Foreigner Has Tens of Millions of Fans in China for...

Source: JobTube, Freya W., Josh B.

On November 16th, news about a man from Somalia, named YiBo, who had more than 12 million fans on China's social platform, and participated in multiple variety shows and television works released on China's mainstream media, won the love of many Chinese fans.

Bought the wrong ticket to Shenyang

YiBo loved watching action movies of Bruce Lee and Jackie Chan when he was just a kid, which led him to want to live in China all the time. Six years ago, he decided to come to China. At that time, he only knew Beijing and Shanghai. So he bought a plane ticket to a destination with the beginning letters of SH and thought he was going to live in Shanghai.

 A year later, his friend invited him to visit Shanghai together.

"What? To Shanghai? This is not Shanghai?" YiBo recalled, smiling. At that moment, he knew that the city was Shenyang, not Shanghai.

In this way, although YiBo came to Shenyang by mistake, finally fell in love with the city.

Realized his dream through shooting videos

During his stay in Shenyang, YiBo made several Chinese friends while exercising, and occasionally helped them to shoot some online videos. Unexpectedly, he won the favor of many netizens, so he opened his own account, which had one million fans in just nine months. "It's amazing. I never expect that people would like me. I suddenly felt that I could do this. Although it's not related to my major in management, China's Internet let me understand my dream and achieve it. My Chinese is also advancing rapidly at this time." He said.

At the beginning, there was no team, so he worked alone to finish the videos. With the increasing amount of subscribers, he and his friends formed a team, including directors, screenwriters and so on.

"The more people like it, the better we should do it, and the works we produce always want to transmit positive energy. Now, there are not only adults but also children as fans, so we should pay more attention to the scale of the video produced," YiBo said.

Strong, optimistic and humorous is the deepest impression that YiBo gives people around him. He never shows his hardships.

"I don't want my fans to see my sad or hard side. I hope that everyone is happy to watch my videos. I want everyone to be happy all the time," He told the news staff. For a short video that lasts 10 seconds, sometimes it needs to be shot dozens of times. If an expression, eyes or tone of voice is not in place, YiBo will re-record it. Sometimes he has a fever of 40 degrees. He goes to the hospital in the morning and goes back to the company in the afternoon to take a video. Without thinking how hard he is working, he pushes on as he doesnt want to disappoint any of his fans.

Challenging himself every day

Yibo was born in Somalia, lived and grew up in Canada and the United Arab Emirates. This kind of growing environment made him have great language talent since childhood. He can speak English, French, Somali and Arabic. But he was also baffled when he first learned Chinese.

At first, YiBo followed a Chinese teacher to learn Mandarin, but he soon realized that the way of learning through textbooks was not suitable for him. Thus, he began to learn Chinese through skits, and cross-talk.

Yibo said to the news staff, "now many of the content experts on the internet come from foreign countries. Their Chinese is better than I say, and they are very talented. They have a wide range of vision. I think my personal charm is that I regard myself as a" northeast person", so I have these opportunities today. I may have not achieved what I have today, if I wasn't in Shenyang. My videos are actually recording my own life, whether it's TikTok or WeiBo, all those inspirations come from my life. " When he is not busy, YiBo will also read the messages from fans. He said that every time he reads them, they are the motivation that encourages him to challenge himself to share happiness.

Shenyang is his second hometown

YiBo told the news staff that if he went back to Shenyang on a business trip for more than ten days, he would have a feeling of going home as soon as he arrived at the airport. It was very comfortable to listen to the northeast dialect spoken by the surrounding people, Shenyang makes him feel at home. His parents are surprised to see the video which he made, saying that he really learned Chinese.

In a few days, he wants to take his family to come to China. I'll be their tour guide, so we can look at Chinese scenery and taste Chinese food! said YiBo.

What's your story in China? Let us know in the comments below!

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