Don't mess with YouTuber Li Ziqi and her farm life videos

A beloved rural Chinese influencer makes a comeback after a quiet but grueling battle with her agent.

- Howard Chua-Eoan

Who wouldn't want a social media audience that grows without new content? During the three years she paused production of her short do-it-yourself farmer's lifestyle videos, the Chinese vlogger Li Ziqi, 34, has seen her YouTube subscribers increase to 20.2 million from about 14 million. While YouTube is banned in Li's homeland, China, her fan base there—though not the size of YouTube's MrBeast, who has 330 million subscribers—is close to 100 million across the country's social media platforms Douyin, Weibo and Xiaohongshu.

When Li finally released new videos last week—ending what's been described as a "mysterious" absence—the response was rapturous in the People's Republic and around the world. On YouTube alone, the initial video amassed 11 million views in its first three days.

Her disappearance wasn't so much mysterious as indicative of the interplay of business and politics. She appears to have outmaneuvered the obstacles that led her to quit in the first place, all while gently expressing what Americans might call an "aw shucks" patriotism along the way. The often-staid Xinhua—regarded as China's official news agency—doesn't pay much attention to social media influences but has issued its imprimatur with an 11-minute segment with her. The interviewer, though, appeared a little lost as Li detailed an allergy to the lacquer she'd concocted—indeed, tapping the trees herself for the toxic sap—to renovate her grandmother's decrepit wooden wardrobe.