The mysterious reappearance of China’s missing mega-influencer

Everything reminds Little Tiger of Austin Li. All of her day by day requirements — gown, toothpaste, detergent, umbrella — had been bought on the suggestion of the Chinese language e-commerce influencer. She even considered Li throughout her newest interval: she had purchased her sanitary pads from considered one of his livestreams, too.

Till this June, Little Tiger, a 28-year-old faculty trainer within the jap province of Anhui (she requested to make use of a pseudonym over privateness issues), had watched Li’s livestreams nearly each night for 3 years. Usually, she’d watch him whereas mendacity on her sofa on the finish of an exhausting day. The livestreams, which occurred on the procuring platform Taobao, sometimes lasted hours at a time, throughout which Li made one gross sales pitch after one other, promoting discounted meals, cosmetics, and homeware to his followers, whom he addressed as “all the ladies.”

“You should, should, should, should, should do that,” Li, referred to as Li Jiaqi in Chinese language, stated a few bottled milk tea in an April present, earlier than taking a sip. 

“Take a look at my pores and skin, isn’t it like I’ve placed on a delicate focus filter?” he crooned as he utilized a basis on his face in a Could livestream. “Consider in Jiaqi. Go for it … 3, 2, 1. Solely 10,000 objects. Go for it!” 

Each time Li advised a joke, Little Tiger typed “HAHAHA” within the remark part. When one thing she wished was bought out earlier than she had an opportunity to purchase it, which occurred usually, she joined the refrain of viewers demanding extra of the product.

For these exterior China, it’s troublesome to overstate Li’s degree of fame and ubiquity within the nation. With some 150 million followers throughout quite a few platforms, he was the nation’s strongest salesman, hawking thousands and thousands of {dollars}’ value of merchandise each night time. His life story has been tailored into a number of documentaries; a actuality TV collection known as All of the Women’ Supply exhibits how he bargains with world manufacturers like LVMH and Shiseido on behalf of shoppers; even his 5 bichon frisés — the oldest of whom is called By no means — have their very own model, By no means’s Household. A well-liked GPS app in China affords a navigation service that includes his voice. “All the ladies, navigation begins now,” Li sings originally of your journey. “This manner, this fashion, this fashion!”

For years, Li’s on-line critics decried him as a consumerist cult chief who indoctrinated individuals into spending increasingly more along with his boisterous, poisonous, dystopian gross sales speak. However, to his followers, Li was greater than a salesman providing unique reductions — he was a companion. “He’s earning money from us, however we’re proud of it,” Little Tiger advised Remainder of World. “He is sort of a good friend I’ve by no means met.” 

Then, on June 3, Austin Li disappeared. Throughout his common livestream, at about 9 p.m., Li started presenting a section that includes a Viennetta ice cream cake, identified for its contrasting layers of ice cream and chocolate. Li’s assistant held up the cake, which had been embellished with biscuit wheels and a wafer-roll — it gave the impression to be formed like a army tank. Nearly instantly, the livestream minimize out. 

The ice cream cake touched a deep political taboo in China. Li’s livestream had aired forward of June 4, the anniversary of the Chinese language authorities’s crackdown on pro-democracy protesters in Tiananmen Sq.. On that day in 1989, the Chinese language army despatched tanks to central Beijing and opened fireplace, killing at the very least lots of of civilians. Outdoors China, the picture of a lone man confronting a line of tanks grew to become synonymous with authorities repression. However, inside the nation, the federal government has downplayed and suppressed dialogue of the incident ever since. 

That night, when Little Tiger tuned in to Li’s channel like she at all times did, she was stunned to seek out the present had ended prematurely. “I felt so unhappy that he simply vanished into skinny air,” Little Tiger stated. “If I had identified he could be gone that day, I’d have purchased extra.” 

Instantly after the cutoff, Li posted to social media platform Weibo that his staff was fixing a “technical glitch.” Two hours later, he stated that the present wouldn’t resume that night time. Then, he went quiet.

Followers like Little Tiger, who had been used to near-daily exercise from Li’s accounts, waited for weeks, then months. Rumors of his return sporadically cropped up on Weibo, solely to be censored. Li was nowhere to be seen. Companies he labored with turned to different livestreamers to hawk their wares. Many assumed he’d been silenced for good.

Li’s disappearance highlighted the danger that comes with recognition and affect in China. Livestreamers like Li are large enterprise within the nation. Since 2016, livestreaming e-commerce has grown from a novel experiment to a $100 billion business, led by influencers uniquely gifted at retaining their followers shopping for extra: extra underwear, extra treadmills, extra durians, and, within the case of the “livestreaming queen” Viya, much more automobiles and residences. 

However, regardless of how a lot they promote, livestreamers’ enduring success hinges on absolute compliance with the Chinese language Communist Social gathering’s guidelines on ideology and morality. Identical to the nation’s film stars and even billionaire tycoons, their place within the public eye is precarious, their future relying on unpredictable selections made by the federal government. 

Li was simply the most recent superstar silenced on-line for his transgressions. His abrupt disappearance upended the day by day procuring of thousands and thousands of Chinese language shoppers, and underscored the fragility of fame in China. 

Till in the future in September when, as abruptly as he left, Li got here again.

For followers, Li’s genesis has develop into a widely known story: Born to a middle-class household in Hunan province in 1992, he’s a part of a era whose entrepreneurship tales usually begin on social media. After finding out dance within the jap metropolis of Nanchang, Li discovered work at a Maybelline magnificence counter in a shopping mall. Because of his seems and expertise, he quickly grew to become a prime salesperson.

In 2016, Li participated in a contest organized by Maybelline’s mum or dad firm, L’Oréal, and Alibaba-backed influencer company MeiOne, geared toward figuring out salespeople to take part in a brand new type of on-line procuring that was simply taking off: livestreaming. Alibaba’s procuring web site, Taobao, had launched its livestreaming service earlier that 12 months. Li was a stand-out contestant. He began internet hosting day by day dwell procuring exhibits that might final so long as six hours, gathering viewers and followers alongside the best way. He promoted a variety of cosmetics, however visitors peaked when he bought lipstick. 

“A person promoting cosmetics is a subject in itself,” Li defined in a 2020 interview. “It’s best to impress shoppers with lipstick. Many ladies have lipsticks as their first items of cosmetics.”

Making an attempt out lipstick grew to become a key a part of Li’s on-line persona. Sitting in entrance of a wall of lipsticks, he would lean ahead to showcase his newly adorned lips, and describe the merchandise with exaggerated metaphors. “That is the place individuals would say ‘there are little elves dancing on them,’” he stated in a 2019 livestream, after placing on a YSL lip gloss. “There’s the starry sky and starlight in it.” 

Li grew to become referred to as the “lipstick king” and the “iron lipstick bro.” He as soon as tried 380 totally different lipsticks in a single present, and was capable of promote 15,000 sticks in 5 minutes. In a 2018 stunt with Alibaba co-founder Jack Ma, Li bought 1,000 sticks whereas Ma solely bought 10. Lipstick sellers on-line labeled their merchandise “advisable by Li Jiaqi” to spice up gross sales.

A person carrying lipstick was each novel and revolutionary in China on the time: It challenged gender norms and honed Li’s picture as an intimate “homosexual good friend” for Chinese language ladies, in keeping with observers. “In that sense, he actually was very ballsy,” Chris Tan, an impartial tutorial who has studied gender representations in China’s livestreaming business, advised Remainder of World. “He had the braveness to really break the gender stereotypes and he did it and he grew to become well-known for it.”

The picture additionally got here with threat. In an effort to advertise conventional concepts of masculinity in society, Chinese language censors have banned male influencers deemed too effeminate. Li appeared to have discovered a fragile stability: Though he examined cosmetics, his outfits by no means went far past plain-colored fits or T-shirts; he didn’t advocate for numerous gender representations. “Li Jiaqi truly walked a really, very tight effective line between portraying himself as a gaymi [gay friend] who’s delicate to ladies’s wants, however is straight,” Tan stated. “It’s a really troublesome position to play.” 

Li’s fame grew in lockstep with the growth in livestream procuring that was remodeling Chinese language retail. From 2017 to 2019, the worth of products bought on Taobao Reside grew 150% annually. Brief-video apps Kuaishou and Douyin additionally rolled out livestreaming procuring companies. In 2020, as extended Covid-19 lockdowns introduced extra buyers on-line, livestreaming apps grew to become digital procuring malls, moist markets, grocery shops, and extra. By the center of 2021, the variety of livestream buyers in China crossed 638 million individuals. That 12 months, the livestreaming market was valued at $327 billion. 

On the prime of this booming business had been two individuals: Viya, the livestreaming queen identified for promoting family items, and lipstick king Li, liked by well-off younger urbanites. Li’s wares had shortly expanded to incorporate not solely make-up and skincare merchandise but additionally immediate noodles, smartphones, and bathroom seats. Li and Viya grew to become fashions for a wholly new class of sales-related superstar in China, identified within the e-commerce business by the shorthand “KOLs” — key opinion leaders. E-commerce advertising company Azoya, which beforehand labored with Li, reported survey outcomes from September 2021 that discovered the gross sales of the highest two KOLs — Viya and Li — dwarfed the subsequent 28 influencers mixed. 

Li wasn’t simply good — he was magnetic. His gross sales ways had been evocative. On livestreams, Li created vivid situations for every part he bought: This fragrance might make you odor like Elsa from Frozen. That gown would look good at picnics. This tea set would make simply the proper reward for in-laws.

A Chinese language journalist who interviewed Li in 2019 and 2020 described him as an expressive, charming man and a born storyteller — she remembered Li retaining friends at a non-public banquet hooked on the main points of his skydiving expertise. “The best way he talked was so honest, precisely the identical as how he acted on dwell,” she advised Remainder of World. She requested anonymity as a result of she was not allowed to debate her reporting for a earlier employer. “It felt like he was at all times pondering on your sake.” After assembly him in individual, the journalist additionally began buying from Li’s livestreams usually. 

For retailers, getting a slot in Li’s present — even just some minutes lengthy — was the quickest method to success. French businessman Laurent Cibot advised Remainder of World that when he took cost of the Chinese language operations of skincare agency Inderma in 2019, he wanted Li’s blessing to boost the model’s profile. To safe a slot in Li’s present, Cibot, together with different distributors, waited for hours at Li’s workplace constructing in downtown Shanghai. The primary few visits solely bought him so far as Li’s managers, however finally, Cibot met the person himself. 

Cibot remembers Li as a pleasant and good businessman. Li was so invested in his listings that he would check the merchandise himself and provides strategies to the producers, Cibot stated. However that care got here with a price. 

Apart from asking for a flat “slot price” of about 200,000 yuan ($28,500), Li’s staff demanded heavy reductions of as a lot as 40% on featured merchandise, in keeping with Cibot. Li’s staff additionally requested for about 30% of the income from livestream gross sales as fee. “It was very laborious, as a result of they wished cheaper than low-cost,” stated Cibot, who additionally collaborated with different prime livestreamers like Viya, and vogue and sweetness influencer Cherie. “These prime KOLs, they bought every part they wished when it comes to margin and pricing.” 

However followers say that Li provided a useful service by sparing them the difficulty of selecting between an ocean of merchandise on-line. Yan Wenwen, a 20-year-old kindergarten trainer within the central province of Henan, advised Remainder of World she had shopped nearly completely from Li after she started watching his livestreams. “He has some form of magic that makes you need to watch his dwell day-after-day,” Yan stated, “as a result of the merchandise he picks had been at all times higher than what we discovered ourselves.”

That belief fed a self-reinforcing cycle: Li and different prime livestreamers used their loyal followings to acquire deeper reductions, and people reductions strengthened their recognition. The highest influencers commanded the shopping for energy of thousands and thousands of buyers. Shuyi Han, who analyzes e-commerce developments at China-based market analysis agency Daxue Consulting, advised Remainder of World that the KOLs’ affect might even make manufacturers uncomfortable: Customers weren’t loyal followers of the manufacturers, they had been followers of the influencers. 

From 2020 to 2021, Cibot managed to get Inderma merchandise featured on Li’s present about 4 occasions a 12 months. Cibot says that the revenues from merchandise bought throughout a minutes-long slot often exceeded $1 million, and that Li and different livestreamers accounted for half of the corporate’s gross sales in China.

As the highest livestreamers grew to become larger and larger celebrities, they started to draw extra political consideration. Since 2020, the Chinese language authorities has carried out a collection of crackdowns on personal companies, making an attempt to curtail the affect of the nation’s big tech firms and billionaire tycoons like Alibaba co-founder Jack Ma. The once-freewheeling livestreaming business abruptly additionally confronted scrutiny. 

In direction of the tip of 2021, the federal government fined a number of prime livestreamers for tax evasion — the identical accusation beforehand levied towards a number of pop stars who then disappeared from the web. Viya, Li’s chief rival, was blocked from all social and e-commerce platforms after regulators slapped her with a $210 million effective. Cherie, one other prime livestreamer who was fined $10.2 million, disappeared as properly. 

Pop stars and influencers have additionally been focused for perceived ethical or political breaches, reminiscent of vulgarities, sexual misconduct, or causes that aren’t publicized. 

Towards the political backdrop, Li repeatedly showcased his loyalty to the Chinese language Communist Social gathering: He promoted agricultural merchandise free of charge to help the get together’s poverty alleviation program; his staff blocked sure snacks from showing on the present as a result of their packaging learn “made in Taiwan” quite than “made in Taiwan, China.” In March 2021, when Chinese language shoppers boycotted Western manufacturers for distancing themselves from merchandise made within the Xinjiang area over human rights allegations regarding the remedy of Uyghurs, Li devoted airtime to cotton, dates, and milk from the realm.

China’s lacking celebrities

Li Yifeng

The actor, who performed Chairman Mao in a 2021 movie, was faraway from Chinese language social media after he was arrested and accused of soliciting prostitutes in September 2022.

Deng Lun

The star of standard romances had his accounts deleted from social media in China after he was fined $16.7 million for tax evasion in March 2022.

Huang Wei

Higher referred to as Viya, the most-followed livestreamer on Taobao was faraway from Chinese language platforms after being fined $210 million for tax evasion in December 2021.

Zhao Wei

In August 2021, works by the award-winning pop star, actor and director had been faraway from streaming websites in China, and her Weibo fan web page deleted for unknown causes.

Zheng Shuang

After a 2021 scandal over allegedly abandoning the youngsters she had by surrogacy, and a $46 million effective for tax evasion, the TV star’s social media accounts disappeared.

Zhang Zhehan

The TV star was banned from social media after pictures surfaced in 2021 of him at Yasukuni Shrine, which commemorates Japanese conflict lifeless, together with conflict criminals.

Kris Wu

The pop star vanished from social media after being accused of sexual assault in 2021, which he publicly denied. Formally charged with rape, he was tried this previous June.

Fan Bingbing

Previously China’s highest-paid actor, the star took a hiatus from performing after being ordered to settle $129 million in taxes in 2018. She nonetheless posts on Weibo, nevertheless.

Out of an obvious effort to distance himself from extreme consumption, he additionally advised state media that he had toned down his signature tagline “purchase it” to emphasise “rational procuring.” However these efforts didn’t save Li from the fallout after the ice cream cake episode, which might have been perceived as a reference to probably the most delicate date on the get together’s political calendar. For some, the tank-shaped cake served as an acute reminder of a bloody historical past that the get together has labored laborious to attempt to make individuals neglect. 

It’s unclear whether or not or not Li consciously made a reference to the Tiananmen Sq. crackdown when he displayed the tank-shaped cake on his present, or whether or not he was even conscious of the occasion and its anniversary. Censorship watchers have speculated that the transgression could have been unintentional, probably arising on account of Li and his younger workers’s unfamiliarity with the nation’s delicate historical past — a byproduct of dwelling in a closely censored society. 

Observers began calling this concept “the Austin Li paradox.” They counsel that the occasion underscores how conscious influencers have to be of the ever-shifting record of banned matters and historic controversies to be able to keep away from making the identical mistake. “The paradox is that the censorship equipment needs individuals to neglect about June 4,” Eric Liu, a former Weibo censor and at present a U.S.-based researcher with China Digital Occasions, advised Remainder of World. “But when individuals don’t learn about it, they’d preserve stepping onto these sensitivities.” 

Neither Li’s company, MeiOne, nor Taobao’s mum or dad firm, Alibaba, responded to requests for remark for this piece.

A few of Li’s youthful followers, together with Little Tiger, had been puzzled by his disappearance. Lots of them had been unaware of the Tiananmen historical past — a taboo matter banned from books, TV, and the web in China. For them, it was not apparent why the ice cream cake might trigger offense. As curious followers looked for a solution, some wrote on social media that that they had realized concerning the historical past for the primary time. Some had requested older members of the family for data, or circumvented the Nice Firewall in an effort to seek out out what had occurred to Li. Others stated their accounts or discussion groups had been shut down after they shared their findings on-line. “I didn’t often wish to gossip,” stated Little Tiger, who realized concerning the censorship from veiled writing on Weibo. “However this factor prevented him from coming again, and affected my very own procuring.”

Within the wake of the cake snafu, Beijing’s critics shortly turned the lipstick king right into a meme — a personification of China’s crackdown on free speech. Some made satirical cartoons displaying Li as a pro-democracy protester. Others joked that the Tiananmen historical past could be the final product Li would promote on his channel.

After Li’s stream was minimize, the livestreamer went silent on all platforms. In Li’s fan discussion board on Weibo, devastated followers posted 1000’s of messages interesting for his return. Many wrote that they had been barely procuring on-line anymore due to his absence. Yan, the fan in Henan, stated she missed Li a lot that he had appeared in her goals.

Smaller gamers tried to step into Li’s sneakers. Former English-language lecturers, who misplaced their jobs because of a July 2021 crackdown on for-profit tutoring, began peddling groceries on Douyin, TikTok’s sister app in China. Singers and cleaning soap opera stars capitalized on their previous fame to promote detergent, sneakers, and bathroom paper. Some youthful livestreamers took pages from Li’s playbook: Male magnificence influencers emerged, attempting to win the belief of feminine shoppers. However not one of the smaller influencers commanded the size of shopping for energy that Li did.

Lots of Little Tiger’s buddies moved on to different livestreamers, however she refused out of a way of loyalty. “To be trustworthy, I don’t have a lot hope left [about his return],” she advised Remainder of World in September. However, she stated, she wished to attend only a bit longer. “If he comes again, he will certainly be promoting loads of stuff. I can be saving cash, prepared for some binge-shopping.” She had made an extended want record: a vacuum cleaner, toothpaste, detergent, tissues, pajamas, and a sofa and mattress body for her new residence.

When Remainder of World spoke to researchers in August, they had been uncertain that Li would return to livestreaming, since regulators would need to keep away from the danger of renewed discussions on Tiananmen. However analysts say it was exactly the size of Li’s public stature and the deeply taboo nature of his mistake which will have saved him from public condemnation and made a comeback potential: The opening he left on the prime of the e-commerce business was too large to disregard, and the thriller of his disappearance drew extra consideration to Tiananmen, not much less. 

All through his absence, rumblings of Li’s impending return made rounds amongst followers each few days, sparking a cycle of pleasure after which disappointment when he persistently did not reappear. Then, on September 20, the rumor mill reached fever pitch. Nicely-connected web customers shared a last-minute discover from Li’s suppliers about his comeback. At about 7 p.m., as if nothing had occurred, Li reappeared on his livestreaming channel. He hadn’t marketed the present on Weibo upfront or shared a preview of the merchandise being bought, like he had beforehand executed. However phrase bought out shortly, and, quickly, the channel had thousands and thousands of viewers.

Carrying make-up and a black sweater vest, Li made his pitches as if he had by no means left. “If you put on this, it feels as in the event you had been stepping right into a cloud,” he stated, as a co-host introduced ahead sneakers in several colours. “270 yuan for a pair. Whole lot, proper?” He promoted trash luggage, socks, and drain cleaners — nearly all the objects bought out inside seconds. Greater than 60 million viewers had tuned in. He made no reference to the truth that he’d been lacking for greater than three months. 

Exhilarated followers flooded the stream with feedback like “AHHHHHHH” and “I missed you.” “He’s again!!!!” Little Tiger messaged Remainder of World. She stated she cried out of happiness, and bought disinfectant and drain cleaner from his livestream. “I wished to purchase every part to help him, however I couldn’t beat the others to it,” she stated. She observed Li’s eyes welling up on the finish of the night time.

Li’s reappearance was simply as mysterious as his disappearance. Hypothesis over the explanation for his return ranged from Li’s sturdy relationship with authorities to the federal government’s pressing want to spice up shopper demand in an financial system hit by strict Covid-19 restrictions. Fang Kecheng, a communications professor on the Chinese language College of Hong Kong, advised Remainder of World he suspected the federal government could have been involved that Li’s disappearance was resulting in job losses in his provide chain, and hurting morale within the broader e-commerce business. Fang stated authorities may need additionally determined that as an alternative of hiding him from followers, bringing Li again could be a greater method to cease the web chatter about Tiananmen. 

That technique appears to be working. Amid the celebrations on social media surrounding Li’s return, just a few voices proceed to invest concerning the purpose for his disappearance. Followers usually summarize these conversations as “zz,” that means merely “politics.” Others keep silent about his absence, maybe out of self-censorship, a want to guard Li, or real indifference. 

Bin Xu, a sociology professor with Emory College who has studied collective reminiscence in China, advised Remainder of World that, for Li’s younger followers who’ve grown up below excessive censorship, the flexibility to maintain procuring and the well-being of their idol are extra urgent issues than reckoning with China’s violent previous. “I don’t suppose Li’s followers noticed the relevance of an anti-corruption, pro-democracy motion 30-something years in the past, even when they started to know [about] it when Li was banned,” Xu stated.

However the mistake that just about wiped Li from the web on the pinnacle of his profession will linger within the thoughts of regulators, e-commerce platforms, and Li himself, researchers say. A bit of greater than two weeks after the tank cake, China’s broadcasting regulator ordered platforms to observe livestreamers extra carefully for any misbehavior. One other new draft regulation, launched in September, is ready to require a broadcast delay for all livestreamed leisure exhibits, so problematic content material may be recognized and brought down earlier than it reaches viewers. Weibo blocked hashtags associated to Li’s return. “The harmless time won’t ever come again,” stated Liu, the censorship analyst. 

For manufacturers, the incident could have accelerated a shift in advertising technique. “I feel the most important takeaway is to not put all of the eggs in a single basket,” York Lee, a Beijing-based digital advertising specialist, advised Remainder of World. Following Li’s incident, e-commerce platforms and influencer companies will deal with constructing manufacturers that don’t rely a lot on the day-to-day performances of particular person livestreamers, Lee stated. 5 of Viya’s former assistants, for instance, have shaped their very own livestreaming staff. 

Li’s unexplained hiatus underlines the affect of politics and beliefs over any enterprise in China, regardless of how profitable it’s. “Li’s return to Taobao not solely speaks to the volatility of Chinese language cultural coverage, however extra importantly, the vulnerability of cultural entrepreneurship in China,” Sheng Zou, a Hong Kong Baptist College professor who research Chinese language media and politics, advised Remainder of World. “Nevertheless web-traffic-oriented livestreaming companies could also be, their survival and development hinge closely on their alignment with the official ideology and suitable political and ethical values.” 

Sooner or later, Zou stated, Li will have to be extraordinarily cautious about not making any extra errors and work further laborious to propagate the state’s “core values.” Li made his first Weibo put up for the reason that tank cake incident on October 1, China’s Nationwide Day. “I want the motherland prosperity and power,” it learn, with a hyperlink to a state tv poster that stated, “I like you, China!” Followers have additionally observed Li adopting a toned-down fashion in his relaunched dwell channel, presenting in a softer voice towards modest backdrops. He has even redyed his brown hair again to black — thought-about a extra conservative fashion in China. 

However one factor that Li continues to be capable of do is promote issues. Within the lots of of fan teams run by his firm on WeChat, staff have damaged their three-month silence and are again to publishing day by day product previews. International manufacturers like Tom Ford, Jo Malone, and Maybelline are coming again. “It’s like a telenovela,” stated Cibot, who shared information about Li’s shock comeback along with his LinkedIn followers.

If something, the tank cake drama launched Li to a wider viewers overseas. Now a worldwide agent for Barrio Fragrance, Cibot stated he would nonetheless be open to working with Li sooner or later: “The man is coming again. Persons are behind their screens. They’re shopping for. He has truly by no means been so well-known.” 

On the third night time of his return, Li placed on lipstick once more for his thousands and thousands of viewers. Because the digicam zoomed into his face, Li, holding a pocket make-up mirror, skillfully utilized a light-weight layer of a crimson shade, Guerlain 214, spreading it evenly with a fingertip. “It’s the sensation of getting a crush,” he stated, leaning ahead to showcase his lips. “If you exit for a stroll, get afternoon tea together with your girlfriends, or go to work, a light-weight layer would do.” He tried 5 totally different colours in a row. After the stream, followers complained — though Li had 60,000 sticks of assorted lipsticks on supply, they couldn’t get to them quick sufficient. He’d already bought out.