Cooking Up Net Success

Frenchman gets a taste of life as a cyberstar in China By Wei Yao

On August 18, a Frenchman living in Beijing set out to make a live broadcast of an event at the Chinese Royal Gastronomy Museum. Antoine Bunel, 38, filmed an overseas students’ visit as part of the Beijing International Youth Tourism Festival, an initiative aimed at helping young people know more about Beijing and promoting cultural exchanges between China and other countries.

For Bunel, talking with netizens through his cellphone camera is his job. He has been an “online celebrity” for about three years.

Bunel came to Beijing with his Chinese girlfriend in 2012. As a computer professional, he found an e-commerce job introducing Chinese goods to European and American markets. In 2014, he set up his own account on Weibo, China’s equivalent of Twitter, and began making live broadcasts of his cuisine. This helped him win a large number of fans and made him an online celebrity. His Weibo account now has more than 124,000 followers.

Today, Bunel, known by his Chinese name An Naonao, runs his own restaurant. He often appears in television shows on gastronomy. He also helps provide publicity to businesses and government departments through live online broadcasts or offline activities. Bunel said he has the contact information of more than 4,000 people in his cellphone address book and WeChat account, another popular social networking platform in China.

In his eyes, the most important thing for a person to be an online celebrity is to have as many friends and resources as possible.

( Photos by Wei Yao)