Year in review: Most inspirational figures of 2019

2. Li Ziqi

In the past few years, Li Ziqi has transformed from a village girl in Southwest China's Sichuan province into a food and lifestyle guru who has won the heart of millions. The post-90s vlogger enjoys more than 21 million followers on Sina Weibo and 7 million strong followers on YouTube. Li's video productions accentuate the quintessential beauty of traditional Chinese lifestyle and culture, covering a vast range of topics including cooking beef noodles, making paper and ink by hand, weaving cloth, and creating traditional Chinese cosmetics, and melting the hearts of viewers from home and abroad. However, Li's success did not come easy. Having lived with her grandparents in rural parts of Mianyang, Sichuan province since the age of 6 after her father died, life was difficult for Li during her youth. At the age of 14, she left home and started to work in the city to support herself economically. After her grandmother fell ill in 2012, Li returned home and opened an online shop to sell mostly edible products. Her first attempt at video-making came in 2016 when she decided to film some short videos to show how her products were created to boost sales. Since then, Li has never stopped making videos, recording her life in the rural area and portraying the traditional Chinese aesthetics.