“Yaoyaolingxian”: Meme, everyday nationalism and popular geopolitics on TikTok

Digital platforms are reshaping spatial practices and exerting profound and lasting effects on geopolitics. Although digital platforms are an emerging area of interest among social and cultural geographers, the way these technologies reconfigure geopolitics and individual everyday practice has not yet been embraced. This paper addresses this gap by bringing together existing research on popular culture, digital technology, and geopolitics in a constructive dialogue. Drawing on the perspectives of memes and everyday nationalism, this study examines how ordinary individuals express their identities and political stances through TikTok. Using the case of Huawei’s 5G smartphones sold during Raimondo’s visit to China, we illustrate how public engagement in digital spaces configures the practices of everyday nationalism. The findings reveal how the humor, repetition, and whimsical content of memes promote the creative practices of everyday nationalism. Furthermore, we emphasize how these practices are amplified and further consolidated between human agency and the technological attributes of the TikTok platform. The organic integration of memes and everyday nationalism in digital spaces concretizes the emotional power of space and highlights the extensive influence of popular geopolitics in the digital age.