Influencer returns from 3-year hiatus

Li Ziqi, one of China's most popular influencers, made a surprising comeback on Tuesday afternoon after a three-year hiatus, capturing widespread attention from home and abroad.

Li resumed posting online with two new videos showing how she transformed a shed into a woodland cloakroom and made wardrobe doors using Chinese lacquerware techniques — an intangible cultural heritage — on several Chinese social media platforms, including Sina Weibo and Douyin.

Her return quickly became a top trending topic on various platforms. As of 10 am Wednesday, her lacquerware video had garnered 120 million views on Sina Weibo and more than 1.94 million interactions, including shares, comments and likes.

The last time she posted new content was July 14, 2021, but during her absence, she continued to receive requests for new videos and saw the number of her followers increase. Many wondered where she was or whether she had retired from posting.

After her new videos were posted, the number of her followers quickly shot up to more than 26.77 million on Sina Weibo and 50.51 million on Douyin by noon on Wednesday. Many people have flooded her comment sections with messages of support, saying it was such a surprise to see her posting updates again. She replied saying she also missed her viewers and followers.

"There is no time for me to write a small essay today. I will make it up to you when I am not that busy. Miss you!" she wrote.

Li, who is also a popular influencer on overseas social media platforms, also uploaded the two videos on YouTube on Tuesday. In 2020, she set a Guinness World Record for having the most subscribers on a Chinese-language YouTube channel, with 11.4 million followers at the time. Currently, her YouTube account has more than 20 million followers.

Li's overseas followers have praised her videos for showing the amazingly picturesque, simple and elegant side of China's rural life.

"Li Ziqi posting two new videos after three long, hard years is the equivalent of the sun breaking through and warming a frigid desolate frozen wasteland. And I feel like I'm being enveloped in a warm comforting hug," one enthusiastic viewer wrote via social media platform X, formerly known as Twitter.

Li started posting short videos on Sina Weibo in 2016, featuring poetic portrayals of rural life with her grandmother in the rural parts of Sichuan province. In the videos, Li, often dressed in graceful traditional garments, rises at sunrise, rests at sunset, plants seeds and harvests flowers, cooks Chinese dishes and crafts bamboo furniture.

Her return follows a legal dispute with her former multi-channel network partner company, Weinian Brand Management Company.

Although the dispute was resolved in December 2022, she didn't resume video production until Tuesday.

In an interview with Xinhua published on Wednesday, Li said she mainly relaxed and spent time with her grandmother over the past three years.

She also visited more than 100 intangible cultural heritage inheritors in 20 provinces to get inspiration for new videos in the future, she said.