Who wouldn’t want a social media audience that grows without new content? In the three years since she paused production of her short DIY videos about the farmers’ lifestyle, Chinese vlogger Li Ziqi, 34, has seen her YouTube subscribers increase to 20.2 million from around 14 million.
While YouTube is banned in Li’s native China, his fan base there – while not the size of YouTube’s MrBeast, which has 330 million subscribers – is around 100 million on YouTube. The country’s social media platforms Douyin, Weibo and Xiaohongshu.

When Li finally released new videos last week – ending what was described as a “mysterious” absence – the response was enthusiastic in the People’s Republic and around the world. Just on YouTube, the initial video racked up 11 million views in its first three days.