Live Streamers Go Virtual

by Zheng Weicheng

VTubers: Who are they and why have they become so popular in recent Chinese media? In this piece, Jerry introduces us to the virtual reality characters that are taking over the internet and offering an escape to the virtual world of dream and adventure in exchange for donations and gifts from viewers.

· Cultures Explained · 

On the night of October 21st, 2020, live streamer Hiseki Erio, a young girl in a green overcoat with long red hair, was singing Japanese songs as usual, unaware of the craziness that lied ahead. During the rest of that night, billions of viewers would crowd into her live stream, bringing with them an astonishing number of gifts worth approximately 918,678 RMB ($159,085 USD). [1] However, the most unbelievable part of this “Night of Miracle” was that the girl, Hiseki Erio, never existed in the real world. “She” was merely a virtual character, a beautiful anime designed by illustrator Paryi. This is a typical example of the popularity of Virtual Youtubers (VTubers) in contemporary China.

credit: www.bilibili.com/read/cv8038984

Just years ago, live streaming was still an obscure area of entertainment. [2] Now, it has become widely known and appreciated by the Chinese people. Live streaming is not a strange concept for foreigners either, with platforms such as YouTube and Twitch hosting livestreams on topics that range from presidential debates to professional player “Shroud” performing perfect shots in popular video game Call of Duty. But usually, live streamers are real people showing their talents in front of a webcam, thus it may be hard for foreigners to comprehend the fondness that Chinese people have towards the imaginary characters known as VTubers. In this article I will explain the cultural and social reasons behind the appreciation of VTubers in China.

The concept of VTubers began in 2016, when, in her debut video, a Japanese Youtuber known as “Kitsuna AI” denominated herself a “Virtual Youtuber”. [3] The popularity of VTubers continued to grow ever since, and eventually entered the Chinese internet world. VTubers are virtual characters showed in live streams controlled by real people behind the screen known as the zhong zhiren, who give them life through voice. Throughout the duration of the livestream, watchers can send gifts and money via interactions with their favorite character. [4]

credit: http://www.looktmt.com/0079/690/30152179498.html

But why are VTubers called “virtual”?  Well, VTubers only exist in the virtual world, usually in the form of anime characters. Live-2D or 3D model technologies are used to synchronize the facial expressions and lips of the characters with zhong zhiren to give them life. In addition, the personality of the VTuber character also exists only in the virtual world. When streaming, zhong zhiren are required to behave or act in accordance with their portrayed character. Interestingly, for audiences the persona of a VTuber is not, as we would imagine, solely determined by his virtual character, but rather by both the character and the person behind it. Some viewers enjoy looking for and discovering personal information of the zhong zhiren behind their favorite VTubers and extend their love and appreciation for the virtual character to the real person.

Culturally, the reason behind VTubers’ success in China has a lot to do with the popularity of Japanese ACG (animation, cartoon, and games) culture among younger generations. In recent years, young Chinese people have developed a strong passion in this area with Bilibili, the biggest ACG website in China, reaching over 50 million active users per day with an average age of 21, by the end of 2020. [5] The features of VTubers, in terms of animated appearances and dramatic personalities, highly resonate with those of Japanese ACG cultures. The resonance between VTubers and Japanese ACG culture establishes the fundamental acceptance by the Chinese audience of this special form of live streaming and therefore also asserts their appreciation for the Japanese ACG culture.

https://www.globaltimes.cn/content/962164.shtml

From another point of view, VTubers’ popularity is also associated with the creation and portrayal of a wonderful daily life in live streams, which is different from the rather mundane daily routine of the contemporary young Chinese. Faced with social pressures like the economic burden encountered when living in the metropolises and difficulties in dealing with heavy amounts of schoolwork, young Chinese have been trapped in the tiring daily routines. [6] However, in their virtual world, VTubers can chat with audiences, play games during working hours and create an atmosphere in which the young viewers can witness what their ideal life would be like and escape, even if for a bit, from their harsher realities. One specific example is that of Shizuku Lulu, a Japanese VTuber whose series of vlogs, presented in Chinese, on her daily life in Japan gained large popularity among her Chinese fans. Though some of her popularity is associated with her incredible fluency in Chinese writing even as a beginner, she is mainly acclaimed for her representation of the romanticized life of a Japanese female worker. [7] Some fans even request Shizuku Lulu to update her diaries daily, so that they can always keep up her “daily life”.

 

Another important factor in the shared appreciation for the virtual world is the shared sense of burden amongst Chinese youngsters. As parts 3 and 4 of the book My Country and My People imply, Chinese youngsters have too many unspoken rules to worry about in their social life which cause for a lot of pressures and mental health deterioration. [8] However, in the virtual world created by VTubers, youngsters’ social pressure are eliminated since their social life becomes selective. In other words, they can choose to communicate with the VTubers they feel most comfortable with, being able to avoid the pressures of socializing with “real” people they may feel uncomfortable around. 

Moreover, lots of virtual communities surrounding VTubers are established by fans, usually in the form of “fandom group chats” where they get to bond over their shared admiration for their favorite VTubers. In fact, some fandom groups are directly created and managed by the VTubers as the “official group chats” and are usually the most influential ones. It is important to note that I am not implying that social pressures totally disappear in the fandom groups, since quarrels and disagreements between fans often occur. But, unlike reality-based social relations with classmates, family members or colleagues from whom one cannot easily escape, VTuber audiences’ relationships are based on their common interests and, while being online, one has the freedom to quit immediately once said interest is lost. [9]

https://space.bilibili.com/410484677

Ultimately, VTubers represents the controversial Chinese nerd cultures in the new age. The Chinese nerd cultures, in which “nerds” would prefer to submerge themselves in science fiction, computer games and distractions from reality, is the now mirrored and revamped in the new appreciation for VTubers. [10] It remains controversial to judge whether it is right for the “modern nerds” to seek their escape in VTubers instead of working on resolving real-life issues. The older generation fears the virtual reality takeover, hoping the leisure on the virtual world does not negatively affect communications and interactions on the real world.

 

But one thing is for sure, in the face of serious issues such as controversial comments regarding politics, the virtual world will always submit to the reality. Take as an example the boycott of Hololive, a Japanese VTuber company, when two Hololive VTubers offended China’s political system last September. Though Hololive was one of the most popular VTuber companies in China, with some of its VTubers each having over 1 million fans on Bilibili, the boycott on Hololive’s commercial activities could not be prevented. Fans stopped supporting Hololive VTubers, and the Hololive fandom groups voluntarily disbanded. [11] In front of the insults to their country and their ideology, Chinese VTuber audiences chose to protect the fame of their motherland instead of sticking to their virtual world. 

credit: https://space.bilibili.com/286700005/dynamic

Another instance in which the virtual and real worlds merge is when serious issues are involved and tragic stories warm the hearts of viewers. Behind the character of VTuber Hiseki Erio, mentioned at the beginning of this piece, was a 27-year-old female who lost job during COVID-19 while still having to sustain the pressure and financial burden of taking care for her ill grandmother. Before that “night of miracles” when oceans of gifts and money drifted her way, she struggled with a big financial burden and only had a limited income from her livestreaming. Her real-life sufferings touched the viewers and inspired them to donate to the real person facing real obstacles behind the character of Hiseki Erio. To her contempt and, dare I add, surprise, the donations ended up being enough not only to solve her problems, but to make her a millionaire in a matter of days. [12]

 

In China, the relationship between VTubers and their audience can be interpreted as a transaction: VTubers provide the ideal world for viewers to have fun in and viewers, in return, give donations to VTubers to support their work and the building of this ideal world. [13] However, it would be too shallow to flatten the warm story of Hiseki Erio into this business-like relationship. Instead, we can find the warmth of humanity in the Chinese audience, generously helping a Japanese woman with whom their contact is limited to a VTubers’ livestream. In this case, the relationship between the two groups becomes more than a cold transaction and transforms into a connection. The livestreams build a bridge connecting both ends of the screen, joining audiences and the zhong zhiren through the animated virtual character. This unique connection of warmth, along with this new reliance on the virtual world to solve pressures and social contacts specific to the Chinese society should be essential for any outsider to fully understand the popularity of VTuber culture in China.

Editors | Giulia de Cristofaro

Layout |  Lexue Song 宋乐雪

Website  | Josh Manto 

Who is Weicheng Zheng (Jerry)?

On Weicheng Zheng’s (郑炜城) student ID card, he is a junior majoring in Data Science. In his mind, he is a game developer, adventurer and HCI researcher. In his heart, he is a passionate gamer and Virtual YouTuber (VTuber) lover. He wrote this essay in Austin Woerner’s EAP class in spring 2021, aimed at exploring the prevalent VTuber phenomenon and the correlated Otaku subculture in China, also covering social interactions in virtual worlds. Some of the thoughts in this essay have been developed into his research project in HCI world.

Author's Review

Thank the editor so much for editing my essay into such a smooth piece of work. It has been over a year since the essay was finished, and I have also gained deeper insights into VTuber’s world and found that some of the terminologies I originally used was actually defined in another way in many Human Computer Interaction (HCI) research works. Thus, I would like to point them out and give some necessary justification to them.

Firstly, the term zhongzhi ren, the voice actor behind the virtual avatar, was referred to as Nakanohito, the Japanese word for “the person in the middle” [14]. Additionally, the nerdy subculture I mentioned in second half of the article was referred to as Otaku subculture, another Japanese word for “people passionate about anime, cartoon, games and novels (ACGN) subcultures” [14]. Finally, my usages of persona, the term for one’s public presence, in describing VTubers was overlapping with identity, the term for the sense of continuity and uniqueness [15] in APA Dictionary of Psychology. As for other terminologies, I decided to keep the original version which contained some subtleties in thoughts I had when I was a freshman — a great memorial of the past!

If your interests about VTubers are aroused by this article, I would recommend you to check out the great piece of work by Prof. Lu et al., about viewer’s perception on VTuber [14]. Their team had also observed VTuber’s phenomenon in China, some of the findings “echoing” my essay, but they examined it in a more solid and insightful way (a qualitative interview study with 21 viewers) [14].

References

[1] “VirtualYoutubers – Hiseki Erio Just Went Insane Popular on Chinese Market, What Are Your Thoughts on Her?,” reddit, accessed March 7, 2021, https://www.reddit.com/r/VirtualYoutubers/comments/jfnrwj/hiseki_erio_just_went_insane_popular_on_chinese/.

[2] Zepu Wang, “Live Streaming.” In My Country and My People (2019), 67.

[3] Qin Wang, 王钦︱虚拟主播,或”月之美兔”的忧郁, Retrieved March 06, 2021, from https://www.thepaper.cn/newsDetail_forward_3374393

[4] Zepu Wang, “Live Streaming”, 69-71.

[5] “【B站Q3财报】用户平均年龄21岁:未来是年轻人的天下,” 哔哩哔哩_新浪财经_新浪网, November 19, 2020, https://finance.sina.com.cn/stock/relnews/us/2020-11-19/doc-iiznctke2294493.shtml.

[6] Yunan Mei, “Seeking One’s Fortune in Beijing”, My Country and My People (2019), 63.

[7] “雫るる_Official的个人空间 – 哔哩哔哩 ( ゜- ゜)つロ 乾杯~ Bilibili,” accessed March 7, 2021, https://space.bilibili.com/387636363/dynamic.

[8] “社交恐惧正在毁掉90后,” 知乎专栏, accessed March 7, 2021, https://zhuanlan.zhihu.com/p/51404474.

[9] 東浩紀, 褚炫初, 動物化的後現代: 御宅族如何影響日本社會 (大鴻藝術公司出版), 125

[10] Ibid, 7

[11] “Hololive,” accessed March 6, 2021, https://zh.moegirl.org.cn/Hololive#%E4%BA%8B%E4%BB%B6.

[12] “绯赤艾莉欧/历史,” accessed March 6, 2021, https://zh.moegirl.org.cn/%E7%BB%AF%E8%B5%A4%E8%89%BE%E8%8E%89%E6%AC%A7/%E5%8E%86%E5%8F%B2.

[13] “8u们,当提督舰长有啥感想?【V吧】_百度贴吧,” accessed March 7, 2021, https://tieba.baidu.com/p/7250458258?pn=1.

[14] Lu, Zhicong, Chenxinran Shen, Jiannan Li, Hong Shen, and Daniel Wigdor. “More Kawaii than a Real-Person Live Streamer: Understanding How the Otaku Community Engages with and Perceives Virtual Youtubers.” Proceedings of the 2021 CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems, 2021, 1–2. https://doi.org/10.1145/3411764.3445660. 

[15] “Apa Dictionary of Psychology.” American Psychological Association. American Psychological Association. Accessed August 4, 2022. https://dictionary.apa.org/persona.