YouTube star Li ZiQi: imaginary life
Li ZiQi is a phenomenally successful YouTube star from China who seems to me to be a cross between Martha Stewart and Vermeer, 21st Century style. I discovered her recently via Gerard Vanderleun’s American Digest blog, and I find her mesmerizing.
Li ZiQi gives off the sense of being utterly unhurried—of having all the time in the world, or at least all the time she needs to do whatever she is doing. Her videos are small vignettes, artfully produced. The visuals tell the viewer that not only is this woman beautiful, the landscape beautiful, and the final product beautiful, but the activity itself is beautiful from start to finish. Even the gathering of the fruits or the vegetables or the mushrooms, or the peeling or the stripping or the chopping or the spinning—every single stage is beautiful when this person is doing it in this way.
And the dream is that you could do this, too. Or that people once lived this way, long ago.
And maybe some really did. And maybe some still do. I’ve encountered such people myself on occasion, who seem to have a rare calm and groundedness and grace.
I doubt it was ever all that many, but what do I know? And I don’t think Li ZiQi herself makes any claims that this represents her complete reality (you can find a lot of background information about her here). What she has said is “I am shooting [videos] about my imaginary life in the future.”
[NOTE: Please see this previous post of mine regarding my early love for Cezanne and Vermeer. It’s relevant.]
A variation on Bergfilme for atomised anomied young Mainland Chinese grasping for some kind of meaning.
10% soft power, 90% psychotherapy to keep the natives placid.
History rhymes… but I don’t think we’ll see this one end up photographing Africans when she’s 80.
Anything she can make on Twitter (blocked inside China of course) is just gravy.
Meanwhile, back on the ranch here in Hong Kong, it’s CCP Repression as Usual.
I recently posted a video of hers, as well as some text from her website. He videos are gorgeous.
You thought of Martha Stewart, I thought more of the genre of American YouTubers who harken back to pioneer and colonial living. It struck me that she carefully curates her image as a simple, traditional Chinese girl. From her About page:
“Li Ziqi’s works convey a positive attitude toward life. Ziqi’s videos can help people fulfill the ‘dreams of the countryside.’
These are the dreams of many people at home and abroad, especially Chinese people. Many people show great interest in Li Ziqi clothing. In front of the camera, she always appears in a set of Chinese Han clothing which is made in rough fabric.
Also, her videos help more people learn and understand Chinese traditions and culture. The spirit of struggling for independence and self-reliance conveyed by her life experience has attracted great attention at home and abroad.”
My post (if linking works and you don’t mind): Homemade wheat beer and crayfish
Gah… sorry, I screwed that link up. Homemade wheat beer and crayfish
A productive harmony. Perfect. Lovely lady.
A wonderful, dream-like representation of how a person can meld with the natural. That she knows exactly how to perform a wide range of tasks necessary to produce the food and fiber that people depend on is amazing for one so young.
It takes me back to life on my grandparents farm. Though not done as beautifully, my grandmother knew exactly how to make butter, knit sweaters, catch/prepare chickens for the pan, use pork renderings to make soap, stuff feather mattresses, cook hearty meals for threshing crews, plant a vegetable garden, preserve any number of foods, and much, much more. Those who know all the skills necessary to live close to the earth are a throwback to the days when most of our population were farmers.
I can well imagine Li Ziqi’s videos make many wish they had the knowledge and skills necessary to live on a farm. It appears so idyllic. It is a good life, but you have to love the work involved.
Having spent a good deal of my life selling yarns and fabrics for fiber arts this is a beautiful little movie showing a process the way this lovely women like a poem the way it was done. In the real world it would take about a year to complete, my wife who knits say maybe six months if she worked from dawn to dusk.
My wife Mary knits a full queen size afghan blanket for each of our grandchildren in colors and patterns for each personality as they graduate from high school and this week she started her third for out granddaughter who is entering her junior year in high school. (Each gift takes about two years.) Hand made beautiful art takes a lot of time even when you don’t have to card, spin and dye your yarn, along with a few hundred dollars to purchase enough of one dye lot for the whole project.
And if you take a little lamb from his mother you either need to feed it or have lamb chops but this is a beautiful piece of happiness……
Old Texan:
Yes, it’s like the beautiful distillation of a process much more arduous and lengthy.
All it takes is time and money.
And patience.
Hate to be picky, but her manicured, without blemish, soft looking hands do not look like the hands of someone who does a lot of manual labor.
There is also this lady in Yunan Province who seems a little bit more authentic.
I would recommend you guys check her out.
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCQG_fzADCunBTV1KwjkfAQQ
Reminds me of the Tomie dePaola story, “Charlie needs a Cloak.