Culture
15:37, 11-Apr-2018
A country girl makes it big through live streaming
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By Laura Schmitt and Feng Li
Ou Xiaoyang grew up in a small village in China’s northeast, close to the border with the DPRK. Her family was so poor that, as a girl, she had to wear second-hand clothes and was unable to realize many of her childhood dreams, such as learning to dance. But then her life took a dramatic turn.
A talent agency offered to sign her up as a live streamer. At first, however, she felt very apprehensive.
“Initially I was quite opposed to the idea, I felt that this is a shady industry,” she recalls. “Once I became more familiar with it, I realized this is a good job. I never expected to come this far. I mainly got into it just to make a bit of extra money.”
Her family still lives in a small village a few hours from the DPRK border. /CGTN Photo
Her family still lives in a small village a few hours from the DPRK border. /CGTN Photo
And so the plain girl from the countryside transformed herself into a glamorous online entertainer, earning on average 9,000 US dollars per month from the comfort of her new home in the city. She’s paid in so-called virtual gifts, which users send to her account when they enjoy a performance.
“Without gifts, you can’t put food on the table. It’s that simple,” Ou explains. “Everyone cares about collecting gifts. The more gifts you get, the higher your income. It’s just like when you watch a concert; you also have to buy tickets.”
But her new-found riches come at a price. To maintain her fan base, she needs to be online every single day. A holiday is a luxury she can’t afford. Furthermore, by its very nature of providing entertainment for young professionals, her working day only really gets started once the users have finished theirs and settled down in front of their screens.
She usually goes live at around 9 p.m. and stays online for four to five hours. However, including the necessary preparation of researching discussion topics and applying her make-up, plus the need to interact personally with her fans for hours after finishing her streaming session, her workday can easily last for 14 hours, until 6 a.m.
Aside from the physical demands of working through the night, there’s an emotional strain, too. When viewers pay only for content, they enjoy watching and can give feedback in real time. They can request streamers to do whatever comes to their mind. It’s up to her to decide how far she will go to meet their demands, in the knowledge that someone else might be willing to go further.
“Some guys want you to show them your toes, and you have to wear tights while showing them,” she says. “I feel that’s too much; I’m using my skills to broadcast, I have talent. I’m not here to show off my feet to you. Others will ask that I wear more revealing clothes, show more cleavage. Those kinds of requests I can’t accept. To me, this is an art form, nothing else.”
Rediscovering China is a 30-minute features program offering in-depth reports on the major issues facing China today. It airs Sunday at 10:30 a.m. BJT (0230GMT), with a rebroadcast at 11:30 p.m. (1530GMT), as well as Monday 8:30 a.m. (0030GMT) and Friday 1:30 p.m. (0530GMT).