Lin Xiaobai Transformation Story: Guangdong Canoe and Kayak Athlete Becomes a Popular Rural Online Celebrity in ZhejiangnnA man in a black tank top stands in front of fields full of persimmon trees, displaying his bulky biceps as he asks, Baby, do yo
Posted Time: 2025 November 6 15:15
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Do you want to eat persimmons, baby? A man in a black tight vest stood in front of the persimmon trees covering the hills, showing his muscular biceps and holding a persimmon in his arm. Because of his alternative way of promoting agricultural produc
Lin Xiaobai's real name is Lin Yangduo. His online name was taken to echo the famous poet Li Bai who had left many poems in Xinchang. This 1997-born village cadre comes from Shantou, Guangdong. He used to be a rowing athlete, but after retirement, he
Today, he holds multiple identities as a spokesperson for local products in Shaoxing City and a promoter for rural revitalization. Despite some criticism that his performances are a bit 'overly', or that he seems like an honest person going all in, i
On November 4th, Lin Xiaobai shared his experience and insights with the N Video reporters, emphasizing that when we have traffic, we should not forget our original intention. For the future, he has more plans. As a Cantonese, he hopes to return home
Lin Xiaobai
Persimmons are no longer hard to sell
Before and after the autumn harvest, in the Jingshan Natural Village, Zu'ao Town, Xinchang County, under the Tianmu Mountain, more than 2,000 persimmon trees are filled with red lanterns-like fruits. At the gate of the village, tourists are queuing u
Many people first heard of this ancient village from the series of short videos taken by Lin Xiaobai. In the videos, he is seen wearing a black tight-fitting vest, with his powerful biceps seemingly bursting through his arm sleeves; or standing in fr
Lin Xiaobai promotes and publicizes the persimmons of Jingshan Village.
After gaining popularity, he became even busier. Shooting, live broadcasting, and cooperating with interviews...Since the video of the Jinding Village Persimmon Festival went viral, Lin Xiaobai has been working almost non-stop from morning eight to e
He told the journalist from NanDu that he was still shooting video footage of the Jingshan Village Persimmon Festival recently. Among the published videos of the festival, a single work has reached up to 20 million views, and the total views of multi
The persimmons are now easy to sell, said Lin Xiaobai. Some persimmon sellers have reported that the fruit is often sold out to tourists before they even reach the market on weekends. Our persimmons are not priced higher, but there are different pric
After mid-November, the persimmons in Jingshan Village will slowly fall, and Lin Xiaobai's work focus will shift accordingly. Our next goal is to let more people know about Jingshan Village and include it as a tourism option.
He mentioned that in May, a Ningxia girl named Summer saw his video and traveled thousands of miles with her friends to visit Xinchang. However, due to the peak tourism season, most hotels were fully booked that night. By coincidence, Summer encounte
On the second day, Lin Xiaobai, as a tour guide, took Summer to visit the Grand Buddha Temple, Yangyu Village, and Meizu Ancient Town, and watched the iron-making spark show and fireworks display. They have come to Xinchang all the way from far away,
Now, in addition to being the secretary of the village's Youth League branch in Yangyu Village, Lin Xiaobai also holds many titles such as Cultural Ambassador of Xinchang County, Cultural Tourism Promotion Ambassador of Xinchang County, and spokesper
Developed personality in Shantou during childhood
Lin Xiaobai was born in Shantou, Guangdong in 1997. As his parents were often doing business in other places, he spent his primary school years with his grandmother in the village, which cultivated his independent and strong personality.
At the age of 13, he was picked by a coach from the sports school and trained for the professional kayak paddling program. He would go to the training field every morning at 6 o'clock, return to school for classes at 8 o'clock, and then continue trai
Lin Xiaobai used to be a rowing athlete.
In 2015, due to not achieving satisfactory results in the Guangdong Provincial Sports Meet, he decided to change direction and temporarily retire from sports to focus on his studies. However, he failed to be admitted to his ideal university. The foll
After graduation, recommended by his senior in the school, he became a fitness coach and his interest in media gradually sprouted.
Two years ago, Lin Xiaobai tried to run a pet-themed media account. My main job is fitness coach, and this account was my side business at that time. It was also somewhat successful with about 3,000 followers.
One year later, he met his friend He Geping who works in the self-media industry in Guangzhou. He Geping is from Yangyu Village in Xinchang County, and he hopes to produce videos about agriculture to help sell local agricultural products. This coinci
Initially, their videos were focused on the rural lifestyle similar to those of Li Ziqi, with the account name being 'Cooking Lover Xiaobai'. However, the videos didn't receive much attention with low view counts. Therefore, they adjusted their video
Unexpectedly, in April this year, the first video of “Lin Xiaobai at the Grassroots” - singing while matching the lyrics under a peach tree - had a higher playback than the most popular video of “Xiao Bai Who Loves Cooking”. They made a quick decisio
A reporter from Southern Metropolis Daily has found that in April, Lin Xiaobai at the grassroots released a total of 22 videos, with a higher update frequency than other months. We have released many videos in succession, with increasingly better tra
not willing to give up
In April this year, Lin Xiaobai was hired as the village youth league secretary of Yangyu through the talent introduction program to promote cultural tourism publicity specifically.
In just 7 months, the account data of Lin Xiaobai at the grassroots level has been very impressive: the number of fans across the board has exceeded 700,000, and the playback of a single video has exceeded 20 million. Some people may have a stereotyp
As the influence of videos grew, the responsibilities of Lin Xiaobai have become heavier and more demanding.
Lin Xiaobai is in the farmland.
As the secretary of the village's Youth League Branch, he organized a wild vegetable picking competition for villagers and rewarded a bucket of oil to the winners. Occasionally, he would also invite villagers to watch movies during festivals.
As a promoter for rural revitalization, he travels to different villages with his partner He Geping to shoot promotional videos that highlight the unique features of each village, such as the lotus flowers in Yangyu Village, the sea of clouds in Xiai
Now, he also has a third identity-the cultural tourism promotion ambassador of Xinchang County. To this end, he went to various scenic spots in Xinchang County to shoot, so that more people knew about Xinchang, understood Xinchang, and came to Xincha
Although he has become more confident with each shoot, some netizens still commented that he is like a honest person who is willing to take risks. Lin Xiaobai told the Southern Metropolis Daily that he still feels awkward sometimes, especially when t
He recalled that for the first video of Lin Xiaobai at the grassroots, a simple lip-sync singing video that was only 7 seconds long, it took nearly 3 hours to shoot.
"At first, I thought it would be easy since it just required matching mouth movements, but I found it completely different when shooting," he said. Facing the camera, he needs to be expressive, block out the people around him, and present his creativ
From a kayaker to a rural revitalization ambassador, Lin Xiaobai initially felt uncomfortable about the huge gap. He even considered giving up when shooting the first scene. However, it was precisely this athlete's experience that helped him calm dow
Since I'm already in Zhejiang, I don't want to back down. I want to go all the way and do this thing well.
Hope to promote in Guangdong again
With the surge of traffic, various voices also emerge.
In some of Lin Xiaobai's videos, he wears a tight vest or is bare-chested. Many netizens joked about him getting 'more and more exposed' and questioned whether he 'needs to wear a vest'. Some also questioned whether he is seeking attention by 'brushi
Lin Xiaobai explained to the Southern Metropolis Daily that he has his own principles and will take the opinions of netizens into account when shooting videos within an acceptable range. As an athlete, it's quite normal to wear a vest. I don't think
Thanks to those funny comments, the comment section has become more lively, which has also attracted more internet users to watch the video and learn about Xinchang.
The video's popularity has also boosted the sales of agricultural products. Lin Xiaobai recalled that a farmer who had a blueberry overstock problem found him and asked for help selling the blueberries. After investigating the team, he decided to hel
Lin Xiaobai is shooting a video in the vineyard.
In addition, Lin Xiaobai once filmed a dance video in a farmer's vineyard. After the video was released, it received millions of views, and many netizens commented that they wanted to come and buy or pick grapes.
The farmer told the reporter from Nanzhou that afterwards, when Lin Xiaobai passed by the vineyard, he often asked him to bring some grapes home, 'he really helped me out'.
Lin Xiaobai summarized, 'We have to capture the flow and make good use of it.' Before coming to Zhejiang, he didn't know that villages could develop tourism based on their characteristics to promote rural revitalization.
For example, the persimmon trees in Jingshan Village that are certified as commonwealth trees and hung with signs, villagers will understand that these trees are only for visitors to admire and cannot pick the fruits on the branches. A tacit understa
He found that the local area would also promote its characteristics, invite influential bloggers to shoot videos, and set up exclusive festival nodes, such as the peony flower opening in Renjia Village in April and the persimmon festival in Jingshan
Besides the tourist attractions, the village also has guesthouses, country-style restaurants, and large parking lots, with relatively complete supporting facilities. As the number of visitors to the village increases, more villagers have set up stall
Regarding his future plans, Lin Xiaobai expressed that he will continue to focus on the promotion of Xinchang's cultural tourism. If given the opportunity, he also intends to return to Guangdong for promotion occasionally, 'after all, I'm still a Gua
（Source: Southern Metropolis Daily）
