Li Ziqi: Rural China, Vlogging, and the Digital Ecobiography

Abstract

There was a time when people and culture thought of rural living with respect, attentiveness, and appreciation, and the genre of literature that addresses such connection is called ecobiography, a term first introduced by Cecilia Farr and Phillip Snyder to refer to autobiographical stories involving one’s interaction with the natural environment. Such a narrative was, once again, reinvigorated when the rural life videos of Chinese female vlogger Li Ziqi emerged on YouTube, Facebook and Weibo, which frames Li’s nature-inspired autobiographical vlogs as digital ecobiography. Performing digital activism for conveying a gift relationship with nature has been essential in a change of views and treatments toward nature, rural life, sustainable living, and the wisdom of traditional culture. This chapter considers how Li Ziqi’s YouTube videos have honed the understanding that the surrounding nature is a gift by examining her ritual practices of gardening, responsible harvesting, traditional cooking, and craftsmanship, and food sharing with her elderly grandmother and neighbours. Although it offers another side to the current credo of productivity and progress, it also signals a balancing act between detaching from and taking part in the attention economy, as rural life vlogging might provide the much-required nature-inspired retreat to viewers.