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.
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]