Online popularity follows example of reaching out
Meng Yinghong, an undergraduate student of a Hong Kong university, who is currently taking online lessons in Shanghai, is overwhelmed by her online popularity.
The 22-year-old Shenzhen resident from Guangdong province recently posted three videos on short-video platform Bilibili about her experience of staying and helping with COVID-19 containment measures in Shanghai’s Pudong New Area. The videos, posted under her pseudonym La Hong Sang, had received 13.48 million views by Tuesday. The videos of her voluntary service are infused with humor and passion similar to some earlier videos, such as adaptations of popular songs, her new “horrible” haircut, or taking her father to a nail salon. Meng has run her blog for six years, and now has more than 2.8 million followers.
Managing around 168 residents in the Shanghai building is her second “leadership experience” since the first in senior middle school, when she helped teachers monitor English lessons, she says.
“Most of the residents are older than me. Their life is occupied by work or babysitting. So I stepped up to offer help to the community,” says Meng. “It’s my dear-diary moment when I was appointed as
a person ‘in charge’. I called my parents immediately and hoped to record my experience through video.”
To leave a mature impression on others, which she thought would benefit her, Meng changed her portrait on WeChat from a funny one featuring her dog to a picture of a lotus in a pond, symbolizing peace and calm.
The first day of her volunteer work was smooth, she says. She informed residents of the building about the nucleic acid tests they needed to get.
However, her identity as a blogger
was soon revealed by her neighbors and her videos were circulated in group chats. But long after the joy, some challenges followed. One day, Meng had asked the residents to get antigen test kits from the building lobby and return the samples after taking the tests.
“It was an awful day. The walkietalkie used to speak from the lobby to each apartment was almost broken, so I had to say the same thing many times due to the poor connection. Some residents were busy working and late for the tests, so I had to urge them again and again,
while some were impatient.
“When returning home, I realized I had forgotten my mom’s birthday,” says Meng, adding that she cried when hearing her mother’s voice in a call that night.
“Feelings of distress was soothed by my parents who encouraged me to be brave to take the responsibility. My father said it was like the tip of an iceberg in life to deal with burdens, and if I cried now, my anxiety could cause excessive hair loss when encountering a bigger challenge,” she says.
“It’s true. I’m not as exhausted as medical workers on the front line.”
The experience gradually increased Meng’s ability to handle pressure, solve problems and deal with different personalities, she says. For example, she learned to communicate better with the neighborhood committee about residents’ demands and get presents for the residents who first responded to calls asking them to fetch ration.
“The difficult times and the social distancing have brought residents who only saw one another in passing before the outbreak closer in spirit today,” she says.
After Meng said in her video that she missed lunch during work one day, her neighbors who watched the video brought her free food the next day. The residents also donated goods for those in need and took care of the elderly together.
“It’s valuable to learn to give, instead of taking it for granted to receive services, and I’ll continue to record key moments in my life on the social media platform,” Meng says.
Kathy Chen from a foreign-funded company, says she has heard of many volunteers like Meng who have devoted their time and effort to the fight against the COVID-19 outbreak, which shows the “beauty of human nature and resilience of a city amid challenges”.