China's Internet celebrities finally win mainstream success

2020-06-20吴安运

疯狂英语·新悦读 2020年5期

Li Jiaqi, a young man famous for tastefully applying lipstick and makeup on himself, is the hottest name to millions of Chinese women right now. He used to be a beauty adviser at L'Oréal, but now he has become a national Internet celebrity, with over 13 million followers on Weibo.

Li Ziqi is another hot video blogger loved by Chinese young women. As a Chinese food and country-life blogger,she focuses on creating meals and handicrafts with natural food and tools using traditional Chinese techniques. Compared to Li Jiaqi, Li Ziqi's influence is not limited to the Chinese market. She has over 7.5 million followers for her YouTube channel.

Li Jiaqi and Li Ziqi became Internet celebrities through different paths, but both of them are examples of a new era in the Chinese Internet celebrity economy. Internet celebrities are no longer standing at the bottom of the entertainment industry, and have become a core power that no one can ignore.

Previously, Internet celebrities used to be a negative term to describe those who desired sudden fame, with no intelligence orsubstancebut a taste forvulgarityand scandal with vulgar words and narcissistic self descriptions. As soon as people were tired of theiroutlandishbut repetitive statements, their followers abandoned them immediately.

As the Internet celebrity economy in China started to grow into serious business, Internet celebrities were still labeled negatively. They promote a very narrow definition of beauty, valuingdoeeyes, a high nose, light skin, and a very pointy chin, nicknamed the “Internet celebrity face”. Mainstream entertainment and fashion industries still closed their doors to the group.

Li Jiaqi and Li Ziqi have recently smashed through these barriers, embracing a new era for Internet celebrities. Their success feeds the development of the overall Internet celebrity economy. In October, Li Jiaqi became the cover person ofGrazia, the international woman's weekly. Earlier in December, the movieThe Wild Goose Lakeused his livestream to sell tickets. Over 250,000 tickets sold out within 15 seconds, and the result shocked the actor, Hu Ge, one of the most popular actors among the young generation.

This shows that Li Jiaqi has been breaking down the boundary between Internet celebrities and the mainstream of the entertainment industry that used to be thoughtimpenetrable. Li Ziqi has also hit the mainstream. A few weeks ago, her name took a top position in the trending terms on Weibo.The discussion finally caught the attention of several state media outlets. They wrote that Li Ziqi illustrates that Chinese culture can be understood and cherished by foreigners, and Chinese people should be grateful to her for letting people understand the beauty of Chinese culture.

The success of Li Jiaqi and Li Ziqi is not accidental. The rise of the Internet celebrity economy provides people who come from distant places with opportunities to break down geographical limitations and be known online. At the same time, this pair are lucky to stand at a transitional period of the Internet celebrity economy, in which Internet celebrities are taking a high-profile role in the overall industry, and have more space to create good content.