Love Stream

Love Stream A Shanghai live-streamer seeks fame and money by becoming a virtual girlfriend to thousands of fans. But she breaks the rules and falls in love with the wrong guy. By Justin Jin

In the world’s most crowded social media galaxy, where internet stars burn out as fast as they form, a young Chinese woman stares into a magic mirror that tells her, she is the fairest of them all.

This slender new migrant in Shanghai, constantly walks around with a mobile phone on a selfie stick. The live-streamer self-broadcasts in a country that leads the world in embracing real-time content.

Every day she wakes around midday in her immaculate 20-metre apartment. After ordering a Chinese brunch on her mobile app and applying make-up, she looks at her phone again: a selfie-app further whitens her skin, enlarges her eyes and chisels her chin.

“Friends, ni hao!” she speaks cheerfully to the digital image of herself.

Nai Nai streams outdoors, bringing fans along her walks.

Nai Nai gets up at noon everyday and streams to her fans to boost her follower count, which hovered at only 800.

While Nai Nai was streaming to her small fan base, a surprise guest appeared on her screen. Jiang Bo is one of China's top live-streamers, watched by more than a million followers.

That night Jiang invited Nai Nai on a night out in his white Ferrari.

Nai Nai learns Korean K-pop dance to improve her shows.

Nai Nai, a 23-year-old live-streamer in Shanghai, China, eats noodles in front of her fans.  Nai Nai’s fans are mostly Chinese men between 15 and 30 years old who post messages and virtual gifts, visible to everyone logged on to her chatroom.   China’s livestreaming industry reached 425 million subscribers in 2018 out of a current total internet user base of more than 829 million, according to government statistics cited in Chinese state media. Livestream hosting is an increasingly popular career choice, especially for young Chinese women like Nai Nai.

Traditional clothes and hair style.

Nai Nai joins Jiang Bo and other live-streamers on an army bootcamp to boost their audience.

After a day of training, the live-streamers return to their dormitories to broadcast.

Nai Nai and her agent.

Nai Nai broke the rules of the live-streaming game and falls in love with Jiang, the mega-star. Her career crashed.

Nai Nai spends her 23rd birthday with just two fans, who watch her on their phones -- the way they are used to seeing her -- while she blows her candles.

Photographer. Writer. Storyteller. Justin Jin produces stories for the world's finest media, from the National Geographic and Geo to the New York Times. International prizes attest to his dedication.

Justin speaks five languages -- English, Mandarin and Cantonese Chinese, Russian, French and Dutch, and splits his time between Europe and China.

Born in Hong Kong, he studied philosophy and social science at Cambridge University. His started his career as a journalist at Reuters news agency in London and Beijing, and then embarked on an independent path, having lived in Moscow, Amsterdam and now Brussels.

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