A wood processing plant in Yanbian. (Photo : Getty Images)
In the northeast part of China, there is a growing number of individuals who are taking online jobs as live streaming hosts.
The trend is getting more popular in provinces like Heilongjiang, Jilin and Liaoning. One live streaming host, Yue Cheng, is from Heliongjang Province.
Cheng, or known as "Weihai Dashu," grew in popularity by his culinary skills and love of seafood. He has a live streaming culinary show that is very famous. He already has 526,000 followers.
Northeast China suffered economic turmoil since 1990s. This part of China used to be an industrialized area. The shift of the region's economy forced many to leave and look for work in other parts of the country.
Those who decided to stay are getting by with being resourceful and looking for other sources of income. Toutiao, an official news site in WeChat, said that social media has expanded opportunities for people in third- to fourth-level cities.
Liu Yang, an officer-in-charge at Redu Media, said that live streaming talents have risen.
"The monthly income of an ordinary live streaming host may not seem very high in a big city, but it's very good for someone in a third- or fourth-tier city," Yang said. "That's why more and more people in Northeast China have joined the industry in recent years."
Another plus for these talents is their innate quality of being frank, outgoing and bubbly. Many listeners enjoy these traits from their hosts.
A netizen from Anhui Province, Windy Dong, observed, "Hosts from the Northeast stream more often and have more range when it comes to content. When a host gets into a fight with the audience, he might starting singing a song, which eases tensions."
