The character arc of Li Ziqi
A life drawn by Character Arc from the public record
Born on 6 July 1990 in Sichuan, named Li Jiajia. Orphaned very young, she moved in with her grandparents after a stepmother mistreated her, and was raised in poverty. Between then and now sit a restaurant job at fourteen, a spell learning to DJ in a nightclub in Mianyang, her grandfather's death in 2012 and a return to the village to care for her grandmother, videos she filmed and cut herself from 2015, a dress made out of grape skins, a food brand, a factory, a Guinness World Record in February 2021, a legal dispute that took her off the internet for three years, control of her own name won back in December 2022, and a return in November 2024. The line below draws the story so far, in order.
Drag along the line to move, pinch or use the buttons to look closer. Tap the line to pluck it, or any mark for its card. Drawn from the public record of her life; the sources are at the foot of the page.
Who is Li Ziqi?
She went home to nurse her grandmother. Then she filmed it.
She was orphaned very young. She has said she moved in with her grandparents after a stepmother mistreated her, and that she was raised in poverty. At fourteen she began working as a restaurant waitress, and later learned to DJ and worked in a nightclub in Mianyang. In 2012 her grandfather died and her grandmother became ill, and she went back to her home village to look after her.
She started posting videos in 2015. She made them herself at first, and has said her editing at the time failed to capture the creativity she was trying to express, so she taught herself better. In 2016 a video about making peach wine was put on the front page of a video platform and the audience arrived. In 2017 she posted her first video to a Western platform, about making a dress out of grape skins.
What she films is the whole chain. Not a finished dish but the soil it came out of: the planting, the harvest, the tools made by hand, the dyeing, the fermenting, the waiting. She rarely speaks. The sound is birds, frost underfoot, a cleaver, garlic in a pan, and the occasional exchange with her grandmother. The videos run between five and twenty minutes and she has said plainly what they are for: she wants people in the city to know where their food comes from. Some critics say her picture of country life is prettier than the real thing.
She built a business on it. A food brand under her own name in 2018, sold through an online shop, and a factory in 2020 making a regional noodle dish. In February 2021 she was given a world record for the most subscribers on a Chinese language channel on a Western video platform, with eighteen million by early 2024 and more than twenty six million followers on the largest Chinese one.
Then she stopped. In July 2021 she put the channel on hiatus because of a legal dispute with the network she had partnered with. She sued them in October that year. The contents were not made public, but she had said in an interview a week earlier that she did not want to see her intellectual property over commercialised. In December 2022, after the court case, she became the controller of the company that owns her own name and brand. She was gone for three years. In November 2024 she announced her return.
The moments
Li Ziqi's timeline.
The 1990s
Born in Sichuan
Everyday. A name she would later change, in a province she would come back to.
Orphaned, and taken in
Setback, and it changed everything. Two grandparents, no money, and a house that was safe.
The 2000s
Waitressing at fourteen
Setback, and it changed everything. Fourteen, in a restaurant, a long way from the village.
The 2010s
She goes home to nurse
Setback, and it changed everything. She left the city because somebody at home needed her.
She starts filming
Milestone, and it changed everything. One woman, one camera, and editing she had to learn.
Peach wine finds an audience
Milestone, and it changed everything. One video on a front page, and everything after it.
A dress from grape skins
Milestone, and it changed her direction. Her first video abroad, and it was about making a dress from fruit.
A brand of her own
Milestone, and it changed her direction. The videos paid for a brand, and then a factory.
The 2020s
A world record
Milestone, and it changed everything. A world record, held by a woman filming in a village.
Sign, or stop posting
Crossroads, decided.
The paths laid out: stop, and go to court, taken, or keep posting and settle. She won control of the company that owns her name and brand in December 2022, and announced her return in November 2024, after three years away.
She stops posting
Setback, and it changed everything. At the top, and she walked away rather than sign it over.
She wins her own name back
Milestone, and it changed everything. The thing she stopped working for, and she got it.
She comes back
Milestone, and it changed everything. Three years of silence, and then a new video.
She went back to a village to look after an ill grandmother and turned the daily work of that life into something tens of millions of people watch on purpose. What she set moving is a way of filming where the point is the whole chain, the soil to the bowl, and the quiet in between.
In her words
Quotes by Li Ziqi
I simply want people in the city to know where their food comes from.
Your turn
Every line draws a unique story.
Hers is a childhood in poverty, a job at fourteen, a return home to nurse somebody, and three years of silence to get her own name back. Yours is already further along than you think, and drawing it takes about five minutes.
Li Ziqi: frequently asked questions
What people ask about her line.
What is Li Ziqi's character arc?
What does Li Ziqi make videos about?
Why did Li Ziqi stop posting?
Did Li Ziqi come back?
What record does Li Ziqi hold?
What businesses does Li Ziqi run?
Where does this timeline of Li Ziqi's life come from?
More character arcs
Lives that rhyme with her.
Sources
- Li Ziqi, English Wikipedia biography.
- Guinness World Records entry, most subscribers for a Chinese language channel on YouTube, February 2021.
- Court and company records for the 2021 dispute with her network partner and the December 2022 transfer of control.
- Her own interviews, which are the main published source for her early life.
- State honours, official appointments and the public argument over the political meaning of her videos are omitted here under this gallery's apolitical rule.
- No Wikiquote page exists for her, so the quotation below is taken from the record above.
- Li, interview, September 2019.