A Fish-crazy Freshman With 100,000 Weibo Followers

By Wang Jinliang, Cai Mengqian & Wang Zi'an

Standing amid the freshmen at the military training ground in Huazhong Agricultural University (HZAU)in 2019, Luo Tengda, a boy from Shenzhen does not look particularly special. He is tall and even a bit shy. However,when talking about fish, he suddenly becomes talkative. It turns out that he, as a fish lover since childhood, has developed a sound knowledge about fish over the years and has become an Internet celebrity with 100,000 followers and a daily average of over 100,000 pageviews on Sina Weibo.

Learning of Fish from an Early Age

Luo Tengda is 17 years old now.His fondness for fish was not inherited from his parents who neither have a fish-farming hobby nor work in the aquatic products business. He is not clear about when he developed an affinity for fish, only knowing that it started quite early.

According to his father, he developed his hobby in the first year in primary school. Back then, whenever they went out for a meal, he would linger around the fish stalls in any restaurant and could not take his eyes off them. When he was lost, he could always be found at the fish tank of some restaurant. “I couldn't help watching them. When I was little, I couldn't resist all kinds of small fish, like the yellow-head catfish. They were so cute and indescribably attractive to me.I could stare at them for a long time. So, when my parents didn't pay attention to me during the meals, I snuck away to see the fish.” Recollecting the experience of getting lost, Luo Tengda was a little embarrassed.

Luo's father said that his obsession with fish took up much of his time, yet it did not affect his schoolwork. Every time when his parents would lile to reward him for his school performarce, he would ask for a fish.

Keenon Spreading Knowledge about Fish Online

Luo Tengda has gained his knowledge of fish mostly from the Internet. As early as 2010,he registered on fish3000.com,a professional Internet forum,and in the process of exchanging knowledge with other fish lovers,he came up with an idea of popularizing knowledge of fish online.

In 2013, he began to popularize knowledge about fish on Baidu Tieba. When there was something he doubted, he would refer to his“Latin-Chinese Dictionary of Fish Names by Classification System,”and sometimes he would search for information or read related papers online. Sometimes, Luo Tengda took pictures and wrote texts in combination with hot topics, to popularize knowledge of fish on the Internet.

In March of 2016, Luo Tengda opened an account named“Shining Halfbeak” on Sina Weibo, which mainly posted knowledge of fish. In 2018, he served as a super moderator at a sea fish forum run by his friend and was responsible for data collection and database building.Luo Tengda's blog posts have gained popularity for him. In more than three years, he has written over 8,000 posts on Sina Weibo, with more than 98,000 followers and over 100,000 pageviews each day.

A Love that Lasts a Lifetime

Now, Luo Tengda has six fish tanks of different sizes at home,raising nearly 150 fish of 98 species in different categories,which are his sources of the knowledge to be popularized.“The majors of biology and fisheries science in HZAU are outstanding. Plus, I knew Professor Fu and some students in HZAU through knowledge popularization. So I chose HZAU.I have a sense of self-belonging here,” said Luo Tengda.

On the day he received this admission letter, he wrote a post on Sina Weibo, which represented his expectations for the future:“This school is where I want to attend, and the major is what I like. I will likely never stop pursuing knowledge of fish.”

(Translation: Chen Jiani)

军训中的罗腾达Luo Tengda in his military training