Kulturkampf

[Polident]

Since before she hit double digits, Alisa, 15, said she has felt a special connection with Japan. The high school student, who asked to be anonymous for fear of being doxxed online, was born in Ukraine and lives in Maryland, but she now goes by the Japanese name Miyuki and listens to “subliminals” that promise she will wake up and be Japanese. So far, she believes that by listening to YouTube videos with lo-fi music and photos of East Asian facial features while she sleeps, her vision has cleared, her eyelids have become smaller and her hair is just a bit darker.

Alisa began posting to her account, @rcta_ctdr4lifer, on TikTok in the beginning of June. While she has found a community of like-minded people, she has also encountered a slew of hate messages and even death threats. Her account, like those of many other RCTA TikTok creators, features walls of rambling text about her progress and goals and addresses the haters over videos of fashionable East Asian women dancing to Japanese and Korean music.

“Ever since I was about 9 years old, I’ve always loved Japanese culture, and I’ve always wanted to move there, even before I discovered RCTA,” Alisa said.

Maybe there should be age limits for social media.