Some of you may have seen those videos with TikTokers and livestreamers sitting on sidewalks entertaining their audience. And it’s easy to chuckle about it at first. But let’s look at the phenomenon from another angle. Naomi Wu, a Chinese maker, posted some videos about this and commented on them and put them in context. What we see here is a bunch of young people who spend their evenings showing their creativity and entertaining an audience with it.

Showing it on social media is often their only creative outlet in a repressive regime where conformity is not only valued, but sanctioned and enforced by the state.

What looks funny here, because there are so many in the same place, is very social. When they do it together, it not only gives the area real energy and fills it with life, they can also feel safe together, learn from each other, and hey – at least they’re not hanging out in bars, getting drunk and doing drugs.

Let’s also not overlook the fact that quite a few of these TikToker:ins work in the very factories where our iPhones and other products of our desires were made. During work they are just numbers, but here in the evening they are mini-celebrities in front of their audience.

As we can see, they don’t show their “titties” (although there’s nothing wrong with that, actually), but they sing, dance, imitate, show magic tricks and otherwise show themselves very talented. a And what sometimes looks hilarious is just a way to try new things for the audience. There is undoubtedly a demand for content of all kinds, and they deliver, even though to our untrained eyes it may look “all the same.” No, it’s all about maximizing output with real and proven success formulas and trying new variations.

By the way, before we dismiss it all as a “girl thing” and that’s beneath us, it’s not just young women, many men do it too, as you can see in the video.

So enjoy it and let them have their fun, unless you want to show how old you’ve gotten….

Source of the videos and inspiration: Naomi Wu