This story was originally published on HackerNoon at: https://hackernoon.com/looking-for-the-american-dream-on-chinas-tiktok-what-really-happened.
As the filtered image of the American Dream and the journey portrayed in the video started to fade, Xiong adopted a more realistic view of America
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Xiong couldn’t pinpoint exactly what finally prompted him to leave his hometown in China, the only place he’s lived for 32 years, and embark on the arduous journey on foot through Central and South America to reach the United States in 2023. However, he clearly remembered the catalyst that ignited the idea.
It was a video on Douyin, the original, Chinese version of TikTok created by ByteDance.