For subscribers
Don’t mess with YouTuber Li Ziqi and her farm life videos
A beloved rural Chinese influencer makes a comeback after a quiet but gruelling battle with her agent.
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Popular Chinese influencer Li Ziqi made a surprising comeback on Nov 12, after she stopped posting videos for more than three years.
PHOTO: SCREENGRAB FROM LIZIQI/YOUTUBE
Howard Chua-Eoan
Who wouldn’t want a social media audience that grows without new content? During the three years she paused production of her short do-it-yourself farmer’s lifestyle videos, the Chinese vlogger Li Ziqi, 34, has seen her YouTube subscribers increase to 20.2 million from about 14 million. While YouTube is banned in Li’s homeland, China, her fan base there – though not the size of YouTube’s MrBeast, who has 330 million subscribers – is close to 100 million across the country’s social media platforms Douyin, Weibo and Xiaohongshu.
When Li finally released new videos last week – ending what’s been described as a “mysterious” absence – the response was rapturous in the People’s Republic and around the world. On YouTube alone, the initial video amassed 11 million views in its first three days.
