Official's video propels her to social media stardom

Riding a horse at a high speed on stunning grassland covered with snow while dressed in a red cloak and a white fur hat isn't something people would normally see a Chinese government official do. So it's no surprise that He Jiaolong, a female official from the Xinjiang Uygur autonomous region, almost instantly became a social media celebrity after she posted such a video.

He, 41, the former deputy head of Zhaosu county, came up with the idea to make the video when she was thinking about new ways to let more people know about the famous horse breed of the county in Ili Kazak autonomous prefecture known as "heavenly horses".

Since she posted the 16-second video on short-video platform Douyin on Nov 23, it has been viewed more than 520 million times. Also, the number of followers of her account soared to almost 2.92 million after she posted a series of videos of her on horseback. Furthermore, the county has seen a significant increase in the number of tourists shortly after the video went viral.

Recently, she became even more famous after she announced in a video that she had been promoted to deputy head of the prefecture's culture and tourism bureau on April 13. In the video, she was on horseback again, roaming the prefecture's famous Narat grassland when apricot flowers were in full bloom.

"I never expected the video (last year) to be such a hit. At first, I really didn't like to be called a social media celebrity, because I never wanted to be one. But now I'm gradually getting used to using my influence to boost local development," He said.

Besides posting short videos, she has also been promoting local agricultural products and tourist resources via livestreaming sessions.

She said she now fully understands how her influence can benefit locals. With more followers, she can now help to sell local products worth more than 2 million yuan ($308,370) during a livestreaming session while sales were only about 5,000 yuan per session when she first started to livestream on social media.

While she continues to draw the public's attention to Ili, she also has to keep dealing with the stress brought by criticism, especially often being questioned if being a social media celebrity may affect her work as an official. She said that she had even thought of giving up appearing on social media several times.

"Horse riding is one of the basic skills for many local officials in Ili because the horse is the only means of transportation for them to reach villages in remote mountainous pastures, so I don't need to use stand-ins to film the videos as some people suspected," said He, who was born in Zhaosu.

"I am first and foremost a government official. I will never let what I do on social media affect my job," she said. "I want to see the locals appreciate my efforts in serving them, which is my duty. I don't want to be labeled a social media celebrity."

She said she only uses her spare time to make videos or livestream so sometimes she finds it difficult to balance work, life and social media appearances. Also, she still struggles to handle the hostile comments left on social media.

"As an official in the new era, I need to be innovative to keep up with the public. I always tell myself that I'm never on social media for myself but to better serve the locals so I need to learn to bear those comments," He said. "I hope people can feel the warmth and positive energy of Xinjiang officials at the grassroots level via my videos. I am simply one of them."

The development of telecommunication and social media have made China's border areas no longer remote and isolated, He said. "People may lose interest about me someday but the platform is always there for us officials to find innovative ways to support local development," she added.