By Xiao Wu, video by Xingchen Yue, iChongqing
Chongqing - "I am a Chongqing girl," said Xiao Xiao, a Moldova girl who has lived in Chongqing for five years.
Over 1 million followers on Tiktok (a popular media app for creating and sharing short videos) have made her a famous online celebrity in China. Chongqing is where her dream starts.
In Xiao Xiao's videos on Tiktok (Douyin to the Chinese audience), her perfect Chongqing dialect is very impressive. Even a Chongqing local can hardly tell that she was a foreigner by only hearing her voice. "I learned to speak Chongqing dialect before I could speak Mandarin," she said. Unaware of China's many dialects at the beginning, Xiao Xiao thought Chongqing dialect as the standard Chinese language and took considerable efforts to acquire mastery. The mistake later turned out to be great luck for her. Xiao Xiao's fluent Chongqing dialect became a critical factor in her online popularity.
"When I stepped out of the airplane in Chongqing for the first time, it felt like...I was home." Xiao Xiao recalled her first impression on Chongqing. After the first travel to Chongqing, she fell in love with the city and decided to come back to live here. Doing self-media, eating delicious Chongqing cuisine, making good local friends, and dancing ballet, she manages a fruitful and exciting life in Chongqing.
Her popularity online also helps more people get to know her home country –Moldova. "I want more Chinese people to get to know my country- Moldova. It is a small country with a 500-year history and not known to many. However, I have 1 million fans in China, and they all know Moldova now," said Xiao Xiao proudly.