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Management Science and Research Volume 9, 2020, PP. 40-51

Analysis on Causes of Li Ziqi’ Success based on

Harold Lasswell’s 5W Model of Communication Jie Li

China Foreign Affairs University, Beijing, China, 100037

Email: 2225169258@qq.com

Abstract

For a better understanding of Li Ziqi, this paper tries to find causes of her success based on Harold Lasswell's 5W Model of

Communication. At last, according to our study, Li's success can be concluded as follows: firstly, Li has made full use of the

advantage of the folk cultural exchanges; secondly, Li's videos are quite rich in the cultural content, covering a large number of

cultural symbols which can cause a wide sympathy among people worldwide; thirdly, Li has taken good advantage of the new

media technology in the we-media era; and fourthly, Li is careful and hardworking enough to produce her videos and have a high

requirement for the video quality. In addition, this paper gives some advice on how to promote Chinese culture going global:

firstly, give a great support to the folk cultural exchanges and allow them to play a leading role in spreading Chinese culture

globally; secondly, explore more Chinese cultural symbols and enrich the Chinese culture content to speak for China; thirdly, take

full advantage of the new media technology; fourthly, seek more common grounds while overcoming the existing cultural

differences; and fifthly, reform our existing Chinese education system to improve the quality of folk cultural exchanges. Through

the analysis above, this paper aims to provide some views on Li’s success overseas and give some advice on promoting Chinese

culture globally.

Keywords: Li Ziqi; The 5W Model; Chinese Culture; The New Media

1 INTRODUCTION

A. Study Background

Recent years has witnessed Li Ziqi’s success of her short videos at home and abroad. As a result, she has gained a

great popularity especially among the ordinary people from the western countries. According to some statistics, until

the 12th of January this year, her YouTube account has been followed by over 8.22 million people, more than that of

BBC. And the number of her followers are still increasing at a pretty fast speed. Among them most are from different

countries, and in particular, those followers have different cultural backgrounds and values, but most of them think

Li Ziqi is exactly a “Disney Princess” who is just living in China. And they often speak very highly of Li’s

traditional crafts in the comments section online and express their appreciation of the Chinese progress and Chinese

culture demonstrated in Li’s videos.

At the same time, many Chinese official media and scholars think that Li is a great model for us to follow for

spreading Chinese culture and tell Chinese stories to people around the world in a better way. According to

comments from the Guangming Daily, Li Ziqi is just a common Chinese person and her product is just a real record

and reflection of the daily life from a common Chinese person. But during the process, it reveals some humanistic

spirit of traditional Chinese culture which could serve as an important value to have a better dialogue with the world.

Besides, according to the remarks from CCTV News, amity between the people holds the key to sound state-to-state

relations, and fellowship consists in understanding each other. In the short videos of Li Ziqi, she speaks no good

word of China, but indeed she spreads Chinese culture and tells Chinese stories in a better way. She is just a miracle

herself, and she has done a great job of promoting the exchanges between Chinese culture and other cultures

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although she has no such an initial purpose from the outset.

B. Study Purpose and Significance

From the above introduction, we could know that Li Ziqi has a great popularity at home and abroad because of her

excellent short videos on YouTube and other mass media. And many mainstream media in China also speak very

highly of Li's contributions to spreading Chinese culture and telling Chinese stories to the rest of the world. This is

the truth, and then we could put Li's contributions into a bigger context and explain why Li's success of her short

videos abroad has caused such a hot issue among Chinese people and scholars in the mainland of China, especially

among those who are dedicated to studying international communication, mass media and the "going global"

strategy of Chinese culture.

Actually, it is commonly acknowledged that culture is playing a more and more important role in the comprehensive

national strength competition among countries. And more and more countries have begun to pay more attention to

improving their soft power of culture especially since the end of the cold war. Entering into this new historical period,

with the further development of cultural globalization and information technology, there have been more and more

channels and tools for us to choose for the sake of promoting our cultural exchanges and communication. Since the

founding of the New China in 1949, Chinese leaders have all put a great emphasis on the strategy of developing

Chinese culture and promoting cultural exchanges between China and other countries. Chairman Mao ever proposed

the strategy of "cultural exchanges first, diplomatic activities followed "; in his opinion, he regarded cultural

exchanges and economic and trade connections as the two wings of China's political and diplomatic cause. Besides,

President Xi Jinping also proposed that we should harbour the spirit of inclusiveness and diversity to break the

barriers of cultural exchanges, and absorb useful nutrients from other civilizations to develop Chinese culture and

keep Chinese culture advanced with the times. For achieving this purpose, the Chinese government has spared no

efforts to promote Chinese culture going global over the years. But most of these activities have just been

participated in by elite groups from countries and have rare chance to reach the ordinary people of various countries.

Many projects such as building Confucius Institutes around the world and holding Culture Festivals with other

countries have turned out to be little blips that don't get everybody's permanent attention. And many efforts from

China International Publishing Group (CIPG) and Foreign Language Teaching and Research Press (FLTRP) have

turned out to be limited as well. Against such a backdrop, Li's success and popularity have caught many eyes of

Chinese scholars and officials, and even of many Chinese ordinary people. In addition, over the years, more and

more Chinese scholars and ordinary people are dissatisfied with the fact that many Western media have mastered the

final say of many international discourses and events while the Chinese counterparts have had little and even no say

in these events. The Hong Kong issue was just a live example. Most of the reports on HK issue from these Western

media turned out to be biased and unjust. As a result of it, many Chinese ordinary people were irritated by such kinds

of reports and also disappointed with the power and influence of Chinese media in the whole world. To be exact, the

power of Chinese culture has a lot to do with the power of Chinese media. If we could improve the influence power

of Chinese media, it will be a great help to spread Chinese culture worldwide.

So to some extent, when we know why Li Ziqi is successful on the Internet and why she can gain such a popularity

among the foreign people worldwide, we can draw on some useful experience to spread Chinese culture. In the

meanwhile, we could analyze the reasons why our Chinese media and other official authorities failed to spread the

Chinese culture in an effective way. So the questions of the study are: what factors are making Li Ziqi a success and

what we can draw on from her videos to spread Chinese culture and tell Chinese stories in a better and more

effective method. This study is of some significance to find out what factors are really attractive to some foreign

ordinary people, which can also help to explore more Chinese cultural symbols to tell Chinese stories. Besides, it

may offer a great help for some authorities to better carry out the “going global” strategy of Chinese culture in a

natural way that could be widely accepted by ordinary people worldwide.

2 REVIEW OF LITERATURE

When we search Li Ziqi on the CNKI net, we could get 81 results of papers concerning this topic. Among them, 34

papers are mainly involved with the advantages of Li's short videos. They mainly discuss why her short videos could

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gain a success in our self-media era, and they often pay more attention to the video's aesthetics and the content such

as delicious food in them. Besides, another 31 papers are mainly involved in Li Ziqi's success, especially analyzing

the reasons why she gets so popular among ordinary people outside China. They have listed various reasons such as

the content of videos, the making techniques of her videos, her professional team of photography and making videos,

the Chinese cultural factors, the pastoral scene, and Li's carefulness and diligence, etc. Those reasons have indeed

given the author some guidance but somehow they are a little messy. Apart from them, another 8 papers have an

emphasis on Chinese traditional culture, the culture export, Chinese culture symbols, international communication

and overseas publicity, and cultural exchange between China and Western countries. They have paid close attention

to the cultural content in Li's videos, aiming to summarize some useful experience to promote cultural exchanges

between China and other countries. This kind of paper also gives the author great help when he was writing this

essay. In addition to the above, there are 5 papers which aims to study the online celebrity economy, content

marketing and IP cashability. These papers talk more about Li's business model and how she can make so much

money. At last, there are a few papers concerning the communication tactics and theories, and they mainly analyze Li

Ziqi's communication channels and tactics based on some knowledge from media and communication studies.

Generally, such kinds of articles also give the author some insight on how to spread Chinese culture better based on

the relevant communication theories.

According to the above analysis, some scholars pay more attention to the videos' aesthetics and analyze why the

videos themselves can offer watchers some feelings of comfort and happiness; some scholars talk more about Li's

business model, aiming to find out how she creates her brand and makes a lot of money in the new we-media era;

and some scholars are curious about the culture content included in her short videos, and try to analyze why she gets

such a great popularity overseas; and some other scholars use some communication and media theories to explain

why Li Ziqi can obtain her success abroad and try to offer some advice for the sake of promoting Chinese culture

going globally. Among these papers, we could also see over 10 articles from newspapers, most of which, as official

media, are quite famous and influential in China. Just like the comments from the Guangming Daily and CCTV

News, almost all the newspapers think that China needs more ordinary people like Li Ziqi to spread Chinese culture

globally. Besides, we could see that many scholars have also compared Li's short videos with those

publicity-oriented materials from some Chinese official authorities, aiming to find some differences and explain why

the latter turned out to be a failure or had a very limited effect. Of course, some articles have offered very great

insight and wisdom, which may greatly enrich the author’s understanding of the causes of Li's success overseas. But

most of the analyses have no support of theories; so to some extent, they are not very clear, not that persuasive and

even a little messy when these potential causes are putting together. Besides, almost these papers have little statistics,

and many of the conclusions are just the authors' thoughts and analyses. So I personally think that it will be better if

we could collect other people’s opinions on the relevant topic so that we could verify our thoughts and make our

essay more persuasive.

To this end, this paper will use Lasswell's 5W Model of Communication to explain why the short videos from Li Ziqi

could be so popular abroad. This theory was put forward by Harold Lasswell, an American political scientist and

communication theorist, in 1948. His 5W Model of communication is regarded as one of the earliest and most

influential communication models; and the 5W means Who, Says What, In Which channel, To Whom and With What

Effect. Using this theory can offer us a more direct view on how Li is making a success as well as make the

communication process more explicit and clearer. Actually, I found a similar article on the CNKI net which also uses

5W Model to explain the popularity of Li's food videos. But in her short paper, she has no details of introducing the

5W Model, and even doesn't mention the creator of the model. So, to some extent, her analysis is a little shallow and

needs to be improved. I personally think that my paper will make a little contribution in this aspect. As a result of it,

this paper indeed has some research value.

3 THEORETICAL CONCEPTS AND METHODOLOGY

A. Theoretical Concepts

As mentioned above, this paper will use Harold Lasswell’s 5W Model of Communication to analyze Li Ziqi’s videos

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overseas. Through describing the relevant process, we could have a better understanding of Li’s popularity overseas

and then we can summarize the causes of her success and draw on some useful experiences on how to promote

Chinese culture going global in a more effective way. Here is the detailed introduction of Lasswell’s 5W Model.

The “5W” Model of Communication was put forward by Harold Lasswell as early as 1948, although at that time the

development of media is relatively traditional and simple. In his article the Structure and Function of

Communication in Society, Lasswell (1948) wrote: “convenient way to describe an act of communication is to

answer the following questions: a. Who b. Says What c. In Which Channel d. To Whom e. With What Effect?” We

call that 5W model. To put it simply, Harold Lasswell is well known for his 5W Model of Communication, which

focuses on "Who (says) What (to) Whom (in) Which Channel (with) What Effect". In the Model, the communication

process is divided into five parts including communicator, information, media, audience and effect.

1. Who - Diversification of Communicator

In mass communication, the communicator is not one person, but some organized institutions, such as newspapers,

radio stations, television stations, websites, etc. Content of communication is designed and developed by

professional people, such as reporters, editors, web developers, etc. But owing to the emergence and development of

computer and network equipment, new media communication moves towards to the public. At the same time, it

gives the public more opportunities to produce, publish and transmit information. This is a subversion to the

traditional media (Liu Liwei & Guo Xiaoyang, 2013). New media directly promotes the development of we-media

era.

At present, there are a total of over 7 billion mobile subscribers in the world, but in 2000, the number is only 738

million. According to the statistics in 2019, around the world, there were 3.8 billion people using the Internet in 2018,

almost accounting for 51% of the total population worldwide. From 2000 to 2018, the popularizing rate of the

Internet users increased almost 8 times, increasing from 6.5% of the world's population to almost 51%. In addition,

according to the data released in 2019, the total number of Facebook users is up to 2.32 billion, occupying 46.7% of

the world's Internet users. Considering the dominant power of network media and mobile media in inter-personal

communication, it has determined the diversification of the communicator.

2. Says What - Massive Amounts of Information

The rapid development of digital storage and database technology breaks through the quantity limitation of

information. Just with a particular device, traditional printing information can be edited, stored and delivered in the

form of digital information. Take electronic dictionary for example, dozens of large paper dictionaries can be

condensed to hundreds of megabytes of data capacity. Undoubtedly, network technology and mobile technology have

promoted massive growth of information of the new media communication. Now we list a few data as below. In

2019, 293.6 billion emails were sent per day in the world, 500 million messages were delivered by Twitter per day,

and there were 5 trillion searches on Google every day. The global mobile data traffic per month in 2018 was

estimated to 33 zettabyte, and there were 5 billion mobile broadband subscriptions. In addition, 350 million new

photos were added to Facebook every day, and 95 million photos and videos were shared to Instagram per day. From

the data, we could see that a massive amount of information is being created and shared per minute through the new

media.

3. In Which Channel-Interactivity of Media

There is no doubt that interactivity is one of the most obvious characteristics of the new media. As Rice defined in

1984, the new media can enable and facilitate user-to-user interactivity and interactivity between user and

information (Schorr, Schenk & Campbell, 2003). Compared with the “one-to-many” model of traditional mass

communication, the new media communication is becoming a “many-to-many” web of communication. With the

development of new media technologies, any individual can produce his or her online content including text, image

and sound whatever he or she chooses (Croteau & Hoynes, 2003). Thus the model of mass communication is

changing with the advancement of new technologies.

In the process of new media communication, the interactive characteristic of new media can be shown everywhere

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(Manovich, 2003). Definitely, the realization of the interactivity of new media cannot do without more new media

technical support such as touch technology, interactive projection technology, augmented reality technology,

interactive mirror surface technology, and internet of things technology, etc.

4. To Whom - Customization of Audience

One US magazine has defined the new media as "communication from all the people to all the people". Interactivity

is a key word of the new media, so the identity of the communicator and audience can be exchanged easily. Today,

just by sending email or SMS, one can start mass communication “at any time, in any place, for anyone”, and it can

break down the discourse barriers of the traditional mainstream media.

In essence, the audience not only receive information, but also participate in interaction, and they are more active

and personalized. Any communication process must involve the analysis of its communication object. Who are the

audience of the new media communication? What are their characteristics? We have to think about these questions so

as to establish an accurate model of the audiences. Due to the differences between audiences' age, culture, education,

and aesthetics, the ways they participate in the process of communication are absolutely different.

5. With What Effect - Effect of the New Media

The study of the so-called communication effect means that the information sent by the communicator is transmitted

to the audience through the media and then causes the changes of the audience's ideas and behaviors. Effect research

mainly focuses on the power of mass communication in changing the inherent position and viewpoint of the

audience, but also involves the impact of mass communication on society and culture. It can be said that the effect

research has been the most controversial and the most realistic link in the field of communication research for a long

time.

These are many theoretical summaries that focus on the historical process of communication research. This kind of

macro research provides many enlightening viewpoints for the micro effect research of the media, such as the theory

of bipolar communication and opinion leader, innovation and diffusion theory, the spiral of silence theory and so on.

These theories are established and verified after summarizing the communication phenomenon. The most important

thing is that they have provided some guiding significance to the communication practice. From the perspective of

specific communication effects, the development of mass media enables individuals to understand the outside world

in a more convenient and quick way. Most of the political, economic, military, diplomatic, cultural and social life

information, whether domestic or international, can be easily obtained through mass media as long as one wants to

know them. While disseminating knowledge, mass media can also transmit the values that are affirmed by the

society to the audience, which further accelerates the socialization process of the audience. In addition, the mass

media have an effect on groups, societies and cultures as well. In a word, this effect is long-term and underlying.

During the communication process, audience, media and society interact with and complement each other.

Today, Lasswell’s 5W Model of communication is still the basic framework of mass communication research (Muth,

Finley & Muth, 1990). Indeed, there are also some controversy in the study of the model such as lacking in feedback,

and the rigid role between communicators and audience, but it explicitly divides the communication process into five

parts or elements. With that, researchers can effectively describe the communication process and plan for the study

of communication.

As mentioned above, in the process of new media communication, the communicator is becoming more diverse,

either organizations or individuals; every one can be the sender of information. The information is also becoming

massive; and the presentation of information is more and more multimedia, whether text, image, audio, video or

animation. The changes of media mainly depend on the development of technology, including network technology,

mobile technology, and communication technology, etc. Interactivity is undoubtedly the indispensable media

property. The audience is also becoming more personalized, and the effect of communication is presented rapidly.

B. Study Questions and Methodology

1. Study Questions

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To be exact, this paper aims to solve two questions. Firstly, what factors are making Li's videos a great success

overseas? This paper will mainly analyze Li's videos from its content, its photography and videos making, its

aesthetics value and style, to the Chinese culture elements in her short videos. In doing so, we could have a better

understanding of the causes of her popularity and of why she can have so many followers abroad. Secondly, what

can we draw on from Li's short videos to promote Chinese culture going global? Spreading Chinese culture to the

whole world is never an easy task and it cannot be completed by Li Ziqi alone. By comparing Li's videos with other

official publicity materials, we can also find out what aspects of Chinese culture attract the foreign people most.

Undoubtedly, such a comparison can offer some insight to some official institutes on how to promote Chinese culture

globally.

So, the questions are as follows:

(1) What factors are making Li a success overseas?

(2) What we can draw on from Li's short videos for the sake of promoting Chinese culture going global more

effectively?

2. Methodology and Essay Structure

To solve the two questions above, I will use the methods of the qualitative research. For the fourth part of this paper,

I will use Harold Lasswell's 5W Model of communication to explain how Li is communicating with her audience

through her short videos; to be exact, I will explain who is Li Ziqi, what are her purposes of making these short

videos, what are the contents in her videos, what are the channels of her communication, who are her audience and

lastly what effects she wants to achieve when Li was making her short videos.

After analysis of the the part, the next part will focus on the causes of Li's success overseas and then the author will

give a summary of the causes of her success and conclude some experience and lessons that we can learn from Li’s

videos to promote Chinese culture going globally. In particular, I would like to discuss the relationship between

people-to-people cultural exchanges and official cultural exchanges. Then I will give a brief conclusion of this paper

and give my answers to the research questions mentioned above.

4 ANALYSIS ON LI’S SHORT VIDEOS BASED ON THE 5W MODEL OF

COMMUNICATION

As Li Ziqi becomes popular among the foreign people from various countries, many Chinese scholars begin to study

the effect of Li Ziqi and in the meantime, they have listed various reasons which can in part explain Li's success. But

sometimes their analysis is a little subjective and not that persuasive. Due to the lack of some theoretical support,

their analysis is not very logical and clear. For the sake of understanding Li Ziqi's success of her short videos better,

we should know something more about Li herself, about her videos content, and about her purpose of making such

short videos. Then this part will give a full description of Li and her short videos based on Harold Lasswell's 5W

Model of communication with the intention of providing a full and clear picture of Li Ziqi and her success.

A. Who - More about Li Ziqi

When we want to study Li's success, we should know more about her, and that is the communicator in the Model. As

the Guangming Daily comments, Li Ziqi is just one of the ordinary Chinese people, and her videos are just records

of Chinese people's daily life, especially for many Chinese farmers. Her success and popularity have nothing to do

with the Chinese officials or the mainstream media. Maybe from this perspective, we may find that sometimes as

long as it has some connections with Chinese officials or Chinese government, it will be quite difficult to reach

foreign ordinary people. Or to some degree, many ordinary people overseas especially for those from western

countries have no interest in anything that Chinese government wants to spread. For this issue, it is the result of

many complicated factors, such as the difference of social systems and ideology, the negative views and stereotypes

of Chinese government and CPC promulgated by western countries and some western mainstream media, and little

chance to go to China for a visit or travel, etc. Of course, there is also something wrong with our publicity materials;

and most of our cultural activities are held by official authorities. Or we could say that the cultural exchanges have

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been led by our government over the past years. But these government-led activities for promoting cultural

exchanges between China and other countries have often been participated by the elite groups of these countries. In

doing so, our activities can not change the stereotypes of the foreign ordinary people on Chinese government and the

CPC. So in this regard, many diplomatic activities have a very limited role in promoting Chinese culture going

globalyl, especially based on the reason that many ordinary people from various countries have little chance to know

China more. Just according to what Li Zhaoxing, former Foreign Minister of the People's Republic of China, has

ever said, no matter how easy the task is for other countries, it will be quite difficult for China to achieve. If we

couldn't change the negative image of China and CPC in their mindset in a short time, we should make

people-to-people culture exchanges play an more important role in spreading Chinese culture and telling Chinese

stories.

Against such a backdrop, Li's success is just such a good example to explain the advantages of the people-to-people

exchanges compared with that of official culture exchanges. Li was born on July 6th, 1990 in Mianyang, Sichuan, an

southeast province of China. She is a gourmet master and also a successful online celebrity at home and abroad. "My

last name is Li, and people all call me Ziqi." This is her tag on various online platforms. According to her

introduction, she had a tough Childhood and was brought up by her grandmother because her father died and her

mother chose to run away and abandoned her when she was very young. Li dropped out of school and went to work

when she was 14 yeas old. She did various jobs such as a waitress and a DJ in a pub. But as her grandmother is

becoming older, she chooses to go back home and takes care of her grandmother, thus starting her poetic and rural

life. Li is a beautiful girl, but what touches us more is the purity and kindness she has demonstrated in her short

videos. Besides, we could see a clear picture of her work-worn and rough hands. This is a big difference between Li

and other online celebrities; generally in my view, her videos are not just for a show, and she is really doing

something.

Therefore, generally speaking, Li is just one of the common people in China, and she is exactly a typical example of

people-to-people cultural exchanges if we want to connect her videos with the cultural exchanges. So in this sense,

she could break the cultural barriers that have been mainly elected for official publicity materials made by Chinese

government and Chinese official media.

B. Says What- Content in Li's Short Videos

Just as mentioned above, we have defined Li Ziqi as an online celebrity and a gourmet master. So many of her videos

are centered around Chinese delicious food, including various Chinese dishes such as beef paste, jam, spicy bean

curd, hand-extended noodles, salted product, etc. Most of her food materials are planted by herself, and in this sense,

it is consistent with our ideal life philosophy that is based on "eating fresh and healthy". In addition to the traditional

and delicious Chinese food, we could also see Li's excellent traditional crafts on making wine, weaving baskets and

pack baskets, dyeing cloth, making cloth and making the four treasures of a study by herself, etc. Nowadays, many

of these crafts are even forgotten or little known by the young Chinese generation as more and more people go into

the city life; and in this regard, these videos can be regarded as a kind of general education of Chinese traditional

crafts, not only targeted for foreign people, but also for the young generation of China. From the above description,

Li is a very diligent and hardworking online celebrity and she does most of the things by herself. As we know, she

was not born to know everything. The reason why she can know so many traditional crafts is that she is always in the

process of learning new things and then introducing them to the whole world. No matter what motives she has in

making these videos, we have indeed learned a lot about Chinese traditional crafts, and through Li's videos, many

foreign people have also learned of a lot of Chinese handcrafts; so in this sense, it is a great success. At the same

time, the videos can keep us better informed of some of the Chinese intangible cultural heritages and can help to

preserve and inherit them better.

Besides, when we watch Li's videos, we will also have a true feeling of the filial piety culture of China. Most of the

filial piety culture have been reflected by the relationship between Li Ziqi and her grandmother. Many short videos

have been made for her grandma, such as making silk quilts for her grandma when the winter comes. As long as we

know something about her background and the relationship between her and her grandmother, our heart will

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definitely feel warm. In China, many young people are brought up by their grandparents, so this kind of filial piety

culture will trigger a strong sympathy among these people. Also, it can remind the generation that no matter how

busy you are, you should have more time to keep your old parents or grandparents company, and cherish the precious

time with them. From the perspective of foreign people, this culture can gain more common grounds with them.

Love is a common value shared by all humanity. This kind of filial piety culture is different from those cold publicity

videos from some mainstream and official media, and Li's videos can indeed make them feel natural, comfortable

and warm. Then take A Bite Of China for an example. Actually the content of them has no huge difference. But why

didn't it get so much attention from the foreign people? Of course, there are many causes of the result. But there is

also one thing that matters a lot: that is, A bite of China didn't deliver watchers a sense of warmth and gratefulness.

Many of the Chinese official publicity materials have shown us a sense of “arrogance”, and they seems like showing

off something rather than telling a story or talking to someone on the foot of equality. According to the analysis of

some papers, some scholars conclude that Li's videos is just like stories happening around us and we could enjoy

them in a very relaxing mood. But as for some publicity videos from Chinese official media, we often think that they

have a long distance from us and sometimes it seems that we have to raise our head to enjoy them.

Apart from those mentioned above, we could also see a poetic and rural environment where Li is living with her

grandmother. In many scholars' views, this poetic life style is a big attraction to foreign people. With the rapid

development of urbanization worldwide, the lifestyles of many people from various countries shared some common

features and resemble each other more and more. Besides, recent years has also witnessed the comeback of old

traditions. More and more people begin to be tired of the boring and busy life in the cities and they also begin to hate

the fast pace of city life, making the anti-urbanization a new trend worldwide. To some degree, the poetic lifestyle

can indeed cause a strong sympathy among the people around the world and can somehow cure the lonely souls

living in the cold cities. From this perspective, when we make cultural products, we shouldn't just consider what we

have or what we think is important. Rather we should figure out what our audience need.

Overall speaking, there are many Chinese cultural symbols in Li's short videos such as the various Chinese food, the

colorful and delicate handcrafts, the Chinese filial piety culture, the intangible cultural heritages, the poetic and rural

lifestyle of the traditional Chinese people, the diligent and hardworking spirit of Chinese people, etc. Based on this,

when spreading Chinese culture and promoting Chinese culture going global, we should explore more Chinese

cultural elements and symbols to speak for Chinese culture.

C. In Which Channel and To Whom - Li’s Platforms and Her Audience

When we want to study the causes of Li's success of her short videos online, we must have a good grasp of her

channels of communication. Firstly in China, Li makes full use of the development of the new media technology.

She has updated her short videos on various channels such as Xigua videos, Toutiao, Weibo and Tik Tok, etc. These

are all very popular platforms nowadays in China, and through these platforms, Li is becoming more and more

popular among the Chinese young people. Thanks to her special and unique style, Chinese netizen can remember her

easily and Li has successfully created her own brand as well. In addition, her followers are still increasing at a fast

pace. When it comes to the foreign platforms, Li didn't miss the chance to deliver her short videos worldwide. She

has shared her videos on such platforms as YouTube and Facebook, the two most influential platforms worldwide.

Up to January 18th, 2020, Li has a total of followers of over 8.32 million on her YouTube account, more than that of

CNN and BBC.

Besides, according to the channels and platforms Li Ziqi chooses to deliver her short videos, we could see who are

her audience. Nowadays, the audience is not only for receiving information, but also have the ability to transmit the

information again and make the communication process more efficient and influential. Li has so many followers at

home and abroad. As a result of it, those followers are her direct audience of her short videos. Then by the

transmission efforts of so many followers, Li's short videos will be acknowledged by more people, and then her

followers will go on increasing at a quite fast speed. According to some other statistics, up to November 9th, 2019,

the number of Li's followers on Toutiao, Xigua Videos, Tik Tok all surpassed 28.95 million. On Weibo, the number

of Li's followers is over 23.27 million. Besides, as mentioned before, Li has a total of followers of over 8.32 million

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on YouTube. That is to say, so many followers at home and abroad are not only Li's audience, but also the

transmitters of Li's short videos.

Overall, from the introduction above, we could know that Li Ziqi is making full use of various platforms to deliver

her short videos at home and abroad. All internet platforms are the products of the development of information

technology. Apart from that, Li's audience are all the ordinary netizen who are not only interested in Li's short videos,

but also have the ability to help expand Li's influence and increase her followers at home and abroad.

D. With What Effect - the Purpose of Li's Short Videos

According to Lasswell's 5W Model of Communication, this part is quite complex. Many scholars have ever proposed

various theories to explain the potential effect of communication and mass media such as the Bullet theory, the

Limited Effects theory, the Spiral of Silence theory, the Cultivation theory, the Media Hegemony theory. For

example, according to the Cultivation theory, the mass media are shaping the world value of its audience in an

unconscious way. As long as we are fully absorbed in the reports of the media frequently, we will gradually accept its

values and eventually turn their values into our own values. Of course, this is just one theory on the effect study of

communication and the media. But it is quite important for us to figure out the purpose of one communication

process if we want to know it more.

As for the purpose of Li's short videos, honestly speaking, there is little controversy about it. Why Li Ziqi makes her

videos is that she wants to make more money through sharing them. Of course, we may conclude that Li loves

Chinese culture and loves learning so many handcrafts. But indeed she wants to make more money from the process.

Also, there have been a few scholars studying how Li Ziqi has turned her intellectual property (IP) into the real

income. Sometimes we may hear some news about Li's income. Even I ever read a paper on studying why Li's

profitability is more than that of some listed companies. Actually, Li's profitability is based on the fan economy. She

is just an online celerity who pays more attention to the quality of her videos' content. This is a typical model of

UGC, that is, User Generated Content.

From the introduction above, Li's purpose has nothing to do with promoting Chinese culture going global or

spreading Chinese culture. But indeed, through her videos, many foreign people begin to know more about the poetic

Chinese lifestyle and even take a strong interest in some Chinese intangible cultural heritages. In this sense, Li has

indeed helped to spread Chinese culture. There is a good example. In one short video, Li has ever gone to Changbai

mountains to get honey. She went there by the high-speed train. Although Li didn't say any word of the convenience

and fast speed of the train, many foreign friends still shared their sound experience of taking the high-speed train

when traveling in China in the comments section. In doing so, many foreign people have seen such good comments

on Chinese high-speed trains. There is no doubt that this is one of the best advertisements for the trains. Comparing

this with some official documentary videos such as How Marvelous, My Country and Super Projects, we could find

that Li's advertisement for Chinese high-speed trains has the lowest cost but the best output. To some degree, we may

conclude that we shouldn't buy something for the sake of buying something. Sometimes if something is over targeted,

it may lose its attraction and even have the opposite effect. So when spreading Chinese culture, we should take the

audience's feelings into full consideration and innovate our communication methods to make them feel enjoyable

and relaxed.

5 BRIEF SUMMARY OF THE CAUSES OF LI’S SUCCESS OVERSEAS

Firstly, Li has made full use of the advantage of the folk cultural exchanges. As an ordinary Chinese person, Li has

no intention of any political or diplomatic propaganda in making her videos. Furthermore, her identity as a common

person can help her get rid of many problems that may appear in some Chinese official publicity materials. Due to

many reasons such as the deep stereotypes about the CPC and the Communist China, the distorted reports about

China from the Western mainstream media, and the difference of social systems and different values on human rights,

many ordinary foreign people have a deep prejudice against CPC, thus having a negative view of the new China and

Chinese government. But Li Ziqi has nothing to do with the Chinese government or the Chinese official media, so in

this regard Li can break the mental barriers in their mindset in a comparatively easy way and make them believe

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what she shows in her videos in a natural and comfortable method as well.

Secondly, Li’s videos are quite rich in the cultural content, covering a large number of Chinese cultural elements and

symbols which can cause a wide sympathy among people worldwide. Besides, Li pays a lot of attention to the

content in her videos. From various Chinese food to the delicate and fine handcrafts, from some of the Chinese

intangible cultural heritages to the high-speed train in China, Li has successfully spread many Chinese symbols to

the rest of the world although she has no such an intention of doing so. When watching her videos, we even don't

want miss any detail in them. In addition, many contents are not only interesting and attractive to foreign people, but

also new and fresh to Chinese young people. Due to the fast advancement of industrialization and urbanization, more

and more countries are adopting the similar method of development and growth, thus causing many similar social

problems. More and more farmers go into the busy city life and they have to burden a lot of pressure just because of

living in such a highly competitive environment. As a result of it, Li chooses to set her videos in a very peaceful and

poetic rural environment, which is quite original in content and style and makes her greatly different from other

online celebrities. Overall, Li has fully utilized many Chinese symbols of culture to attract her fans, from Chinese

food, to fine and traditional Chinese hand crafts, and to the poetic and peaceful lifestyle of traditional Chinese

farmers.

Thirdly, Li has taken good advantage of the new media technology in the we-media era. Because of the development

of communication and information technology, every one of us can be the communicator, transmitter and receiver of

information. Li has taken full use of many mainstream social platforms to deliver her videos at home and abroad

such as YouTube, Tik Tok, Facebook and Weibo. By doing so, she can have a direct contact with her audience, that is,

the ordinary people. As the author mentioned above, Li's profitability is based on the fan economy and therefore the

traffic caused by her followers can increase her brand value and then bring her more profits. In the meantime, her

followers can help her to expand her effect online. When watching Li's videos, the audience can feel peaceful and

enjoyable in mind. So the photography technology and the post-production techniques are also important for her

success.To put it simply, Li has fully utilized many influential social platforms to deliver her videos directly to the

ordinary netizen worldwide, which is quite cost-effective because of its low cost but high output.

Fourthly, Li has great patience to produce her videos. Indeed, she has helped to spread Chinese culture to the whole

world. But as mentioned before, she originally has no intention of exporting our culture to the rest of the world. This

may remind us that we shouldn't buy something for the sake of buying something. When spreading Chinese culture

globally, we should get rid of some mentality of being overwhelmingly utilitarian in case that it may have the

opposite effect. So just be patient to your content and never speak too highly of yourself. Let your audience be the

only judge. In this regard, Li's videos may offer us some useful experience.

6 ADVICE ON HOW TO PROMOTE CHINESE CULTURE GOING GLOBAL

Firstly, give great support to the folk cultural exchanges and allow them to play a leading role in spreading Chinese

culture globally. As mentioned before, to some degree, Li's success is a typical example of people-to-people cultural

exchanges. As some papers comment, China needs more people like Li Ziqi to spread Chinese culture to the world.

In particular, by doing so, we could make the Chinese culture directly reach the ordinary people of different

countries and get rid of some obstacles that may be encountered in most Chinese official publicity materials. Even

though many foreign ordinary people have a deep and rooted prejudice against Chinese government or the

Communist Party of China, they are not that tired of Chinese people. So in such a we-media era, giving a full play to

the roles and functions of people-to-people-to-people cultural exchanges can be a useful solution.

Secondly, explore more cultural symbols and enrich the Chinese cultural content. We should explore more Chinese

elements that may attract the foreign ordinary people such as the spirit of love and kindness, the spirit of the Book of

Changes, the peaceful and poetic lifestyle of the traditional Chinese farmers. Of course, the main communicators

should be the common Chinese people, rather than the central government or some official media. Our purpose is

that through sharing Chinese culture with the world, we can reduce their prejudice against the new China and

eventually make them have a good impression on China and on Chinese people. In addition, on the national level, we

should not emphasize only the socialism with Chinese characteristics to the world. Sometimes we should find out

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what the ordinary people of various countries like and need, and then provide our cultural products with Chinese

characteristics. Over the past decades, we have always put a great emphasis on such a national image worldwide that

China has always been pursuing independence, seeking prosperity and achieving her modernization. But as for the

belief and emotions of Chinese people, they are often ignored or underestimated. So in this regard, we should

explore more Chinese symbols of culture that may be accepted by the ordinary people easily worldwide.

Thirdly, take full advantage of the development of the new media technology. When it comes to spreading Chinese

culture globally, the objects should be the ordinary people rather than the elite groups in the country. After all,

ordinary people account for a large majority of the country's population. So for the sake of reaching more ordinary

people worldwide, China needs to have more cooperation with international platforms such as YouTube and

Facebook. In addition, encourage more Chinese ordinary people to share their life with many ordinary people from

other countries on these platforms and also support the development of domestic social platforms such as Tik Tok

and Weibo so as to make them have more users worldwide.

Fourthly, seek more common grounds while overcoming the existing differences. For example, Chinese giant pandas

and Chinese Kungfu are commonly loved by many ordinary people worldwide. But spreading Chinese culture

shouldn't just rely on them. According to our research, we should find more common grounds and make them speak

for China on the world stage like Chinese food, Chinese operas and Chinese movies and TV series. We should

encourage more cultural exchanges in a wide range of areas and enrich our method of promoting cultural export such

as developing our entertainment industry and injecting more Chinese elements into the electronic sports industry, etc.

Fifthly, reform our existing Chinese education system to make sure that the compulsory education can be more

involved with Chinese traditional cultural content. Over the past years, we have always emphasized that we should

learn from the western countries and we are quite backward compared to those countries in many aspects. Due to the

long-term impact of the ideology, many people have no cultural confidence. Despite the fact that our national leaders

have often mentioned that we should improve our cultural confidence, this confidence cannot be improved just by

some slogans. We should find our cultural confidence through learning our time-honored Chinese culture. Recent

years we may also hear that some scholars want to reform the education system and improve the status quo of

Chinese. This may be a good direction, but in the preliminary and junior high school, we should also pay more

attention to the teaching of Chinese culture. Actually, culture has never be definitely defined as one thing. So the

symbols and meaning of Chinese culture can be fully discussed in the whole society. In addition, for promoting folk

culture exchanges, we need more ordinary people like Li Ziqi who knows more about Chinese crafts and Chinese

culture. If our young people have a vague concept of Chinese culture or don't know the Chinese culture symbols at

all, how could we rely on them to spread Chinese culture globally? As a result, we should forge a sound social

environment which will protect the Chinese culture and make more Chinese ordinary people aware of the symbols

and meaning of Chinese culture. To this end, reforming the existing Chinese textbooks and injecting more contents

concerning Chinese culture can be one useful attempt as well.

CONCLUSION

As mentioned above, this paper has analyzed Li's success of her short videos overseas based on Harold Lasswell's

5W Model of Communication. Then we could conclude that Li's success overseas can be summarized as follows:

firstly, Li has made full use of the advantage of the folk cultural exchanges; secondly, Li's videos are quite rich in the

cultural content, covering a large number of Chinese cultural elements and symbols which can cause a wide

sympathy among people worldwide; thirdly, Li has taken good advantage of the new media technology in the

we-media era; and fourthly, Li has great patience to produce her videos and have a high demand for the quality of the

contents in her videos.

In addition, considering Li's success overseas, this paper also gives its readers some advice on how to promote

Chinese culture going globally: firstly, give great support to the folk cultural exchanges and allow them to play a

leading role in spreading Chinese culture globally; secondly, explore more Chinese cultural symbols and enrich the

Chinese culture content to speak for China on the world stage; thirdly, take full advantage of the development of the

new media technology; fourthly, seek more common grounds while overcoming the existing cultural differences; and

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fifthly, reform our existing Chinese education system to make sure that the compulsory education can be more

involved with Chinese cultural content in order to improve the quality of folk cultural exchanges.

Definitely the conclusion of this paper still has a lot of room to improve. Lasswell's 5W Model of Communication

cannot explain the whole process of communication very completely and it lacks the analysis of feedback of the

audience and the potential effect it may bring. Overall speaking, spreading Chinese culture to the whole world is

never an easy task. Li's success may to some extent offer the readers some useful experience to spread Chinese

culture through the ordinary people. Besides, the author sincerely hopes that in the near future, there will be more

scholars devoting themselves into the study of Li's success of spreading Chinese cultural globally and offering their

insight on how to promote Chinese culture worldwide more smoothly and effectively.

REFERENCES

[1] Lasswell, Harold. (1948). The Structure and Function of Communication in Society. New York: Institute for Religious and Social

Studies.

[2] Liu, Liwei and Guo,Xiaoyang. (2013). New Media Art and Design. Beijing: Chemical Industry Press.

[3] Muth, R. and Finley, M. (1990). An Annotated Bibliography. New Haven: New Haven Press.

[4] Schorr, A. and M. Schenk and W. Campbell. (2003). Communication Research and Media Science in Europe. Mouton de Gruyter,

Berlin.

[5] Shoemaker, Pamela and Tankard, Jr., J., and Lasorsa, D. (2004). How to Build Social Science Theories. Thousand Oaks: Sage

Publications.

AUTHORS

Li Jie (1996-), Male, Native of Chaohu, Anhui Province, China, Postgraduate from China Foreign Affairs University, Research

Direction: Translation theory and practice.