Monday 22 February 2021

The social media stars in China who aren’t Chinese – how foreign influencers fluent in Mandarin are winning legions of fans

 

Reminds me of my time in China back in the late eighties, in Shanghai, when I was producing plays and entertaining local artists at boozy parties back my place. Speaking Chinese helps, for sure. 

Here are some doing stuff to make China more aware of the west and vice versa. Rather good thing to do in these polarised times, I reckon.  The online comments are rather harsh and make them all out to be tools of propaganda. Some maybe. Most, I'm guessing, not. Just interested in China and taking advantage of their foreignness, their being "lao wai" (老外).

One weird thing: the main pic in the print version is above, but doesn't appear in the online version. Why? Did they have some blowback on his name ending in the memorable "Adolf"?

When Antoine Bunel first posted about cooking on China’s Twitter-like microblogging site Weibo in 2015, he didn’t think his use of Chinese social media tools would lead to a full-time job as a key opinion leader (KOL).
Calling himself the French KOL who is the most familiar with the China market, he has amassed over a million fans through his cooking videos and recipes in Mandarin on Weibo, video platforms Douyin and Bilibili, cooking app Xiachufang, and other channels.
The former marketing professional is one of a rising number of foreign sinologist KOLs in China whose popularity rivals or even eclipses the reach of local influencers.

Targeting Chinese audiences, they use local video platforms to establish the persona of a laowai (foreigner) well-versed in Chinese culture. Some share tips on cooking; others use their digital platforms to teach or promote cultural exchanges.

An interesting bit of Lifestyle. Worth a read.