Tens of millions of individuals beneath lockdown in China now share a standard routine: A health session with their new star private coach Liu Genghong.
The just lately little-known Taiwan-born singer, actor, and private coach has changed into a viral sensation over the previous weeks, as his health livestreams amass audiences from throughout the nation. A lot of them have been locked indoors for weeks as a part of the federal government response to stamp out surging COVID-19 circumstances.
The 49-year-old has additionally been in lockdown together with his household in Shanghai, at the moment in its third week of a citywide shutdown. On Tuesdays, Wednesdays, Thursdays, and Sundays, Liu seems on brief video platform Douyin — China’s model of TikTok — with spouse Wang Wanfei at 7:30 p.m., although he makes his followers get up early at 9 a.m. on Saturdays for a 90-minute session.
The couple is often seen exercising to the fast-paced tune of pop singer Jay Chou’s “Compendium of Materia Medica” and others. Snippets of the exercise the place Liu seems in a purple tank prime and black slacks together with his spouse have since gone viral on social media, with individuals imitating the exercise routine at schools, quarantine centers, and even whereas lining up for nucleic acid assessments.
Liu’s workout sessions have been so widespread in the course of the lockdown that they’ve damaged Douyin’s livestreaming report for 2022 up to now, according to knowledge evaluation platform Chanmama. Inside one month, his livestreams have been seen almost 40 million instances altogether, together with his hottest session attracting over 1 million dwell views.
Liu’s followers have additionally elevated from 5 million to 33 million in simply 10 weeks.
His recognition soared particularly following a exercise on April 9 throughout which the couple had been seen carrying a down jacket, supposedly after their livestream was disrupted for unspecified causes.
“It was actually sizzling,” Liu told home outlet China Information, recalling the expertise. “However on the time, we couldn’t discover out why the livestream was reduce off. So we guessed it was a clothes difficulty, and we wrapped up our entire our bodies in down jackets to amuse our viewers.”
Douyin didn’t reply instantly to Sixth Tone’s request for a remark by publication time.
Left: A screenshot exhibits Liu Genghong and his spouse on Douyin earlier than their session was disrupted; proper: After an unspecified warning from the platform, the couple livestream of their down coats on. From Weibo
Liu Xixi, a 27-year-old Shanghai resident working within the medical sector, advised Sixth Tone that she has been following Liu Genghong’s livestreams for per week now. She mentioned the couple are enjoyable to look at, particularly for these on the lookout for numerous methods to train whereas cooped up indoors.
“I’ve been quarantined for almost a month,” she mentioned. “Understanding day by day makes me really feel happier in the course of the demanding interval. It’s wholesome for our physique as nicely.”
The web health enterprise has seen a major surge in China for the reason that pandemic began in 2020. In response to a March report by Douyin, the variety of health movies in 2021 elevated by 134% whereas followers of such content material had been up by 208% in contrast with the earlier 12 months.
Liu Genghong isn’t the one icon who has been in a position to get the eye of health fanatics just lately. Along with her exercise movies, German health mannequin Pamela Reif has additionally constructed an enormous fanbase with over 8.3 million followers on social platform Xiaohongshu.
Liu Genghong’s meteoric rise to fame has made him a family title, in addition to one other of the nation’s worthwhile livestreaming stars. He reportedly makes some 240,000 yuan a day by way of his livestreaming session the place followers bathe him with digital items that may be transformed to money, according to home media Chinese language Entrepreneurs.
Many on-line have even joked that the health teacher was now going through a stiff recognition contest with Li Jiaqi, the “livestreaming king” identified for his gross sales ways.
“Li Jiaqi empties our pockets, Liu Genghong empties our physique,” has turn out to be one of the crucial widespread feedback on microblogging platform Weibo recently.
Editor: Bibek Bhandari.
(Header picture: Images present Liu Genghong and spouse Wang Wanfei livestreaming health classes from their dwelling. From Weibo)
