Wednesday , September 4, 2019 | 17 YOUTH CHINA DAILY HONG KONG EDITION The ingredients of success
Online food celebrities cook up a menu of imagination to whet our appetites, Xing Wen reports.
hou Xiaohui has cooked up a and inspirational background music were surefire recipe for success. The added. “We could see from the increasing ingredients are a dash of hard numbers of followers and comments on work, a spoonful of imaginative each video platform that these adjust cooking, a good stock of personality, sauZ ments worked well,” he says. teed and spiced up with popularity. During the process, he learned how to Zhou, 25, is one of a growing number of add music, edit videos and cook authentic Chinese gourmets who have successfully local Sichuan province dishes, such as served up a feast of content on YouTube. suanlafen, or sour and spicy rice noodles Based in Chengdu, Sichuan province, and laziji, chicken with chili peppers — in Zhou boasts more than 7.3 million online scenic areas in the mountains or by the followers, making her the most popular river. Chinese food blogger. The countrysideoriented visuals have Best known for her hit series of “office helped propel them to global recognition. cooking” videos, published under the “I seldom traveled to places outside of moniker, Ms Yeah, Zhou’s most famous Sichuan before,” says Li Junling, but now, video is one that she released in July 2017, due to their newly acquired fame, he has which notched up a total of 100 million been to California and shared stories with views within a week. foreign counterparts, which “broadened In the video, Ms Yeah, a female office both my horizons and my circle of worker, carries a cup and seems anxious friends”. as she waits in a long line to get a drink Li Guilong adds that the Shyo Video from a small soy milk machine stationed team has grown from the pair of them, in her workplace. Suddenly she gets a but still consists of friends who were flash of inspiration, and goes outside to mostly high school classmates. The mon buy watermelons from a vendor instead. ey has also started to come in. She then skillfully carves them into “The team’s monthly income has enticing offerings of flowers, dragons, and reached 200,000 yuan, mainly from even Angry Birds. She tempts her col advertisement and offline activities,” says leagues, still waiting in line, to gorge on Li Guilong. “I’m so delighted that I can the succulent sculptures. None can resist buy a big apartment in Mianyang for my and, minutes later, a giggling Ms Yeah has family now.” the soymilk machine all to herself. The many languages in the videos’ com Versatility, ingenuity and the solving of ments show Shyo Video’s global appeal. conundrums are part of her cooking English, Thai, Korean, Japanese and Chi appeal. She can conjure up treats in the nese are just a few to be found offering most unlikely of settings. Making hotpot feedback. Timing, like good flavoring, is with a water dispenser, barbecuing meat of the essence when creating something with a garment steamer and cooking jian that appeals to a wide variety of tastes, as bing guozi, a snack consisting of deep one comment encapsulates. It reads: “I fried dough sticks rolled in a thin pan like your videos for two key reasons — cake, on a computer mainframe case. always a theaterscenestyled opening, “The novelty combination of cookery and in five minutes the video is complete, and the office setting appeals to curious compared to other vloggers who go on for audiences and foodies around the world,” longer. Fight on.” explains Zhou. According to Jin, it’s easy for highqual Another advantage is that the short vid ity video producers to make a profit on eo is devoid of any dialogue, so there is no YouTube, which counts over 2 billion language barrier. “The lack of words monthly users. “And the platform has a makes my videos popular with foreign system that helps to match suitable viewers,” says Zhou. advertisers with vloggers’ content, which Instant fame is nothing new. Many in turn offers them more time to concen have tried, few have succeeded. Being trate on creating better videos,” Jin says. able to cook is no guarantee of success “However, the priority for vloggers and will not necessarily make someone always lies in ensuring the quality of the an overnight sensation like Zhou, Jin Xu content and trying to break through the points out. Jin is president of the interna noise in a very populated space.” tional department of the Onion Group, a leading multichannel network operator A modern view of ancient China in China. Li Ziqi, 29, another vlogger has also The group has signed up more than 200 tapped into the appeal of rural settings. Li vloggers in bid to help them to become has garnered more than 18 million follow influencers, Jin says, pointing out that Ms ers on Sina Weibo, the Chinese equivalent Yeah is one such example. Zhou has been of Twitter, and boasts more than 6 million working at the company since graduating subscribers on YouTube. These numbers with a broadcasting and TV directing major make Li the second most influential vlog from Sichuan Normal University. The crea ger from China on the international vid tion of Ms Yeah is the result of careful and eosharing platform. calculated teamwork by the company. Li started shooting short videos in Zhou is the leader of a 10member team 2016, inspired by the selfsufficient lifes who creates the office cooking videos, tyle of ancient Chinese people. A young each episode of which has garnered about woman of the post1990 generation, she 6 million views on YouTube. looks elegant with long braids in her hair She also serves as a “chief career plan and always clad in exquisite traditional ner” for the vloggers that are signed up dresses. In her short videos, she has with the company. “I feel so excited that I picked ripe cherries to make jam and has could explore more possibilities in fields From top: Zhou Xiaohui, better known as Ms Yeah, is the most popular Chinese vlogger on the video platform harvested peaches to make sweet wine. that once were unfamiliar to me,” says YouTube. Li Junling usually cooks in the wild and lives off the land. Li Ziqi, who has garnered over 6 million She has also showed how to grind beans Zhou, who admits that the work helped subscribers on YouTube for her pastoral lifestyle, peels beans to make tofu. PHOTOS PROVIDED TO CHINA DAILY to make soy milk and then condense the her acquire more skills, such as logical liquid to create tofu. thinking and better communication, Most viewers found that the lifestyle which fit well with her appealing, down depicted and the picturesque landscapes toearth personality. whose memeworthy “fake smile” has food with gusto. The dialoguefree videos displayed in Li Ziqi’s videos help them Last June, she became the only Chinese made him an internetfamous celebrity. show him running around, living off the find inner peace and give them a psycho vlogger invited by Facebook to attend Vid When he gets hungry, she makes him a land, and catching fish, chickens or rab logical break from their stressful and busy Con in the United States — a major multi burger utilizing a USBpowered “heating I am proud that I bits to cook and eat. urban routine. genre online video conference for digital pad” that people use for keeping warm in One subscriber, Liam Lowentha, com content creators worldwide. “I am proud areas of China where offices are not cen could represent Rise of a factory worker ments: “I have insurmountable respect that I could represent Chinese creators trally heated. Chinese creators to These hit videos are the combined and admiration for this woman. Not just and share my ideas about how to produce Like Zhou, other online personalities effort of Li and his high school classmate, from what I see in the videos, but the fact hit videos at the conference,” she says. with significant domestic appeal have also share my ideas about Li Guilong, a freelance photographer who she’s bringing back to life an archaic way “Meanwhile, I feel a strong sense of sought the spotlight of the global stage. how to produce hit initially invited him to shoot videos in of doing things. Because of her I’ve responsibility to produce work featuring The secret to success, though, lies in 2017, because of Li Junling’s “offbeat sense learned a lot about culture, process and Chinese characteristics with an interna food. “Food emotionally connects us. For videos at the of humor”. reaction. I’ve also gained several new tional outlook.” instance, people will often choose to enjoy conference. Li Junling used to labor for 12 hours a skills.” Many viewers leave comments, hoping food with their friends or family mem day in the factory. “Although I earned a Aside from showcasing how to cook, Li to interact with their favorite vloggers. bers,” says Jin. Meanwhile, I feel a stable salary, it was a professionally fallow Ziqi has even demonstrated other ancient One of them, Tabassum Shaikh, says: “Hi, Chinese cuisine has a unique appeal in strong sense of period during which I could hardly make skills, such as embroidery, movabletype Ms Yeah, your videos are just amazing. the West, Jin adds. “That explains why culi further progress or get promotion,” he printing, dyeing cloth and making furni They give me a sense of relief from the nary videos produced by Chinese creators responsibility to recalls, adding that, with a pregnant wife, ture. She has impressed her viewers with stress and hard work of my day and keep are popular among foreign audiences.” produce work he hoped to earn more money. He decided both her manual dexterity and the charm me going.” Cooks, like food, come in many differ featuring Chinese to quit the factory and started to make of China’s traditional handicrafts and Ms Yeah’s “office cooking” videos, Jin ent flavors. One plump character clad in a short videos with his friend. techniques. says, show creativity, humor and a sense gray cotton suit, with eyes hidden by a characteristics with The two then went back to their home She has spent two years making paper of rebellion against a dull, boring office widebrimmed straw hat boasts 1 million an international town Mianyang, and searched for rural from tree barks, brushes out of rabbit atmosphere. subscribers on YouTube. He was initially settings in which to film. hair, and other stationery with natural created by a duo working under the user outlook.” Initially, they just focused on cooking in materials. Feeding a common interest name Shyo Video. Zhou Xiaohui, 25, vlogger better secluded places, but this failed to impress “As an increasingly influential vlogger,” Ms Yeah’s most recent effort to “further The character is acted by Li Junling, 29, known as Ms Yeah, speaking audiences. “It was a tough beginning for she says, “I hope I can show the world the secure a larger foreign fan base” was a vid a former worker at an optical fiber manu about VidCon 2018 us. We only made 300 yuan ($42) for a wondrous cultural heritage of China.” eo released last month in which she facturing factory in Chengdu. In the vid month back then,” recollects Li Junling. spends a day with Gavin Thomas, a wide eos, he cooks in the wild, out among the Like their food, they had to spice up the Contact the writer at lyknown 9yearold boy from the US trees and sunshine, before devouring his series. Humorous plots, special effects [email protected]