South China Morning Post:Internet Hanfu Celebrity Li guoguo

Bored and housebound due to the coronavirus outbreak, 26-year-old Li Guoguo has been live-streaming her closet filled with ancient Chinese clothing or hanfu, and describing how she mixes and matches them with her wide collection of accessories.

“I can’t go out to make videos of myself modelling hanfu as before. There’s too much time at home. It’s good that I can talk to people through live-streaming,” she says.

The Shanghai native who is known as Afoxmeng on Instagram is among the countless housebound Chinese who have taken up live-streaming to fend off boredom, and to expand their fan base at a time when the whole country’s population can turn to only home entertainment to while away time.

While the fortunes of a multitude of industries including travel, dining and transport have nosedived following the Covid-19 outbreak, live-streaming, like online shopping and other internet-based businesses, has enjoyed a spectacular boom.

Li Guoguo has been live-streaming her collection of ancient Chinese clothing while stuck at home because of the coronavirus.

According to a QuestMobile report this week, short video platforms with live-streaming features recorded a sharp increase in user activity over the Lunar New Year period.

Users on Kuaishou spent an average of 71 minutes every day, compared to 44 minutes during the festive season last year. Douyin – the mainland Chinese version of TikTok – recorded a rise in average daily usage time from 67 to 99 minutes during the same period.

Singing, dancing, cooking, playing video games, exercising and even sleeping is live-streamed.

With more than 300,000 followers on Bilibili, Li Guoguo, who works in Shanghai real estate industry, says she live-streams for around four hours every week.

“I have around 600 pieces of hanfu in my closet. Unlike the hanfuvideos I did before the virus outbreak, live-streaming allows me to talk at length on topics including what fabric to use for different styles of hanfu. I can also interact with the viewers who ask me questions about mix and match,” she explains.

“I do not have any business deals with fashion companies or brands. I do it to share my love of hanfu with others. I met many new friends who share the same interest as me. We plan to arrange get-togethers later once the virus outbreak ends.”

While ordinary people like Li Guoguo live-stream for fun, music promoters, restaurants, discos and even art museums and galleries have turned to it as a lifeline and a new source of revenue to prop up their badly-hit business.

Restaurant chains like Sichuan style Meizhou Dongpo, fast food franchise ZhengKungFu and hotpot chain Xiabu Xiabu have been live-streaming shows from their empty kitchens, where chefs recreate items from the menu to attract viewers to order takeaway and pre-packaged ingredients for cooking at home.

On February 8, Shanghai bar TAXX live-streamed disco acts on Douyin for four hours, with peak audience reaching 71,000 people who shelled out around 700,000 yuan in tips. Prompted by its success, a few days later, dozens of nightclub and bar franchise with outlets across China including Dr. Oscar, SpacePlus and Sir Teen followed suit in setting up live-stream channels on Kuaishou.

More than 10 musicians under the Ruby Eyes Records label live-streamed concerts for three consecutive days from February 6 on Bilibili, attracting more than 100,000 viewers, dwarfing even a full house at the 80,000-capacity Bird’s Nest Stadium in Beijing.

Heeding the Chinese government’s call in January to museums to “enrich people’s spiritual and cultural life during the epidemic with cloud exhibitions”, M Woods Museum with two outlets in Beijing also jumped on the live-streaming bandwagon.

One day before their inaugural live-stream on Bilibili on February 14, the museum released background information about the works to be covered in the live-stream on Weibo, WeChat and Instagram. Chen Lu who is in charge of public relations for the museum, says the artworks featured are turned into an interactive video format in advance.

“An artist called Xu Wenkai [from Xian] made an artwork in the form of an online game. Viewers can click on a link and a line made up of many emojis will appear. Viewers can drag the line around to make their own shapes.

“Other works like oil paintings and poems [are digitised]. All kinds of artworks can be presented in a virtual way. The museum staff serve as presenters in the live show held in the museum’s office.”

Chen says the show, which is part of Bilibili’s 72-hour non-stop streaming programme titled Life Is Not Made for Defeat, receives overwhelming response.

“The non-stop streaming programme attracted 800,000 viewers. Our staff answer viewers’ questions on the spot in the live-stream. Many viewers want to know the life of a museum employee. Some ask what to study at university to secure a job in a museum in future. Even our resident cat in the museum is on camera,” says Chen.

“[Live-streams allows us to] strike a balance between entertainment and highbrow art [presentation]. We don’t know when our museums can reopen. We will continue presenting the virtual shows weekly. If [the virus outbreak did not recede] in the near future, we plan to sell arts-related products on live-streams.”