Amy Lyons Explained

Amy Lyons ([1]) 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.[2] 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.

Life

Amy Lyons was born in the city of Sydney,[3] and is an alumna of the secondary school Pymble Ladies' College.[4] 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.[3] As an international commerce student at the University of New South Wales,[1] she began taking Mandarin Chinese courses in 2012,[3] and in 2014 she took a 7-month student exchange at Fudan University, Shanghai.[1] [5] 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.[3]

In 2015, she entered into the "Chinese Bridge" Chinese language competition and qualified to be the Australian representative.[5] 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.[5]

In February 2017, she moved to Beijing to take Chinese courses at Tsinghua University, and she began learning shaolin kung fu.[4] 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.[3] her most prominent social media platform was Miaopai. That year she had 1,100 followers on Instagram.[3] She received increased social media coverage in a video called "Chopstick Legs",[3] as she stated that Chinese people are attracted to having long, thin legs.[6] it had over three million views, making it her video with the most views.[1]

See also

External links

Notes and References

  1. Web site: Mullin, Kyle. Mandarin Monday: Q&A With Australian Internet Celebrity Amy Lyons, AKA Li Huilin. The Beijinger. 2017-12-04. 2019-12-10.
  2. Web site: McCauley, Dana. Why China knows this Aussie better than you do. Stanthorpe Border Post. 2017-09-10. 2020-04-28.
  3. Web site: Sydney's Amy Lyons is raking it in as a Chinese social influencer. news.com.au. 2017-09-11. 2019-12-10. As her fan base grew, the former Manly Seabirds cheerleader and Pymble Ladies’ College alumnus[...]. - Re-post at New Zealand Herald
  4. Web site: McNab, Alexander Cecil. Kung Fu Foreigner. The World of Chinese. 2018-02-24. 2019-12-10. [...]Lyons graduated from Pymble Ladies’ College, in a suburb of Sydney, with a degree in marketing,[...]. - The article misidentifies Pymble as her university (as "college" in American English means a university).
  5. Web site: Rothfield, Phil. Manly Seabirds cheerleader Amy Lyons competing in Chinese speaking competition. The Sunday Telegraph. 2015-06-28. 2019-12-10.
  6. Web site: Evlin, Lin. Amy Lyons, 24yo star of Chinese social media, takes stock of 'quirky' career path. ABC (Australia). 2017-09-04. 2019-12-10.