Unpacking Uncle Red: Gifts, Gender, and Scandals

July 5th, 2025 a predator in Nanjing, China is arrested. He’s been nicknamed, ‘Uncle Red’ and his face gets plastered on the news.

Finally. The community can breathe and go about their daily lives, right? No. Netizens instead start a boycott and it works.  

No future travel into or through Nanjing.

Gyms are shutting down. No one wants to visit. Some residents are ashamed to have an Nanjing address.

Suddenly the biggest online diss you can throw at someone on Chinese social media is telling them that their husband or father is from Nanjing.

It’s clear that after Uncle Red’s arrest, nothing and nobody is the same… but how the hell is an entire city impacted by one man’s arrest?

For that, all you have to do is log onto Chinese social media and you’ll see it. I’m talking, screenshots, gifs, full videos, memes, AI parodies of Uncle Red’s crimes...

Over a thousand graphic videos that captured hundreds of Nanjing residents in their most intimate moments between them and a partner.

They had no idea Uncle Red was recording them.

And they had no idea that the partner participating in the videos with them was actually Uncle Red too.

Full show notes at rottenmangopodcast.com