Amy Lyons ([1]) (born 1992 or 1993[2]) is an Australian media personality and influencer active in China, where she is known as a "wǎng hóng" (网红),[1] which in China means people who are famous on social media.[3] She is best known for her Bilibili channel "Chinese: 艾米饭" and YouTube channel "Blondie in China", which explores different cuisines and delicacies in China.
Amy Lyons was born in the city of Sydney,[4] and is an alumna of the secondary school Pymble Ladies' College.[5] She stated that her interest in China began with a history class she took in her final year there in 2011,[1] as the teacher was highly interested in the country.[4] As an international commerce student at the University of New South Wales,[1] she began taking Mandarin Chinese courses in 2012,[4] and in 2014 she took a 7-month student exchange at Fudan University, Shanghai.[1] [6] Around 2014 she began working at a bank in Australia, but disliked it,[1] and she also served as a rugby league cheerleader in the Manly Seabirds, the cheerleading team of the Manly Warringah Sea Eagles.[4]
In 2015, she entered into the "Chinese Bridge" Chinese language competition and qualified to be the Australian representative.[6] She received about 1,000 followers on Sina Weibo after the Chinese Bridge producers suggested she do so.[1] A Chinese friend gave her a Chinese name, which Lyons said was chosen to reflect her personality.[6]
In February 2017, she moved to Beijing to take Chinese courses at Tsinghua University, and she began learning shaolin kung fu.[5] She stated that she decided to extend her social media activities after arriving in Beijing.[1] In 2017, on her Chinese social media platforms she had a total of 65,000 followers.[4], her most prominent social media platform was Miaopai. That year she had 1,100 followers on Instagram.[4] She received increased social media coverage in a video called "Chopstick Legs",[4] as she stated that Chinese people are attracted to having long, thin legs.[7] it had over three million views, making it her video with the most views.[1]