95-post girl promotes oracle bone script online

Li Youxi writes oracle bone script characters. [Photo provided by interviewee]

One evening a year ago, Li Youxi, a graduate who majors in Chinese language and philology and specializes in oracle bone script, set up a fill-in light and teleprompter at a friend's house. Facing the camera, she discussed online everything related to oracle bone script.

Oracle bone script is a form of divination script engraved on turtle shells and animal bones by the officials of the Shang Dynasty for the royal family. It is the earliest mature writing system discovered in China and the origin of Chinese characters.

Li Youxi's video, titled "The Most niche major on the Internet," is over two minutes long, but it took her over five hours to make the video. The script underwent numerous revisions, with Li striving to make every sentence easily understandable. After its release, the video received over a million views in just one night, connecting ancient writing from 3,000 years ago with today's audience.

Oracle bone script is seen as a "niche and lost discipline." At Zhejiang Normal University, only one teacher, Chen Nianfu, specializes in oracle bone script. That year, only one student was admitted – Li Youxi. With a small number of students, the classroom was set up in Chen's living room. Li cycled to class every week.

Before class, Chen would prepare a pot of tea, fruit, and snacks for the students. Then, he would project the rubbings of oracle bones onto the TV screen and start explaining while the students sat on the sofa opposite, listening to him. 

Exploring how these oracle bone characters were created is like solving a mystery, and Li found it incredibly fascinating – behind each character's current form lies a series of stories.

After graduation, Li found it hard to get a job related to oracle bone script. Her two jobs over a year after graduation had nothing to do with it.

The unexpected popularity of videos about oracle bone script motivated Li to return to her profession. Nearly two years after graduating, she became an oracle bone script vlogger, telling the public about it on social media.

Over the past year, this post-95 creator has produced and released over 100 videos, receiving nearly 800,000 followers on a single platform. Her "students" range from elementary school children to elderly people.

Li had once considered becoming a Chinese language teacher to promote oracle bone script in classrooms. Now, she has created her own classroom online with more "students," from which she also sees the vast development opportunity of this "lost discipline."

Some Chinese language teachers refer to her videos in classes. As an Oracle Bone Script vlogger, Li Youxi is influencing others in a unique way.

Source: China Youth Daily; trans-editing by Guo Yao