As China becomes more assertive on the global stage with its diplomacy and state media, “patriotic KOLs” have appeared on domestic Chinese social media platforms, influencing the political opinions of their millions of fans. But how do KOLs craft their message to be successful, and who’s paying their bills?

Featuring

- Fang Kecheng: The Chinese University of Hong Kong - Assistant Professor

- Miro Li: Double V. Consulting - Founder

To go further

- Middle Earth episode #50 Xiaohongshu: Marrying content and e-commerce

- Nikkei Asia’s article: China’s online nationalist army

- cô yên mộ thiền (Guyanmuchan ) on Weibo

- tâm y lâm lâm (xīnyīlínlín) on Bilibili

- chu tiểu bình (Zhou Xiaoping), WeChat ID: Bình cục

- chiêm hào (Zhan Hao), WeChat ID: Chiêm hào

- bắc mỹ lưu học sinh quan sát, WeChat ID: Bắc mỹ lưu học sinh quan sát

Middle Earth is made by China Compass Productions and hosted by Aladin Farré. If you have a China-themed cultural project like shooting your next documentary or look for a specific talent, please get in touch!

With thanks to Ren Jiayin for production assistance, poster image by maono thiểm khắc and Sean Calvo for music support.