Amy Lyons (Chinese: 李慧琳; pinyin: Lǐ Huìlín[1]) is an Australian media personality and influencer active in China, where she is known as a "wǎng hóng" (网红),[1] which in China means people who are famous on social media.[2]

She originated from the city of Sydney,[3] and is an alumna of the secondary school Pymble Ladies' College.[4] She stated that her interest in China began with a history class she took in her final year there in 2011,[1] as the teacher was highly interested in the country.[3] As an international commerce student at the University of New South Wales,[1] she began taking Mandarin Chinese courses in 2012,[3] in 2014 she took a student exchange period in Shanghai,[1] of seven months, at Fudan University.[5] Around 2014 she began working at a bank in Australia, but disliked it,[1] and she also served as a cheerleader in the Manly Seabirds, the cheerleading team of the Manly Warringah Sea Eagles.[3] In 2015 she entered into the "Chinese Bridge" Chinese language competition and qualified to be the Australian representative.[5] She received about 1,000 followers on Sina Weibo after the Chinese Bridge producers suggested she do so.[1] A Chinese friend gave her a Chinese name, which Lyons said was chosen to reflect her personality.[5]

In February 2017 she moved to Beijing to take Chinese courses at Tsinghua University, and she began learning shaolin kung fu.[4] She stated that she decided to extend her social media activities after arriving in Beijing.[1] In 2017, on her Chinese social media platforms she had a total of 65,000 followers.[3] As of 2017 her most prominent social media platform was Miaopai.[6] That year she had 1,100 followers on Instagram.[3] She received increased social media coverage in a video called "Chopstick Legs".[3] Lyons stated that Chinese people are attracted to having long, thin legs.[6] As of 2017 it had over three million views, making it her video with the most views.[1]

See also

References

  1. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 Mullin, Kyle (2017-12-04). "Mandarin Monday: Q&A With Australian Internet Celebrity Amy Lyons, AKA Li Huilin". The Beijinger. Retrieved 2019-12-10.
  2. ↑ McCauley, Dana (2017-09-10). "Why China knows this Aussie better than you do". Stanthorpe Border Post. Retrieved 2020-04-28.
  3. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 "Sydney's Amy Lyons is raking it in as a Chinese social influencer". news.com.au. 2017-09-11. Retrieved 2019-12-10. As her fan base grew, the former Manly Seabirds cheerleader and Pymble Ladies' College alumnus[...] - Re-post at New Zealand Herald
  4. 1 2 McNab, Alexander Cecil (2018-02-24). "Kung Fu Foreigner". The World of Chinese. Retrieved 2019-12-10. [...]Lyons graduated from Pymble Ladies' College, in a suburb of Sydney, with a degree in marketing,[...] - The article misidentifies Pymble as her university (as "college" in American English means a university).
  5. 1 2 3 Rothfield, Phil (2015-06-28). "Manly Seabirds cheerleader Amy Lyons competing in Chinese speaking competition". The Sunday Telegraph. Retrieved 2019-12-10.
  6. 1 2 Evlin, Lin (2017-09-04). "Amy Lyons, 24yo star of Chinese social media, takes stock of 'quirky' career path". ABC (Australia). Retrieved 2019-12-10.
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