Dianxi Xiaoge

Who is this?

Dianxi Xiaoge (Chinese: 滇西小哥; lit. 'Little Brother in Western Yunnan'; born 1990) is a Chinese food vlogger and YouTuber from Yunnan. Dianxi Xiaoge, along with Ms Yeah and Li Ziqi, are the only Chinese Internet celebrities who have reached international prominence, according to the Southern Metropolis Daily in 2019. Her actual name is Dong Meihua (simplified Chinese: 董梅华; traditional Chinese: 董梅華), and she goes by the nicknames Penji (simplified Chinese: 盆鸡; traditional Chinese: 盆雞; lit. 'Bucket Chicken') and Apenjie (Chinese: 阿盆姐; lit. 'Bucket Sister'). Dianxi Xiaoge lives on a family farm at the foot of a small mountain in the town of Youwang, Shidian County, Baoshan, west-central Yunnan, southwest China. It was challenging for her parents to make a living farming in the village, which led her to seek schooling and employment outside her province. Dianxi Xiaoge studied to become a police officer at Sichuan Police College though upon graduation in 2012 chose to join an Internet startup company in the marketing department. She planned to eventually buy a house in Chongqing and move her parents in so they would all have a better life. But she returned to her village in 2016 after her father had a heart attack. To make a living in Yunnan, Dianxi Xiaoge began selling local specialities online before capitalizing on the rise in 2016 of short videos when she started posting her own. She created her YouTube channel in 2018 and first went viral internationally after releasing a video where she made hamburgers for her grandparents who had never eaten them before. Scholars have called her a cottagecore content creator and an example of the rural living segment of the Wanghong economy. Dianxi Xiaoge's videos showcase the calm, idyllic village life and feature her making videos of Yunnan cuisine using produce that she planted, harvested, and raised herself. Her male Alaskan Malamute named Dawang (Chinese: 大王; lit. 'Big King') follows her around in many videos. She ends her videos with a family meal of what she cooked. Urban dwellers have viewed her videos as a temporary refuge from the bustling, stressful city life. Coda Media's Isobel Cockerell said Dianxi Xiaoge's presence and popularity on YouTube despite the censorship of YouTube in China indicates she has implicit government support. In 2020, she had roughly 16 million subscribers on all her platforms including Sina Weibo, YouTube, Douyin, and Facebook, and her videos each were receiving roughly 20 million views. Her Weibo was among the 10 most subscribed independent accounts that year.

Career

1. 1990
   Born

Trivia

• •Citizenship: People's Republic of China
• •Known as: vlogger