Streaming success

Online video hosts, especially those addressing cultural differences between China and other countries, are becoming instant celebrities. Chen Nan reports.

'Do you want to marry a Chinese woman? Then, you have to be prepared," Thomas Derksen says, speaking a mix of fluent Mandarin and Shanghai dialect. The German wears wigs, applies makeup and plays the roles of his Shanghainese wife and in-laws in the three-minute video in which he humorously talks about his marriage and being a son-in-law to a Chinese family.

Derksen shot the video in March 2016, after he filmed his first short clip in which he introduces vegetables from his home country.

"After we posted the second video, my wife got sick and I had to bring her to the hospital," Derksen recalls. "While waiting for her to finish her treatment, I checked my phone and saw it was exploding - thousands of messages from Sina Weibo and WeChat. So many people were sharing our video. Then I thought: 'Oh, my god! That's it!'"

His wildly popular weekly videos humorously address everyday life and social topics in excellent Chinese. He has more than 3 million followers on Sina Weibo, and his 66 videos have had more than 180 million views on such streaming platforms as Miaopai, Chinese video site Youku and Facebook. He's better known on social media by his Chinese name, A Fu.

One of his videos about Shanghai's summer heat had about 100 million views across platforms.

He also appears on TV and has founded his own company, which undertakes Sino-German cultural projects and facilitates cooperation between the two countries' companies.

"I really think this kind of career is just possible in China because the speed of economic development here is incredible," he tells China Daily.

"Everything goes so fast. Also, there are many more people using social networks in China than there are in Germany. In Germany it would take many more years to get so many followers."

Derksen was born in a small German village to a retired electrician and a housewife. He first came to China as a tourist in 2007 and immediately fell in love with the people and culture. He studied Chinese in Fudan University in Shanghai over 2012-13. He married in 2013 and settled in the city.

Derksen made the first video when he was bored on a weekend.

He now posts one or two videos, articles or photos a week. He works with a team of six people to create content. They start by searching for trending topics and discuss personal experiences and opinions before writing the scripts, shooting and editing.

His experience shows it's possible to become a celebrity on the Chinese internet with a charismatic personality, knowledge of videography and understanding of self-promotion.

Quick flicks

Original short videos are exploding in China as traditional media struggle.

That's why people like Derksen, and Chinese students Zhang Hua and Zhang Dou in the United States, are hits online. The college students' humorous videos deal with how their American classmates at Emory University in Atlanta, Georgia, react to such aspects of Chinese culture as spicy food and dancing in public squares.

They'd previously shared articles about cultural differences online but found they were boring and hard to read.

"I always wanted to do something fun beyond just studying," Zhang Dou says. "So we started making the videos, which are fun and easy to watch."

The roughly 200 videos they've posted since 2014 have received more than 300 million views.

A Chinese fan named Sheldon commented online after watching a video in which they invited US students to taste furu, or preserved Chinese tofu: "I dare not try furu without steamed buns or congee. I admire US students' courage."

In another video, US students took the English test for the Chinese high school entrance exam and some failed. Charles, a Chinese fan, wrote online: "Even native speakers cannot pass the exam! I'll watch it again and this time with my mother."

Zhang Hua, from Nantong, Jiangsu province, who moved overseas at age 17, says: "We did (the videos) just for fun. The warm feedback from the viewers was unexpected."

The first video they made from their own dormitory featured American students trying such Chinese beverages as Wanglaoji herbal tea and Wahaha milk drinks.

"Weird", "disgusting" and "interesting" were some of the words their US friends most commonly used to describe the beverages.

It was a hit. The success encouraged them to make more videos.

"My childhood dream was to be a cook," says Zhang Dou, who moved to the US from Shanghai at age 14. "I guess it helped when we were preparing Chinese food for our US friends."

He also invited his US friends to try spicy hotpot, different-flavored instant noodles and pidan, or preserved eggs.

"The US students aren't acting in the clips. Their reactions to the food are natural," Zhang Dou says. He believes that's part of the appeal, and that audiences are smart and want authenticity.

The duo realized when each video got more than 1 million views that they could go even bigger.

"We wanted to become a bridge between American and Chinese culture," Zhang Dou says. "Young audiences embrace the differences."

They believe Chinese audiences love these videos because they're fun and the people in them are good-looking.

Channels of options

Streaming companies are seizing the opportunity and have developed strategies to connect their projects with these social media stars.

Chinese video-sharing app RRTV, for example, has launched a channel for producing original short videos, especially those featuring Western social media stars who share their insights into cultural differences.

The company mainly streamed US TV shows with Chinese subtitles when it was founded three years ago.

RRTV has more than 35 million registered users. Some 2,000 students from Chinese universities and Chinese studying overseas have been enlisted to shoot, produce and translate, CEO Zhou Weimin says.

Online stars' value is measured by the number of followers, and they have stable fan bases, he says.

"We call them 'influencers'," he said at a media conference for the launch of the short-video channel last month in Beijing. "We can measure our reach by looking at the likes, shares and comments."

He points out viewers often consider the hosts to be friends.

"These internet stars are just ordinary people," Zhou says. "They share their everyday lives in ways that resonate with others."

Former China Central Television host Ma Dong, who founded the media company Mewe in 2015 to produce online variety shows, said at the conference: "I believe this is the very beginning. These people deliver personalities through their videos, either as performers or producers. Some entertainment companies have begun to cast these people in their TV and film projects."

That said, the future is less than certain, he believes.

"How much can they achieve if social media goes further? We'll see."

Contact the writer at chennan@chinadaily.com.cn

American students are challenged to try Chinese food like preserved eggs, chilli sauce and dairy drinks in hit online videos, made by a team of Chinese and American students in the US.