Senior Hubei officials go live on China’s TikTok to promote food and culture as virus lockdowns lift

A campaign called ‘Mayors Show Hubei to You’ kicked off on short video app Douyin on Wednesday

Mayors from 13 cities in Hubei province will participate in live streams meant to promote and sell local products

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Screenshot of the introductory live-stream of a Douyin campaign called “Mayors Show Hubei to You”, where mayors from 13 cities in Hubei will help promote local products. Photo: Handout

Published: 5:00am, 9 Apr 2020Updated: 5:55am, 9 Apr 2020

Senior officials from Hubei, where the first cases of the novel coronavirus were detected, are taking part in a live-streaming campaign on Douyin, the mainland Chinese version of viral short video app TikTok, as part of a national initiative to help revive economic activity in areas of China that were hard hit by the pandemic.

The Douyin campaign, which called “Mayors Show Hubei to You”, kicked off at 3pm on Wednesday with an introduction by Wuhan government official Li Qiang as a 76-day lockdown in Wuhan city lifted.

“I’m a bit nervous, ” Li said, adding that it was his first live-streaming experience before proceeding to introduce hot dry noodles, a speciality of the city which was the initial epicentre of the outbreak.

“Hot dry noodles bring back my first impression of Wuhan,” he said, recalling how he first went to Wuhan to study in 1979. “I missed hot dry noodles like many other Wuhan residents during the pandemic. Now the lockdown is lifted and restaurants are opening, we can go out and have a nice breakfast.”

In total, mayors from thirteen cities in Hubei province will participate in live-streaming sessions to promote products from the province, according to a post on its WeChat official account.

Live-streaming, already a booming industry in China, has seen a surge during the pandemic as tens of millions of people stayed home to help prevent the spread of the virus.