NPR

For Years, I've Been A Correspondent In China. This Month, I Became A Viral Star

A video of NPR Beijing correspondent Anthony Kuhn asking a question about a policy to expand the Beijing region got millions of views on Weibo, China's answer to Twitter. Here's why.
A video of NPR Beijing correspondent Anthony Kuhn asking a question about a policy to expand the Beijing region got 5 million views on Weibo, China's answer to Twitter.

In Chinese, the back story to a movie or news item is called huaxu, or flower catkins. In other words, fluff.

That's the headline describing a video clip of me on Sina Weibo, China's answer to Twitter, and the country's main microblogging platform, with more than 500 million registered users.

The clip shows me asking a question at a government press conference on March 6. Less than a day after its posting, the clip had been viewed 5 million times.

Not bad for an admittedly wonky foreign correspondent, who

You’re reading a preview, subscribe to read more.

More from NPR

NPR2 min read
Gaza Solidarity Protests Sweep U.S. Colleges; SCOTUS Tackles Starbucks Union Case
Tensions are high as campus protests over the war in Gaza stretch across the U.S. The Supreme Court will hear a case about pro-union Starbucks employees.
NPR7 min readWorld
Pro-Palestinian Encampments And Protests Spread On College Campuses Across The U.S.
After dozens of pro-Palestinian protesters were arrested at Columbia, Yale and NYU, students at colleges from Massachusetts to Minnesota to California are erecting encampments in solidarity.
NPR6 min read
A Hunk Of Space Junk Crashed Through A Florida Man's Roof. Who Should Pay To Fix It?
"It was not like anything I had ever seen before," Alejandro Otero says. It turned out his home was hit by debris from the International Space Station that had been circling the Earth for three years.

Related Books & Audiobooks