As 2025 attracts to a detailed, CDT editors are compiling a sequence of essentially the most notable content material (Chinese language) from throughout the Chinese language web over the previous yr. Subjects embody this yr’s most excellent quotes, experiences, podcasts and movies, delicate phrases, censored articles and essays, “Folks of the Yr,” and CDT’s “2025 Editors’ Picks.” The next is a translation of CDT Chinese language’s “Particular person of the Yr” put up:
On September 20, influencer Hu Chenfeng was banned on a number of platforms inside the Nice Firewall. Within the area of some days, his accounts on Weibo, Bilibili, Douyin (TikTok’s counterpart within the Chinese language market), and different platforms had been worn out, and for a while even fan-edited clips and response movies had been arduous to search out.
Over the earlier two years, Hu had gained consideration first with movies specializing in poverty among the many underprivileged, and later by visiting nations together with Thailand, New Zealand, and South Korea to shoot road interviews for a “International Buying Energy Problem” video sequence. His accounts had been repeatedly hit with censorship restrictions, however he would return each time they had been lifted, adjusting his content material every time to probe the boundaries of what censors would permit.
Hu entered 2025 with nearly every day livestreams by which he related with viewers and used dialogue and debate to precise his view of the world. Amid steadily tightening on-line censorship, Hu’s streams gave followers a way of directness and candor that was arduous to search out elsewhere.
Hu Chenfeng was born in Jiangsu in 1998. After graduating from highschool, he first labored as a automobile mechanic earlier than becoming a member of an asset administration firm, which he left quickly after. In 2023, social media introduced him to a turning level in his life. That August, after his video on the buying energy of China’s aged pensioners had gained widespread consideration, he mentioned throughout a livestream, “Chatting on these streams is exhausting … having to duck and dodge the restrictions right here makes me really feel like I’m at all times on skinny ice.”
This quote was later broadly seen as essentially the most correct summation of Hu’s scenario. He hoped to precise his personal mind-set, however needed to be always cautious of censorship pink traces; he needed to keep up a picture of “rational debate,” however needed to depend on emotive expression to maintain visitors. He managed to stability these contradictions for greater than two years till, on the finish of September, censors shuttered the accounts on which he had collected hundreds of thousands of followers throughout a number of platforms.
Hu Chenfeng
Going Viral, and the First Ban
Hu’s first breakthrough was a “pension purchasing-power problem” video posted in March, 2023. In it, he adopted a 78-year-old lady from Nanchong, Sichuan. With a month-to-month pension of solely 107 yuan (lower than $25 U.S.), she mentioned, she had no fridge at house, and couldn’t afford meat. Hu went along with her to a grocery store the place they purchased rice-flour noodles and meat, for which he insisted on paying. The video provoked a direct and intense response on the Chinese language-language web, and drew consideration to hardships of extraordinary individuals, particularly impoverished aged individuals. However quickly after, comparable movies had been deleted in fast succession, and Hu’s accounts on a number of platforms had been banned.
After The New York Instances reported on the video’s virality, Hu mentioned throughout a livestream that he was happy with having reached its pages, saying, “I really feel like I’ve made a mark. I haven’t been a failure.”
After a quick hiatus, Hu received again to work, and introduced that he would relinquish copyright on all his content material. That November, he formally launched his sequence of abroad purchasing-power road interviews with a video, shot on location, titled “What Will 100 RMB Actually Purchase You in Thailand’s Capital, Bangkok?”
Testing the Crimson Strains
In August, 2023, Hu Chenfeng mentioned that his livestream had “the freest ambiance on the entire web. I’m happy with that. There isn’t a single livestream with a freer ambiance than mine.”
Just some months later, in April 2024, this “freedom” collided sharply with actuality. Throughout a livestream that month, one viewer requested: “Do you suppose Xi is a dictator?”
Visibly panicked, Hu instantly disconnected and frantically berated the caller: “Are you loopy?” “That’s a critical violation of livestream guidelines!” “That is terrifying.”
The video was swiftly deleted, however clips of the incident continued to flow into on-line. Quickly after, Hu acquired his second ban.
Hu was in no way the primary influencer to have somebody “rush the tower” in the course of a livestream. Again in 2019, livestreamer “Medication Brother” had the same expertise: throughout an argument with a viewer on September 25, when he requested who the caller was, the opposite occasion blurted out, “I’m Xi Jinping’s son!” Medication Brother’s face froze, and he abruptly shut down the livestream, however quickly afterwards, a number of of his accounts had been closed.
An excellent better-known case is that of livestreamer Li Jiaqi, often known as China’s “king of e-commerce.” On the night of June 3, 2022, he confirmed off a tank-shaped ice cream cake throughout a livestream, and was instantly taken offline. As a result of this befell so near the thirty-third anniversary of June Fourth, it was broadly interpreted as a case of “colliding with a delicate date.” Li defined on Weibo later that evening that his stream had been halted for “technical causes.” He then stopped streaming for a number of months, solely resuming in late September of that yr.
China’s numerous livestreaming platforms now have a mixed person base of virtually 600 million individuals, representing greater than 60% of the nation’s whole on-line inhabitants. With every platform typically internet hosting 1000’s of simultaneous streams throughout peak instances, even Beijing’s monumental digital surveillance system struggles to observe all that content material in actual time.
In attempting to stability revenue and political danger, each platforms and streamers attempt to recreation the system with the official departments that oversee them. Whereas doing their greatest to not cross traces that will result in everlasting bans, they’re additionally obliged to always provide you with new matters to maintain their viewers engaged, so all they’ll do is stay nimble and depend on trial and error to keep away from crossing any pink traces.
After these first two bans, Hu selected to proceed streaming with a sequence of street-interview movies contrasting the earnings and buying energy of extraordinary native individuals in Singapore, South Korea, New Zealand, and elsewhere.
Apple Folks vs Android Folks
After 2024, Hu was penalized with a number of momentary suspensions and account restrictions as a consequence of a sequence of controversial statements he made exterior his abroad purchasing-power movies. Whereas the platforms by no means supplied any express rationalization for these restrictions, some have speculated that they may have been prompted by Hu’s criticism of Chinese language-made electrical autos and cellphones; his excessive reward for U.S. EV model Tesla; his declare that “most households’ Lunar New Yr dinners don’t style nearly as good as McDonalds”; or his persistent skepticism towards Conventional Chinese language Medication (TCM), amongst different opinions. Whereas speaking to viewers throughout one livestream, Hu instructed that TCM can hurt the liver, and that his viewers ought to keep away from it. When many viewers took subject with this, he responded:
“You want a Masters diploma or greater in STEM or a doctorate in humanities to speak about TCM on this stream, okay? I’m not discriminating, we’re all equal, I simply don’t need to must maintain instructing you the fundamentals time and again.”
These restrictions had been all lifted pretty shortly, and every time, Hu received again to streaming and speaking with viewers.
The controversies reached a excessive level in the summertime of 2025. In a stream in July, Hu mentioned:
“If a metropolis doesn’t have a Sam’s Membership, I’m telling you: younger individuals ought to get out of there. Why? As a result of Sam’s Membership does its homework earlier than opening in a brand new metropolis: what number of middle-class shoppers does the place have? Is the native buying energy excessive sufficient? If not, they gained’t open a department there, not an opportunity. So if a metropolis doesn’t have a Sam’s Membership, don’t trouble residing there, as a result of you’ll be able to’t make a profession or a future there.”
Throughout a stream in August, Hu mentioned Apple Shops:
“Another factor: Apple Shops are the one locations I’ve ever seen disabled employees, I’m speaking about employees who’re sight-impaired. Inform me which Android vendor has disabled employees? Is there one? I’ve by no means seen it. I’ve been to so many Android corporations’ shops, massive ones, small ones, and I’ve by no means seen it. I’m telling you: you don’t have to love Apple’s merchandise, you don’t have to love Apple this or Apple that, however I’m telling you, out of all of the producers, Apple’s primary in the case of caring about individuals.”
Hu step by step started to make use of “Apple” to suggest “high-end,” “discerning,” and “subtle,” and “Android” to consult with “adequate,” “sufficient,” and “low-end.” In subsequent livestreams in August, he expanded his concept of “Apple individuals” and “Android individuals,” mocking these he noticed as “unsophisticated.”
Many individuals calling in to his streams challenged him about “dividing individuals right into a hierarchy” and “stigmatizing poor individuals.” One caller mentioned, “You’re defining individuals as residing ‘Android lives’ or having ‘Android schooling,’ or ‘Apple lives’ and ‘Apple schooling’ … this isn’t simply memeing! That is shaming individuals’s dignity, expertise, lives, and households, isn’t it?”
Hu by no means significantly addressed these criticisms, merely saying “there’s no must politicize it” and calling it a “meme,” and insisting that he additionally used “Android” to mock wealthy callers and wasn’t simply choosing on the decrease lessons. Throughout one stream, he defined the meme’s recognition:
“What does ‘Apple’ imply? It’s a couple of sense of discernment, proper? Once you say ‘Apple,’ you suppose high-end, spectacular, elegant, low-key luxurious, substantial, proper? I’m not placing that in your head, it’s already there, proper? Once you hear “iPhone,” you instantly consider carefully crafted, flawlessly high-end, superior high quality …. However once I say ‘Android,’ it’s like there’s one thing missing. It’s sufficient, it’ll do in a pinch, however there’s this insecurity, at all times attempting to match itself to Apple … isn’t that the vibe?
As soon as, when questioned by viewers, Hu mentioned:
“I’m going to learn one of many feedback for you: ‘You’re a typical Android individual, with Android logic and an Android schooling.’”
“There’s at all times backstory and context to something I say. This man has no schooling or technical abilities, no household connections or cash, nothing in any respect. So what if he unblocks bathrooms? Shouldn’t you verify your personal prejudices? All occupations are equal, it’s admirable to make a residing along with your palms.”
After his ban, there was a variety of dialogue on Chinese language social media about which pink line Hu had lastly crossed. One widespread concept was that “Apple individuals vs. Android individuals” was seen as inciting societal antagonism. On September thirtieth, the official WeChat account of the Propaganda Division of the Zhejiang Provincial Social gathering Committee revealed a chunk accusing Hu Chenfeng of partaking in three sorts of hid assaults [literally, “three hidden arrows”]: leveraging the worship of overseas issues to undermine societal consensus, making the most of younger individuals’s anxieties, and utilizing excessive feelings to distort individuals’s values.
In November, former International Instances editor Hu Xijin posted about Hu Chenfeng’s ban, saying: “Stirring up hype and inciting antagonism in a reckless bid to extend visitors ought to, beneath the present regulatory system, benefit a short lived suspension and a warning. If that doesn’t educate him a lesson, making an instance of him with a everlasting ban is perhaps obligatory, for the sake of societal governance.”
In December, a discover from the Our on-line world Administration of China recognized Hu Chenfeng by identify, noting his use of phrases like “Android individuals” and “Apple individuals” on a number of platforms over an prolonged time frame, and saying that this “incited social antagonism,” and that his accounts had all been closed because of this. This official rationalization explicitly articulated that the ban was a matter of presidency coverage.
However individuals on-line instantly questioned the time period “inciting social antagonism,” noting the truth that class, rural-urban, standing, and ideological antagonisms have lengthy existed and infrequently even been included into official narratives. The actual purpose for the ban, then, may not be “antagonism” itself, however relatively the kind of values Hu Chenfeng had displayed: the Western merchandise, market logic, and private alternative he had brazenly espoused sat uneasily alongside official ideology and cultural narratives.
Some social media customers responded with questions like: “Couldn’t the dual-track pension system be seen as stirring up antagonism? Are you police, or auxiliary police? Do you’ve gotten city or rural family registration? Are you a trainer with or with out civil-service standing? Are you an organization worker, or on a short lived contract by a staffing company?”
The irony, some felt, was that Hu had as soon as joked on a livestream that the federal government ought to cease cracking down on the livestreaming business:
“Streams and quick movies are a reservoir. All types of individuals be a part of the business. It doesn’t matter in the event that they’ve received a PhD, Grasp’s diploma, or elementary college diploma; it doesn’t matter what they had been doing earlier than; everybody’s doing quick movies, and thinks they’ll make it massive and earn a fortune. It’s like with the inventory market, and everybody considering they’ve received what it takes to generate profits buying and selling shares. So livestreaming works on the identical precept as A-shares: you’ll be able to’t actually generate profits, you’re simply given the fantasy of creating wealth, and this attracts in nice flocks of individuals and retains them docile.”
“Don’t suppose I don’t know what you’re attempting to say.”
In a now-deleted reply on Q&A website Zhihu, person “Ray” described the battle between Hu and the system like this:
“Clearly, we’re into stage two of the ‘boss battle.’ The trick within the first section was ‘Who mentioned you might say that?’ That’s now developed into ‘Don’t suppose I don’t know what you’re actually attempting to say.’”
One other Zhihu reply, from person “glbsiD,” learn:
“Hu Chenfeng’s degree may be very restricted. When it comes to ideology, a variety of his views wouldn’t be thought of liberal on Zhihu; they’re primarily fairly conservative. Nonetheless, on this context, he’s left wing.”
In keeping with these assessments, others famous that Hu had shared his revenue and tax information throughout livestreams. “An actual taxpayer daring to publicize his revenue and tax information—for that alone, he can’t be all unhealthy,” commented Zhihu person “Dabing.”
Others supplied extra summary explanations of the “hazard zone” Hu had blundered into. Zhihu person “Cheng” wrote, “In China, there are three pink traces you’ll be able to’t cross: the mind of the decrease class, the vanity of the center class, and the fabric pursuits of the higher class.”
Even amongst those that disagreed with Hu’s views and the best way he expressed them, a good proportion had been keen to defend him, and felt that he’d touched on realities that warranted dialogue, however had been not often mentioned.
One other Zhihu person, “MIA,” seemed again over Hu’s rise to recognition with the video on the aged Sichuan lady’s buying energy and his repeated suspensions, and wrote that by “candidly and easily revealing the issues going through these on the backside of society,” Hu had impressed creators each inside and outdoors the Nice Firewall to concentrate to and doc these individuals’s lives. “He doesn’t attempt to distract you with grand narratives, he places issues in concrete relatable phrases like Apple, Sam’s Membership, Tesla, and so forth. The place one Hu falls, ten thousand will rise. When it comes to drawing individuals’s consideration to those ignored teams, ‘Grasp Hu’ can’t be faulted.”
Hu’s affect in China’s present on-line ecosystem was right down to his skill to navigate the few loopholes that stay, exhibiting how an extraordinary individual can converse out, change tack, retreat, and converse out but once more regardless of the pressures of censorship, algorithms, public opinion, and industrial pursuits. He neither rebelled in opposition to the system, nor defended it; his story was certainly one of a person’s wrestle in a quickly shrinking public area. In such a slender and precarious public opinion area, genuine expression can now not depend on rhetoric, however should contain risk-taking. So a lot of those that witnessed Hu’s rise and fall may see their very own place within the system mirrored in it: insignificant and constrained, however with occasional flashes of visibility and resonance.
Hu Chenfeng’s risk-taking introduced realities that had been hidden by censorship again to the floor: inadequacies within the pension system; client and sophistication anxieties; younger individuals’s lack of company in life; and extra. When regulators lastly selected to shut down all his channels of expression, what was actually misplaced was maybe not a specific influencer, however a public sphere that might accommodate noise, contradictions, uncooked expression, and real emotion. The boundaries for public expression are steadily closing in, erasing not simply particular social media accounts, however modes of expression which may in any other case have existed.
