Mandarin Monday: Q&A With Australian Internet Celebrity Amy Lyons, AKA Li Huilin
While those early Mandarin classes can be a slog for even the best of students, sticking with it didn't just give Amy Lyons a sense of accomplishment – it turned her into a star.
Lyons became an internet celebrity (网红 wǎng hóng) via the livestreaming platform Meipai, gaining 50,000 followers and counting, under her Chinese psedonym 李慧琳 Lǐ Huìlín. Her livestreams and videos entail the Beijing-based Australian expat discussing her favorite smoothie recipes, successfully tackling guys twice her size in kickboxing class, detailing the itinerary of a new trip, or just speculating about which Chinese film stars are currently the most handsome, all in Mandarin of course. Her language skills and upbeat personality certainly shine through in these videos, but her ascent was not as easy as the carefree nature of the videos would make it appear. Below, Lyons shares the backstory behind her widely watched livestreams.
Tell us about how you came to China and became motivated to study Chinese.
This whole interest in China started in 2011 during my final year of school in Sydney, Australia. One of my subjects was modern history and my teacher was particularly passionate about the Chinese history module. Her passion was infectious and led me to do a lot of my own reading on the subject of China. I became more and more interested in the culture, history, and people, and this planted the original seed of interest in my mind.
When it came time to choosing majors at university, I took this interest one step further. I knew I wanted to learn a language and knew learning Chinese was never going to be a bad decision, especially alongside a business degree. I also have a lot of Chinese friends and really wanted to speak to them in their native language. So I chose to undertake a Bachelor of Commerce (International) at the University of New South Wales, and it is one of the best decisions I have ever made. It was after I spent an exchange year in Shanghai in 2014 that this interest became more of a passion, and I became more motivated than ever to become proficient in the language.
What were the biggest challenges you encountered while studying Chinese, and how did you overcome them? Also, what advice would you give to other struggling students?
During my first two years of learning Chinese while living in Australia, my progress was slow. To be honest, four class hours a week whilst living in an English speaking country is just not enough to make decent progress in Mandarin. Everything changed in my third year of studies in which I lived in Shanghai for one year as an exchange student.
During this year, my Chinese improved by leaps and bounds. I maintain that there is no better way to become proficient in a language than immersing yourself in the country itself. Shanghai became my home away from home, and I was very sad to leave a year later- albeit with much better Chinese than when I came!
I definitely have encountered my fair share of difficulties in learning Chinese, and I will undoubtedly encounter more in the future! It’s such a hard language and in particular my tones have struggled. I have had some funny experiences of trying to say something but accidentally using the wrong tones, and it sounds quite rude or naughty. But it's all part of the fun.
A really effective way of improving all aspects of Chinese – listening, reading, speaking – is watching a lot of Chinese TV shows. Last year I was particularly obsessed with 欢乐颂 and 我的前半生, and would watch episode after episode, listening to the dialogue, reading the subtitles, and saying the dialogue myself.
How did you get involved in making these online videos in Chinese? And how did it begin to take off and become popular?
The first time I had any kind of exposure to Chinese social media was in 2015 when I represented Australia in a Chinese language competition and TV game show in China called Chinese Bridge Competition (汉语桥). It was only after filming had already started that I learned that this show was watched by 300 million people. I was encouraged to make a Weibo by many of the producers, so I did, and suddenly had 1,000 fans overnight!
However, it wasn’t until the beginning of this year, 2017, when I moved back to Beijing, that I actively decided to use that existing follower base, produce video content, and to begin to grow my social media presence. I used my passion for health and fitness to become the focus of these videos, and begin to distribute funny and quirky takes of exercise videos. In these videos, I speak Mandarin, and use Chinese cultural references to target the Chinese population. My most popular video (which has now been watched over 3 million times) is entitled ‘chopstick legs,’ in which I share some exercises to achieve slim, chopstick-like legs.
Since then I've been continuing to post fitness and travel-related content, and my follower base is growing. It always helps doing collaborations with other wanghong or having a big account 'like' or forward your posts.
If you could go back in time, to a period when you were struggling with Chinese lessons, and tell yourself about how all that studying was worth it, what would you say?
Three years ago I was working at a desk job at a bank in Australia. I knew it wasn't the job for me. I wanted to interact with more people, use my Chinese, travel, and be outside. I'm so happy with the life I'm leading now. If I could go back now, I would tell myself to move straight to China and start the fun times!
Tell us a few fun phrases or vocabulary you have learned in Mandarin for your work. Something about health and fitness or travel, perhaps?
I love Chinese internet slang. Some of my favorites are 666 (liù liù liù), which means so cool or impressive. 2333 (èr sān sān sān) which means "hahahaha." And 520 (wǔ èr líng) which means "I love you." You'll see these abbreviations everywhere online!
Lastly: Any funny stories about the feedback you’ve been given by your Chinese audience?
Once, a follower sent me hand-drawn pictures and diagrams of me doing my exercises in a particular video and forwarded it to their friends. They all started doing the exercises together. It was so cute.
To see Lyons' livestreams and videos, download the Meipai app and search for her under her Chinese name, 李慧琳.
More stories by this author here.
Email: kylemullin@truerun.com
Twitter: @MulKyle
Instagram: mullin.kyle
Photos: Meipai
