Behind the scenes with Li Ziqi, the mysterious Chinese internet celebrity with 58 million fans
- In her videos, she performs the work of a farmer with the grace of a fairy, impressing with her deep knowledge of food, nature and Chinese culture
- She says working in the remote Sichuan countryside makes her ‘feel like I’m truly living’
On screen, Li Ziqi’s life seems to defy the rules of reality.
The Chinese internet celebrity is famous for her videos in which she performs the work of a farmer with the grace of a fairy. Her fans on social media platforms, both in China and internationally, including YouTube and Weibo, number more than 58 million.
In one video, she picks flowers on horseback in a red cape, evoking the image of Red Riding Hood. In another, she builds a bamboo furniture set using traditional Chinese techniques.
While the videos have a cinematic quality to them, it’s her deep knowledge of food, nature, and Chinese culture that impresses viewers. She appears to make everything from scratch, going as far as hatching baby ducklings and raising them just to make a sauce from egg yolk.
Li rarely speaks in her videos, and when she does, it’s in the local dialect of her home province, Sichuan.
She also seldom gives interviews. But in our exclusive interview with her, she opens up to us about her life, craft and early struggles as a one-woman band.