On Weibo, China’s Twitter-like platform, topics such as “IShowSpeed’s China trip super successful” and “IShowSpeed ‘seeds’ China travel to foreigners”  reached number 6 and number 12 on the Hot Search list, with 12.36 million and 29.97 million views, respectively.

Most importantly, the livestreams showed the world that the people of China are far from the stereotype of being quiet and demure, to the degree of being inanimate. In fact, the broadcast shows that China, at least the megacities Speed visited, contains a vibrant internet culture, just as unhinged, if not more, than its American equivalent.