Liu Jie never expected her first self-made video to go viral, and she wasn’t even aware that it had until a former fellow university student told her she had watched an inspiring video online and asked if Liu had produced it.
Then phone calls from the media streamed in.
In late February, Liu, a startup founder in Shenzhen, uploaded We Are All Fighters, a four-minute, English-language video that calls for united efforts to fight against the COVID-19 pandemic.
“The reason I made the video is quite simple,” Liu said in an online interview. “I just want to urge people to put aside discrimination and join hands to fight the fear, the rumors and the virus together.”
The essence of us is the same — we are looking forward to embracing a better and decent life with dignity
Liu Jie, producer of viral video We Are All Fighters
Liu described Wuhan, the former center of the coronavirus outbreak, as being like her “other hometown,” because she had lived in the city for four years while attending college. She didn’t want to see the city demonized by discrimination and biased reports.
Liu posted the video one month after the health authorities confirmed that the novel coronavirus could be transmitted from human to human. During the tough early period, the infection tally and death toll grew day by day. Strict social distancing measures were enforced in all Chinese mainland cities.
Liu and her family members, including her 1-year-old daughter, were all stuck at home. “Negative information poured into me every day and many people were disturbed by fear, sadness and depression,” she recalled.
Liu, who often participated in English-speech contests when she was a student, decided to make an English-language video to give people spiritual support.
The new mom had to squeeze in the time to deal with everything, including script writing, audio recording and video edits, on her own.
Only after the rest of the family had gone to sleep could Liu have a quiet environment to record the audio. She locked herself in the kitchen at midnight and repeatedly read every sentence of the speech she drafted to figure out the correct tone and emotion. After that, Liu cut and edited the video clips on her phone. It took her more than three weeks to finish the video.
Power of the internet
Her efforts paid off. The video had more than 200 million views within two days after she posted it, and it spread in different social media platforms.
Liu said she read news that many countries lent their hands to help China amid the difficult time, which made her feel what the real meaning of “the community of common destiny” is. Therefore, in early March, Liu made a follow-up video she titled Thank You, World.
The two videos were played at the World Sustainable Development Forum held in Mexico in early March, and the second one garnered hundreds of thousands of views on YouTube.
In Liu’s view, the internet world provides individuals opportunities to express their personal views and lowers barriers between people from different places and allows them to communicate with each other more conveniently. “It’s a gift of the era,” she said, while acknowledging it also can bring misunderstandings and facilitate the spread of rumors.
Under the circumstances, Liu said she hopes her experience can inspire more Chinese young people to participate in international exchange activities and tell their own stories on the international stage.
Liu moved to Shenzhen from Beijing with her husband three years ago. She said she loves the city where they settled down and had a baby. “Our life is like being fast-forwarded in this vibrant city.” she said.
In Liu’s eyes, Shenzhen is a city popular among young people because “hard work always pays off here.”
Liu said she is optimistic about the city’s future, adding she believes it will have a closer relationship with other cities in the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area.
“Information, young people and talent will flow and move in the Bay Area with fewer barriers,” Liu said.
She thinks Hong Kong still has huge space and a solid foundation to cooperate with other cities in the region, even though the city was rocked by last year’s social unrest, and some Hong Kong residents may have different views from mainland residents on some political issues.
“The essence of us is the same — we are looking forward to embracing a better and decent life with dignity,” Liu said, adding that she believes the mainland and Hong Kong can cooperate well based on that foundation.
