Vlogger denies he was forced to delete videos

A 13-year-old vlogger with nearly 1.5 million followers on a shortvideo platform denied that he was pressured to delete videos in which he made fun of teachers.

Zhong Yusheng, from Hegang, Heilongjiang province－who calls himself Zhong Meimei, or Zhong beauty, on video-sharing platform Kuaishou－became popular for his unflattering but entertaining and precise imitations of female teachers.

The now-deleted Kuaishou videos－which can still be found elsewhere online－depict the young vlogger pretending to be a teacher criticizing students for bad behavior and attempting to hold class while sick, among other scenarios.

In one video, Zhong presents himself as a female teacher who suddenly stops teaching and throws away the book after she found that someone was eating chocolate and not behaving well during class.

"There is no point for me to continue teaching as only a handful of 'good students' listen carefully," the teacher scolded the entire class, "Listen to me. You are learning for your own good. If you all get bad grades, my salary will not be influenced at all."

According to netizens' comments, many of the vlogger's satirical scenarios aren't too far from reality.

"This is exactly how my teachers were," read one comment under a compilation video of Zhong Meimei's "greatest hits" on microblogging platform Sina Weibo.

"This reminds me of my school days and I even became nervous," another wrote.

Last week, netizens noticed that Zhong Meimei had deleted all of his videos imitating teachers. Many suspected that he might have been pressured to do so by his school or the local education authorities.

Tian Guangxiao, Zhong's teacher, told China Central Television that the videos do not have much influence on him or other teachers at the school.

There are all kinds of videos online, and it is only natural for there to be videos imitating teachers, he said.

"I encourage him to do more acting, and I hope he can also improve his understanding of culture so he will have a long acting career," Tian said.

Zhong said he began making short videos in late April and decided to imitate teachers because he had seen similar imitations before.

"I make the videos for fun, and I do not want to uglify any teachers. These videos do not target any specific teacher," he said.

Zhong said his mother told him to delete the videos as she fears that some of the negative comments online may have a bad influence on him.

Wu Qiong, Zhong's mother, said the school did not pressure her or her son to delete the videos and the teachers only wanted to communicate with her about her son's studies.

"He suddenly became very famous, and I do not want the fame to influence his studies," she said.

Zhong said he wants to be admitted to the Beijing Film Academy and become an actor when he grows up.

"The imitation is part of the preparation for being admitted to the academy," he explained.