In China, farmers turn to viral videos to sell stuff

Making entertaining videos has become a way for many farmers to sell stuff in China. / Image credit: Jiang Jinchun

While nearly 300 million Chinese farmers flock to urban centers chasing dreams and higher salaries, Jiang Jinchun is staying put in Zaotian, his poverty-stricken hometown in southeast China.

That’s because the 39-year-old farmer found a new way to make ends meet: viral videos.

A sturdy man with a shaved head, round face, large ears, and a goatee, Jiang likes to share videos of himself drinking wine in the woods, earning him the moniker “Lu Zhishen” – the name of a drunken monk from the Chinese classical novel Water Margin.

Jiang dressed up as a drunken monk.

When not imbibing, he’s toiling in the field – idyllic scenes that have garnered him nearly one million followers.

Jiang (R) doing field work

“Some big Vs have tens of millions of fans, earning several tens of millions yuan a year. You should talk to them,” says Jiang with admiration. Big V – with the V referring to VIP – is how internet celebrities are called in China.

“I’m just a small potato,” he smiles.

Cashing out

Jiang started using a video app named Kuaishou in 2015 after learning that it could be a lucrative tool. Meanwhile, his area’s internet connection had gotten more affordable and faster, making video streaming more accessible.

On Kuaishou, regular users can post videos that have a running time of up to 58 seconds long. Those who reach a certain number of followers have the privilege to do livestreams.

Bite-sized videos are flourishing in China. In January 2017, short-video apps recorded 156 million monthly active users, according to data from Analysys. By the start of this year, that number had more than doubled to 316 million, equivalent to around one in every four Chinese people.

Selling authenticity

Staying put

Fitting the agenda