{"id":274891,"date":"2023-05-17T15:14:52","date_gmt":"2023-05-17T19:14:52","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/thechinaproject.com\/?p=274891"},"modified":"2023-05-18T10:50:08","modified_gmt":"2023-05-18T14:50:08","slug":"unconventional-internet-celebrity-loved-by-queer-chinese","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/thechinaproject.com\/2023\/05\/17\/unconventional-internet-celebrity-loved-by-queer-chinese\/","title":{"rendered":"The rise and fall of an unconventional internet celebrity loved by queer Chinese"},"content":{"rendered":"

Chinese internet personality Gu\u014d B\u00e8ib\u00e8i \u90ed\u84d3\u84d3 had more than 7 million followers on social media before her accounts were banned in September 2021.<\/p>\n

The online star was born in 1994, and lives in a rural part of Hebei Province. Posting under the name \u201cTeacher Guo\u201d (\u90ed\u8001\u5e08 gu\u014d l\u01ceosh\u012b), her rise to fame started in 2019 on Douyin, the Chinese version of TikTok, where she cultivated a loyal following with her spontaneous, highly entertaining livestreams.<\/p>\n

Most of the time, audiences would find Guo sitting at home, eating in front of the camera, or talking to her followers about random topics, but her exaggerated mannerisms and deliberately comical way of speaking turned these otherwise ordinary activities into over-the-top parodies.<\/p>\n

In a 30-second clip<\/a> that captures the weirdness of her content, Guo gives a review of a popcorn chicken. \u201cY\u00f3uzh\u00e1 j\u012b m\u01d0hu\u0101\u201d (\u6cb9\u70b8\u9e21\u7c73\u82b1), she says, articulating the name of the food excruciatingly slowly, in a contrived and peculiar tone that makes the word almost unrecognizable. \u201cI\u2019m going to taste it now,\u201d she continues before popping the food in her mouth. As she chews for a few seconds, her facial expression quickly turns into confusion. \u201cI don\u2019t taste anything\u2026oh, it\u2019s bread crumbs!\u201d She then takes two further bites and becomes silent for one second, after which she says, \u201cNo taste at all\u2026it\u2019s still bread crumbs. Hahaha.\u201d Realizing how thick the bread crumbs are and how little meat is wrapped inside, Guo eventually bursts into awkward laughs.<\/p>\n

For a food review, the clip takes a few unexpected turns. And according to Ti\u0101nti\u0101n \u5929\u5929, a gay man based in Guangzhou who has been a fan of Guo\u2019s since 2020, it\u2019s the quirkiness that initially drew him in. \u201cShe was always brutally subverting viewers\u2019 expectations,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

This feeling was shared by a gay man living in Chengdu, who asked to be identified only as Xu\u0101n \u8f69. \u201cShe was very spontaneous,\u201d he said. Xuan recalls that in one of the first videos<\/a> he encountered about Guo, the internet celebrity spends half a minute eating a kiwi fruit, whose Chinese name is mispronounced by Guo with a heavy accent. After acting creeped out by its appearance, Guo abruptly swallows the entire fruit and makes an odd sound. \u201cNo one would talk like her in real life, but I find it quite funny,\u201d Xuan said, comparing Guo to Hong Kong veteran actor Stephen Chow (\u5468\u661f\u9a70 Zh\u014du X\u012bngch\u00ed), whose unique performance style is characterized as w\u00fal\u00edt\u00f3u \u65e0\u5398\u5934 in Chinese.<\/p>\n

Wulitou<\/em> (the Cantonese is mo lei tau<\/em>), commonly translated as nonsense, is a style of humor originally developed from the local culture in Hong Kong, which later became popular in the Chinese-speaking world through the comedy movies made by director and actor Stephen Chow<\/a>, whose most famous work includes Shaolin Soccer<\/em> and Kung Fu Hustle<\/em>. As summarized by a Duke Storyworlds<\/a>, the genre features \u201cnonsensical, even crazy parodies, concurrence of contrasts, abrupt surprises in spoken dialogues and action, as well as implausible and deliberate anachronism.\u201d<\/p>\n

Similar to wulitou, in her eccentric performances on Douyin, Guo engaged in a variety of lowbrow behavior, such as raising and smelling her own foot in front of the camera or informing viewers that she farted in the middle of a livestream. But it seems to be her strange and amusing speaking style that attracted huge numbers of followers, who jokingly claimed that Guo invented a new language \u2014 \u201cGuo\u2019s language\u201d (\u90ed\u8bed gu\u014dy\u01d4). In it, strawberry<\/em> (\u8349\u8393 c\u01ceom\u00e9i) is pronounced as cumei<\/em>, I don\u2019t know<\/em> (\u4e0d\u77e5\u9053 b\u00f9zh\u012bd\u00e0o) as bujidiu, and sisters<\/em> (\u59d0\u59b9 ji\u011bm\u00e8i) as jimei<\/em>. Guo also created new terms, such as yesimola<\/em> (\u8036\u65af\u83ab\u62c9 y\u0113s\u012bm\u00f2l\u0101), a meaningless word used to express a feeling of thrill.<\/p>\n

Inspired by Guo\u2019s unique way of speaking, a crop of memes emerged, which catapulted the Douyin star to wider fame outside the short-video-sharing platform. There were a number of quiz videos<\/a> testing people\u2019s ability to understand the \u201cvocabulary\u201d in guoyu. Several Douyin influencers even accumulated fame by dedicating their accounts to imitating Guo,<\/a> who was referred to by her fans as the \u201csenior disciple\u201d in gu\u014dm\u00e9n \u90ed\u95e8, literally, \u201cGuo\u2019s cult.\u201d<\/p>\n

Interestingly, people in the subculture seemed to be predominantly straight women and queer people. \u201cThere was a funny saying that you won\u2019t find a single straight man among Guo\u2019s fans,\u201d Tiantian said.<\/p>\n

Xuan describes Guo as \u201cbold,\u201d \u201coriginal,\u201d and \u201canti mainstream culture.\u201d He works as an English instructor, and the Douyin algorithm sometimes feeds him videos aiming to correct Chinese people\u2019s English pronunciation or giving advice on how to navigate the workplace. \u201cIt feels like everyone is trying to be successful,\u201d he said. In contrast, he finds watching Guo\u2019s nonsensically funny videos to be relaxing. \u201cI like hearing her talking about ordinary things, like what she had for dinner.\u201d<\/p>\n

According to Xuan, Guo\u2019s content gave him a respite from the endless conversations about \u201cinvolution,\u201d or n\u00e8iju\u01cen \u5185\u5377 in Chinese, a buzzword widely used<\/a> by young professionals in urban China to express the prevalent feeling of burnout and desperation in the highly competitive society.<\/p>\n

\u201cShe embodies a sense of humor that can only be understood by people from the lower social class. She was good at self-mocking,\u201d Xuan remarked. \u201cThis makes her relatable for marginalized groups and distinguishes her from most of the male celebrities who only know how to make fun of other people.\u201d<\/p>\n

Tiantian added that Guo\u2019s popularity was likely due to the lack of social life in the early days of the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020, when lockdowns led people to binge-watch livestreams. \u201cShe really accompanied many people during their difficult times,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Guo\u2019s popularity eventually extended from the virtual world to the real one. When she visited Nanjing in April 2021 as a tourist, a gauntlet of her followers gathered in front of her hotel, wanting to meet her in person. Overwhelmed by their enthusiasm, which led to a traffic jam, Guo had to cut her trip short. The incident was reported<\/a> by Nanjing-based state newspaper Yangtze Evening Post, which condemned Guo as deliberately performing \u201cugliness\u201d and criticized her followers for \u201cindulging in the absurd and bizarre pleasure of appreciating ugliness.\u201d<\/p>\n

A few months later, Guo was banned from the Chinese internet. It was not the first time she had encountered censorship, as Xuan recalls that Guo\u2019s livestreams were routinely shut down by Douyin due to \u201cspreading vulgar content.\u201d Previously, Guo managed to work around penalties on the platform by using various alternate accounts.<\/p>\n

The suspension in 2021, however, appeared to be permanent. Since then, Guo has completely disappeared from the public eye. According to local media reports<\/a>, the ban was part of a broader governmental campaign to punish \u201cthose who show off ugliness\u201d in pursuit of online fame.<\/p>\n

The rhetoric made little sense to Tiantian. \u201cSo many male influencers are deliberately acting silly and nonsensical as well, but they are still active and famous on the internet,\u201d he said. \u201cIt seems like when a woman gains popularity by acting like a fool, she suddenly becomes a vulgar person.\u201d<\/p>\n

Despite the ban, Guo\u2019s legacy can still be found on the Chinese internet. On Douyin, videos of influencers talking in Guo\u2019s style still show up occasionally on Xuan\u2019s feed these days, with the algorithm-based search feature recommending Xuan to watch more related content using the keyword guoyu.<\/p>\n

\u201cShe really became a cultural phenomenon. We all know that this is guoyu, and it\u2019s from Teacher Guo,\u201d Xuan said. \u201cGuomen<\/em> will always live on.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Other LGBTQ stories:<\/strong><\/p>\n

Taiwan grants right of adoption to same-sex couples in latest move toward full equality (CNN<\/a>)<\/strong><\/p>\n

Taiwan\u2019s legislature passed an amendment on May 16 that allows same-sex couples to jointly adopt a child who is not biologically related to either person. Gay marriage was legalized in Taiwan in 2019, but this specific adoption right was previously limited to heterosexual couples or single people<\/a>. The legal change was applauded by LGBTQ activists in Taiwan as a step toward full marriage equality.<\/p>\n

Chinese official commented on LGBTQ people\u2019s situation in China in a UN conference (UN<\/a>)<\/strong><\/p>\n

In a recent UN meeting held by the Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW), Chinese delegates were asked by a group of UN experts about LGBTQ people\u2019s situation in the country. A male official responded by claiming that the \u201cChinese constitution and the legal system do not discriminate against LGBT people\u201d but then said that China\u2019s heterosexual marriage system aligns with its \u201ctraditional culture and national conditions.\u201d This happened a few days before the Beijing LGBT Center (\u5317\u4eac\u540c\u5fd7\u4e2d\u5fc3), one of the largest organizations serving sexual and gender minorities in the country, announced its permanent shutdown<\/a> on May 15.<\/p>\n

\n

Queer China<\/a>\u00a0is our fortnightly round-up of news and stories related to China\u2019s sexual and gender minority population.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Guo Beibei, an internet celebrity beloved by China\u2019s gay community for expressions of unadulterated weirdness as someone living on the fringes of society, was banned by Chinese internet censors for \u201cperformative ugliness.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":20033,"featured_media":274893,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"episode_type":"","audio_file":"","cover_image":"","cover_image_id":"","duration":"","filesize":"","date_recorded":"","explicit":"","block":"","filesize_raw":"","footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[12908],"tags":[14894,18618,14026,19083],"column":[19082],"class":[],"coauthors":[19001],"acf":[],"la_post_categories":{"society-and-culture":"Society & Culture"},"la_post_tags":{"douyin":"douyin","internet-culture":"internet culture","lgbtq":"LGBTQ","queer-china":"Queer China"},"content_writeup":{"rendered":"

Chinese internet personality Gu\u014d B\u00e8ib\u00e8i \u90ed\u84d3\u84d3<\/strong>, also known as \u201cTeacher Guo\u201d (\u90ed\u8001\u5e08 gu\u014d l\u01ceosh\u012b) in the online world, once had 7 million followers on social media and was a beloved figure in China\u2019s gay community.<\/p>\n