Chinese influencers

She grew famous for portraying an idyllic rural lifestyle in China, she courted controversy by cooking “kimchi,” and now she has been crowned the undisputed queen of Chinese-language YouTube.  Li Ziqi has set a record for “Most subscribers for a Chinese- language channel on YouTube,” Guinness World Records announced on Weibo, China’s Twitter-like service on Tuesday night. Li had 14.2 million followers on YouTube as of early February. She launched her YouTube channel in 2017, with a video on making a dress out of grape skins.  “The poetic and idyllic lifestyle and the exquisite traditional Chinese culture shown in Li’s videos have attracted fans from all over the world, with many YouTubers co

Dressed in a black, figure-hugging dress with silver chains and combat boots, 65-year-old Lin Wei does not fit the stereotype of a typical grandmother.  The retiree, who accessorizes her look with red lipstick and black sunglasses, is part of a fast-growing phenomenon in China, dubbed ‘glamorous grannies.’  Aged over 60, older women are turning stereotypes on their head by dressing stylishly in traditional Chinese outfits such as cheongsams – and they are gaining millions of followers on social media in the process.  “We found the coolest grandmas on TikTok,” Oprah Magazine commented under a music video posted on Instagram of Lin with a group of her elderly friends in Beijing. “Now they jus

Key opinion leaders, or KOLs, have recently come to dominate the advertising and marketing industry. They are celebrities in themselves, who have managed to gather a massive list of followers to leverage into commercial opportunities for brands and themselves. But a new breed of KOLs in China use their platform to champion worthy causes, ranging from environmentalism to sharing legal and medical knowledge.  Here 5 of the biggest stars.  Liang Yu grew to prominence when she decided to take the lead to help provide female healthcare workers with sanitary products.   The needs of women medical workers, such as access to menstruation pads, were ignored when Covid-19 began spreading throughout W

A woman from southwestern China, whose YouTube video channel celebrating rural life is followed by nearly 7.5 million people, has been hailed by state media for her role in promoting Chinese culture. Li Ziqi, 29, from Pingwu in Sichuan province, started her video blogs on traditional food and crafts three years ago after giving up city life to return to the village where she was raised by her grandparents. Li, who now looks after her grandmother, has a library of 100 videos that have been seen tens of millions of times by audiences across the world.  Supporters argue that she has done more to sell Chinese culture than the Confucius Institute, the government-backed soft power promotional org

Nations from around the world have been teaming up to share classified intelligence and counter Chinese influence, Reuters has reported. The Five Eyes alliance – Australia, Britain, Canada, New Zealand and the United States – has joined nations including Japan, Germany and occasionally France to exchange classified information on China’s foreign activities since the beginning of 2018, the news agency said. Government officials told Reuters that the talks were “below the radar,” but that there had been a “flurry of consultations” in recent months, saying that the US had taken the lead on investment matters and Australia had been primarily concerned with political interference. China has been

From the US to Asia to Africa, China is increasingly becoming a campaign issue around the world. In West Virginia, GOP candidate Don Blankenship, a former coal baron and ex-con, is trying to win votes by hitting out against Senate majority leader Mitch McConnell, accusing him of giving jobs to “China people.” Senate hopeful Blankenship, whose primary is on Tuesday, also questioned McConnell’s “personal connections” to China. His wife is the Secretary of Transportation Elaine Chao, a Chinese American. Half a world away in Malaysia, opposition candidate Mahathir Mohamad, 92, has accused incumbent Prime Minister Najib Razak of selling out the country to China, by allowing too much Chinese inve