"Do you know TIKTOK?"

　　William Clark frowned. "I think I've heard of it somewhere."

　　Grace Bennett said, "Of course you should have heard of it, because TIKTOK is the name for Douyin overseas."

　　"Last year, the Douyin you thought was so low, that is, TIKTOK, swept through both the Apple and Android app markets, launching a fierce and bloody assault across the globe, conquering territory everywhere, and in one fell swoop surpassed old apps like Facebook and Twitter, seizing the number one spot for global app downloads!"

　　"This is a classic case of cultural invasion. Even WeChat and Alipay couldn't achieve this, but Douyin did. We're computer science students, so we can't just arbitrarily judge Douyin as low; we need to study the cultural phenomenon behind it."

　　"Can you imagine it? A bunch of foreigners, watching the costume change shows we're so used to, are left dumbfounded. They're even clamoring to visit Chongqing, the famous internet celebrity city in China. Chongqing's maze-like layout and streets, the subway that passes through buildings—these all deeply fascinate foreigners. As soon as there's a new trend on Douyin in China, it's immediately imitated on TIKTOK."

　　These deeper things had indeed never occurred to William Clark. He was stunned by Grace Bennett's words, hurriedly jumped out of bed, put on his slippers, dragged a chair over, and sat down next to Grace Bennett.

　　"I really haven't heard any of this before. It actually sounds pretty interesting. Go on."

　　Grace Bennett curled his lips. "While we're still laughing at how low Douyin is, its overseas version, TIKTOK, has already been conquering the world. In just one year, it captured countless markets globally and became foreigners' favorite short video app."

　　"How popular is TIKTOK?"

　　"It's gotten so popular that, just like Huawei, it's being boycotted and banned overseas!"

　　"Teenagers all over the world are playing Douyin. This little short video app, which looks a bit low, has already made foreign governments feel threatened, grumbling that playing Douyin too much is interfering with students' studies and so on."

　　"And this is a classic case of cultural invasion!"

　　"Through Douyin's overseas version, foreigners have learned about the magical city of Chongqing, seen the beautiful and majestic Zhangjiajie, marveled at the nightly light shows in major cities, and are amazed by the creative costume changes of Chinese people."

　　"Through these short videos, foreigners are surprised to discover that China is nothing like what they imagined. This is the best kind of publicity for our country."

　　"In our country, there's a misconception. In the past, the authorities went around the world setting up Confucius Institutes, teaching foreigners to read the Four Books and Five Classics, to learn about benevolence, righteousness, propriety, music, chess, calligraphy, painting, and Peking opera masks."

　　"To be honest, doing this is really a bit too much to ask. Cultural invasion doesn't work like that. Even Chinese kids aren't interested in the Four Books and Five Classics, let alone a bunch of foreigners who don't understand anything."

　　"When Japanese culture invaded us back then, what paved the way first?"

　　"It was anime."

　　"After anime carved out a place in China, then came Haruki Murakami, Kenzaburo Oe, and Edogawa Ranpo."

　　"And when Korean culture invaded our country, it was idol stars that paved the way, along with Korean dramas and movies."

　　"Of course, Korea is a bit lacking in cultural depth. After idols paved the way and the market opened up, they didn't follow up with their own deep cultural works, so Chinese people don't have a high opinion of Korea and think they're rather superficial."

　　"But Japan is different. How many young people read Haruki Murakami? How many fans does Keigo Higashino have?"

　　"By comparison, China, with its five thousand years of heritage, actually has very strong cultural power. Unfortunately, we've taken the wrong approach, always trying to use Peking opera and classical literature for cultural invasion, but in the end, it's like being unloved by both grandma and uncle."

　　"Instead, it's the Chinese grassroots—whether it's online novels, Douyin, or variety shows—that have, without any official support, fought their way into foreign markets!"

　　"This shows that for culture to have a market, it has to be down-to-earth. As the saying goes, 'the higher the tune, the fewer who can sing along.' If we can't even get our pop culture into foreign countries, how can we expect foreigners to listen to us talk about the Four Books and Five Classics?"

　　William Clark stared blankly at Grace Bennett. He couldn't believe that this whole set of theories actually came out of Grace Bennett's mouth. He really wanted to crack open his head and see whether it contained a human brain or a quantum computer.

　　"I used to just think you were pretty smart, but I didn't expect your thinking ability to be this strong. It's just Douyin, but you actually connected it to cultural invasion, and listening to you, it actually makes a lot of sense."

　　William Clark looked Grace Bennett up and down and said seriously, "Grace Bennett, you seem to have changed."

　　Changed?

　　Grace Bennett wasn't quite sure. He just felt that the beeping sound in his head was probably really something extraordinary.

　　It seemed like his imagination had become broader, and he was gradually connecting details and unrelated things that Grace Bennett hadn't noticed before.

　　For example, Grace Bennett had actually long known that Douyin's overseas version was conquering the world, but he had never thought before that this was actually a form of cultural invasion.