A Female Journalist Becomes the National Darling of Chinese Netizens

In the age of digital tech, there are too many methods for a person to become famous, and things may particularly get easier for those pretty girls. What if she also has some talent other than a beautiful face? That wiil be much more than a general success.

She will become the darling of all netizens.

That is the story of Wang Bingbing, one of the contemporary best known beauties on the Chinese Internet.

Wang Bingbing, a reporter for China Central Radio and Television in Jilin province, graduated from Jilin University with a major in broadcasting in 2012. Until 2020, she will be doing her job in silence, just like many other female journalists.

However, the story changed rapidly since then. In August this year, a short video of her reporting from a Jilin Air Force aerobatic flight show suddenly went viral on social media,

In the video, Wang bingbing’s sweet smile and amiable voice have made netizens go crazy, literally.

Her name flooded all the social media platforms.

So far, only the first six #tags related to Wang Bingbing have been read by more than 200 million times, and the lowest number of discussions was nearly 30,000.

“The weather is warm, but my heart is ice（The ice here is the pun of Binbing. The meaning of this sentence is “my heart belongs to Bingbing”）”

“Her smile is as sweet as ever”

These are the sayings that you will usually see in those #tags.

Others have linked Wang Bingbing to the extremely popular video game Animal Crossing, suggesting that she is a live-action version of the game’s heroine Isabelle — I have to say that it make sense.

In addition, in those videos with bullet-screen, the situation is even more extreme: the screen is almost covered by the word “honey” flooding past. Of course, it wasn’t sexual harassment, it wasn’t malicious, and people who typed the word were both men and women.This is essentially a kind of online meme, expressing their love for Wang Bingbing. It is much more like a kind of large-scale collective performance art.

At the moment, you can find a lot of videos edited from Wang Bingbing`s reports on video websites. These videos tend to get very good views, so she has been nicknamed the new pathway to wealth — even for China’s biggest media outlet, CCTV.

On Nov. 28, Wang Bingbing appeared on a program produced by CCTV News and it quickly exploded online. The video has been shared more than 31,000 times on Weibo alone. As a result, some people joked that: “if it is possible, CCTV wants to let Wang Bingbing do all the reports all day long.”

Wang Bingbing certainly has something common with all those online influencers who are famous for their beauty, yet there is also something decisive difference.

No need to emphasize her advantages in appearance any more, however, her ability as a professional journalist shouldn’t be overlooked — of course most netizens are superficial,, but when it comes to Wang bingbing’s idolization, the situation may not be that bad.

It is quite common that people commend both her beautiful and working capacity, saying that her deserve all those compliments, rather than treating her as some kind of doll.

We should notice such situation that it is relatively easier for a pretty female to become a online celebrity by posting her photos on social platforms such as Ins or Twitter, but not anymore. During this process, these women are usually heavily sexualized and objectified, becoming the object of male users’ sexual fantasies.

Very few people will pay attention to their real careers, and these females` social media accounts are often occupied by dirty jokes and sexual harassment.

Indeed, some females users do post undisputed pink contents on their social media accounts to earn money by providing different kinds of not-so-legal paid service. Nevertheless, more female users have no such intention, and they should not be suffering such harassment.

Wang’s popularity is comforting in a way, symbolizing that netizens’ minds are not just saturated with raw sexual impulses. They do remember how to appreciate a woman in a more normal way, as well as her professionalism and social status as an independent woman.

Furthermore, it is worth mentioning that although Wang Bingbing has become so popular, yet she doesn’t have any verified personal social media account yet, also does not show the intention to become a pure online influencer – compared to the contemporary trend that online celebrities tend to make quick buck by manipulating her followers, she seems no interested in doing so, but preferring to continue her career as a journalist, which is quite admirable.