Moe culture and transcultural resonance: a cross-cultural case study of a cute IP on Douyin and TikTok.

The global circulation of cute intellectual properties (IPs) has emerged as a distinctive affective-cultural phenomenon, yet the psychological mechanisms through which such IPs generate transcultural resonance remain undertheorized. This study investigates how moe aesthetics facilitate transcultural engagement through symbolic consumption and digital tribal practices, using the Muay Thai DunDun Chicken IP on Douyin and TikTok as a cross-cultural case study. Drawing on 446 high-engagement videos and approximately 332,000 characters of user comments, the study employed sentiment analysis, thematic coding, and cross-cultural comparative analysis to examine affective patterns and participatory practices across the two platforms. The findings reveal that moe aesthetics function as a broadly shared affective trigger that elicits instinctive emotional responses across cultural boundaries, suggesting a common perceptual basis while acknowledging culturally situated interpretive frameworks. However, the interpretive frameworks through which users make sense of their affective experience are culturally situated: Chinese users emphasize product attributes and functional value, reflecting a low-context cultural orientation, while Thai users emphasize cultural identity and symbolic meaning, reflecting a high-context cultural orientation. Thematic coding identified nine participatory practices organized into a three-layer model of transcultural resonance: Sensory Drive, Symbolic Production, and Tribal Autonomy. These layers reveal a conceptual framework through which cute IPs generate shared meaning, from broadly shared affective appeal through participatory co-creation to self-organized community governance that sustains resonance over time. The study extends transcultural resonance theory to the domain of cute IP engagement and refines the concept of moe power by demonstrating that affective appeal is not uniform across contexts but is actively shaped by local interpretive frameworks and participatory practices. These findings contribute to cultural psychology by specifying how biological universals and cultural particulars interact in digitally mediated contexts to produce shared affective experiences that transcend cultural boundaries.