American In China Imitates Chinese, Americans, French, Russians, And Japanese

Two days ago, Mike Sui posted the above video onto Youku (embedded after the jump). It currently has 1.71 million views. More impressive, this video’s been on YouTube for only a day and it’s already well on its way toward viral, with 17,000 views. The thing of it? No one that I know of in the English-language China blogosphere has posted this video (until now, of course; if you’ve seen this elsewhere before 3:11 pm, let me know). That means Sui’s one-man act is being passed around almost exclusively among Chinese users of YouTube and Facebook (which is where I first found it, on the page of a Chinese student in DC), and on Chinese social media (Sui has 206,000 fans on Sina Weibo). We wish Mike well on his road to online stardom. (H/T Casey Guo)

UPDATE, 5:41 pm: A bit more about Sui: he’s based in Beijing and, like many talented expats in China, is somewhat of a jack of all trades: English teacher, singer, host, actor (notably in the film Welcome to Shamatown 《决战刹马镇》). I somehow suspect we’ll be seeing him in bigger roles in the near future.

I was remiss to not link to this earlier, but a couple of months ago, a Chinese guy spoke in nine different languages in a video that went viral on Youku (3.3 million views). That success didn’t translate to YouTube, however – only 140,000 views (though the vid has been reposted on several accounts). I wonder what the ceiling is for Sui on YouTube. Lower than Youku, one would imagine — if one so desired, this could serve as a lesson in cultural differences (e.g., Chinese aren’t as nonplussed by a person caricaturing stereotypes), or a lesson in the importance of the Chinese market. Run with it if you will.

    20 Responses to “American In China Imitates Chinese, Americans, French, Russians, And Japanese”

    1. Reddit China

      Nice try, Beijing Cream, but Reddit China (r/China) scooped you about 10 hours ago. In fact, r/China tends to scoop most China expat sources, including Shanghaiist and ChinaSmack.

      Reply
      • The Tao

        Appreciate the message, but I did say blogsophere. I do keep an eye on Reddit, btw, and wish more blogs would source you if/when they take something from you guys.

        Reply
        • Reddit China

          True, true. That said, you guys are kicking arse and look forward to the day when you surpass Shanghaiist in scope; that site is old news now. Keep up the good work!

          Reply
    2. Manuella

      I still don’t see why people just blalantty throw random explanations out there without research in hope to just cast away the idea of it being a ufo.You’re no different than the people you’re describing.

      Reply

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