Kris Jenner's image spreads in Chinese social media good luck trend
A new phenomenon on Chinese social media platforms such as Weibo, Douyin, and RedNote (Xiaohongshu) has generated over 50 million views in just three days. Users are en masse sharing the image of Kris Jenner, the famous "momager" of the Kardashian clan, treating it as a digital amulet intended to attract wealth, professional success, and luck in exams. The scale of the phenomenon is immense—on RedNote alone, nearly 100,000 posts have been recorded where netizens change their profile pictures to Jenner’s likeness, often edited into "lawyer Kris" or "teacher Kris" versions. For the global creative community, this is a fascinating example of Gen Z "manifesting" success through memes. Chinese internet users see Jenner as a symbol of hard work ethos and extraordinary business efficiency, which translates into a humorous yet massive trend. Jenner herself joined the fun, commenting on popular videos with her iconic catchphrase: "you’re ALL doing amazing, sweetie!" This phenomenon demonstrates how a celebrity's image, driven by algorithms and the specific culture of social media platforms, can rapidly evolve from a pop culture icon into a universal symbol of financial aspiration, crossing linguistic and geographical barriers without the need for official marketing campaigns. The use of AI to create variations of Jenner's image only accelerates the adaptation of this trend across further internet niches.
The cult of hard work in a digital version
The mechanism of this trend was explained by Marcelo Wang, a creator on the **TikTok** platform, who introduces Chinese slang and culture to Western audiences on a daily basis. According to him, Jenner's popularity stems from the fact that she is perceived as one of the hardest-working businesswomen in the United States. For China's Generation Z, "cosplaying" Kris Jenner — that is, stepping into her persona in the digital sphere — is a humorous yet hopeful way to attract fortune. It is worth paying attention to the **RedNote** platform, which has become the main hub for this phenomenon. Last year, the service saw a rapid increase in the number of users, partly due to people migrating from TikTok for fear of a potential ban of that app in the US. This shows how dynamically the social media landscape is changing — a platform that was originally niche is today dictating trends that can transform the image of an American celebrity into a symbol of luck for millions of people on the other side of the globe.A new form of soft power and digital talismans
This phenomenon sheds new light on how modern "soft power" functions. Traditionally associated with diplomacy and official cultural exports, today it manifests through grassroots trends and memes. Jenner's persona, despite being embedded in a very specific, American reality TV context, has been completely deconstructed and reassembled by Chinese internet users to fit their own aspirations and sense of humor.- Number of posts: Over 99,000 on the RedNote platform in just three days.
- Reach: Over 52.9 million views of content related to the trend.
- Main platforms: Weibo, RedNote (Xiaohongshu), Douyin.
- Key message: Kris Jenner as a symbol of diligence and financial success.