STORY: From his kitchen in Beijing, Yu Bo is running a campaign to connect China with America – one slapstick cooking video at a time.
:: Yu Bo
37-year-old Yu has spun up an alter-ego as an ambassador for speedy Chinese cooking in short English-language videos posted to RedNote, a Chinese social media app and search engine.
His 136,000 followers, including thousands in the United States, send him daily questions about Chinese food and life in China.
“It’s been so crazy! It’s so crazy that it’s like I’m speaking the most non-standard English to my foreign friends, but they still like me. At that time, I was a little… actually, I was a little scared because I thought, will everyone think I’m bad? Or will everyone treat me like a joker? But later, I found that they love me.”
At a time when tensions between Washington and Beijing are high, it might seem like the odds are against him.
More than half a million Americans downloaded RedNote earlier this year, days before a proposed U.S. ban on the popular Chinese social media app TikTok.
Now, with an April 5th deadline set by the Trump administration for TikTok to find a buyer, Yu’s side hustle could be set for more change.
Washington officials have said TikTok’s ownership by ByteDance makes it beholden to the Chinese government.
RedNote is privately owned and valued at $17 billion.
Yaling Jiang, analyst and founder of ApertureChina believes RedNote will benefit from TikTok’s troubles.
“I think the TikTok refugee phenomenon has already ended sadly, but it just like how many other viral moments have ended, which is fine. But what RedNote can do with this viral moment is that I think they have been trying to use it as a fuel for another potential IPO in Hong Kong, because through this phenomena now, global investors, global users know them, They know those potentials and know how different it is from all the other Chinese apps, from Tik Tok, from Weibo, which is brilliant for the company.”
The uncertainty doesn’t phase Yu, who continues to cook, post and connect more with his new found American audience.