Thomas Derksen (born 26 October 1988
[ ]
German version
/ref>), known as "Afu" Thomas (), is a German internet celebrity active in China.
Biography
Afu was born as Thomas Derksen, on 26 October 1988, into a Aussiedler
The right of return is a principle in international law which guarantees everyone's right of voluntary return to, or re-entry to, their country of origin or of citizenship. The right of return is part of the broader human rights concept freedom of ...
family in Gummersbach
Gummersbach (; ksh, Jummersbach) is a town in the States of Germany, state of North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany, being the district seat of the Oberbergischer Kreis. It is located east of Cologne.
History
In 1109 Gummersbach was mentioned in offic ...
, Germany,[ which later moved to ]Marienheide
Marienheide is a municipality in the Oberbergischer Kreis, in North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany.
Geography
Marienheide is located about 50 km east of Cologne.
Neighbouring places
The neighbouring towns are Gummersbach and Wipperfürth as well ...
where Afu was raised.Volga German
The Volga Germans (german: Wolgadeutsche, ), russian: поволжские немцы, povolzhskiye nemtsy) are ethnic Germans who settled and historically lived along the Volga River in the region of southeastern European Russia around Saratov a ...
descent, his ancestors emigrated to Russia with Catherine the Great
, en, Catherine Alexeievna Romanova, link=yes
, house =
, father = Christian August, Prince of Anhalt-Zerbst
, mother = Joanna Elisabeth of Holstein-Gottorp
, birth_date =
, birth_name = Princess Sophie of Anhal ...
.Soviet Union
The Soviet Union,. officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR),. was a transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 to 1991. A flagship communist state, it was nominally a federal union of fifteen national ...
in 1987, and Afu is the only child of his parents who was born in Germany.Ruhr University Bochum
The Ruhr University Bochum (, ) is a public research university located in the southern hills of the central Ruhr area, Bochum, Germany. It was founded in 1962 as the first new public university in Germany after World War II. Instruction began in ...
, taking courses about business and Chinese. From 2013 to 2014, he attended Fudan University
Fudan University () is a national public research university in Shanghai, China. Fudan is a member of the C9 League, Project 985, Project 211, and the Double First Class University identified by the Ministry of Education of China. It is als ...
,Shanghai
Shanghai (; , , Standard Mandarin pronunciation: ) is one of the four direct-administered municipalities of the People's Republic of China (PRC). The city is located on the southern estuary of the Yangtze River, with the Huangpu River flow ...
since 2016.[ He is fluent in Mandarin and has been learning the ]Shanghainese
The Shanghainese language, also known as the Shanghai dialect, or Hu language, is a variety of Wu Chinese spoken in the Districts of Shanghai, central districts of the Shanghai, City of Shanghai and its surrounding areas. It is classified as ...
dialect.
His videos depict his experiences in Shanghai
Shanghai (; , , Standard Mandarin pronunciation: ) is one of the four direct-administered municipalities of the People's Republic of China (PRC). The city is located on the southern estuary of the Yangtze River, with the Huangpu River flow ...
.[ His wife and two employees help Derksen manage his social media profile,][ - German version:]
Ein deutscher Internetstar in Shanghai
including Bilibili
Bilibili (stylized bilibili), nicknamed B Site, is a video sharing website based in Shanghai where users can submit, view and add overlaid commentary on videos. Since the mid-2010s, Bilibili began to expand to a broader audience from its origi ...
,[ , ]Tencent QQ
Tencent QQ (), also known as QQ, is an instant messaging software service and web portal developed by the Chinese technology company Tencent. QQ offers services that provide online social games, music, shopping, microblogging, movies, and group ...
, and Sina Weibo
Sina Weibo (新浪微博) is a Chinese microblogging ( weibo) website. Launched by Sina Corporation on 14 August 2009, it is one of the biggest social media platforms in China, with over 582 million monthly active users (252 million daily acti ...
.[ He has expressed an interest in the Chinese ]e-commerce
E-commerce (electronic commerce) is the activity of electronically buying or selling of products on online services or over the Internet. E-commerce draws on technologies such as mobile commerce, electronic funds transfer, supply chain manageme ...
model,Angela Merkel
Angela Dorothea Merkel (; ; born 17 July 1954) is a German former politician and scientist who served as Chancellor of Germany from 2005 to 2021. A member of the Christian Democratic Union (CDU), she previously served as Leader of the Oppo ...
on how Germany could follow China in its cashless payment system. In June 2019, he was reported to have 15 million fans in the country.
In February 2020, he uploaded a video interview with German virologist who was in China at the time to assist with the COVID-19
Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) is a contagious disease caused by a virus, the severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). The first known case was COVID-19 pandemic in Hubei, identified in Wuhan, China, in December ...
situation; the video garnered more than 3.2 million views on Bilibili. He later followed with a video (where he spoke English instead of Chinese or German) titled "Fight the Virus not China".
Books
* Und täglich grüßt der Tigervater: Als deutscher Schwiegersohn in China, 2018, ISBN 978-3-641-23907-7
* Kartoffelbrei mit Stäbchen: drei Chinesen, fünf Länder, sieben Tage – mit meiner chinesischen Familie auf Hochzeitsreise in Europa, 2021, ISBN 978-3-453-60573-2
See also
* Lee and Oli Barrett
Lee and Oli Barrett are a pair of British YouTubers based in Shenzhen, China.
Lee is the father and had lived in China for a period since before 2019. Oli, the son, formerly operated a YouTube channel related to ''Call of Duty'' and moved to China ...
- British social media figures in China
* Dashan
Mark Henry Rowswell, CM (born May 23, 1965), better known by his Chinese stage name Dashan (), is a Canadian comedian and television personality popular in China. Relatively unknown in the West, from the late 1980s through the early 2000s Dash ...
- Canadian television personality in China
* Raz Gal-Or
Raz Gal-Or ( he, רז גל-אור; ) is an Israeli internet businessperson in China.
Gal-Or, the son of Amir Gal-Or, originated from a community near Tel Aviv, and moved to Hong Kong at age 13; at the time Gal-Or lacked fluency in English, and ...
- Israeli social media figure in China
* David Gulasi
David Gulasi is an Australian social media figure active in China.
In 2017 Rowan Callick of the ''Weekend Australian'' described him as "by far the best-known Australian in the country". - Alternate title: "China's accidental megastar"Available a ...
- Australian internet celebrity active in China
* Amy Lyons Amy Lyons () is an Australian media personality and influencer active in China, where she is known as a " wǎng hóng" (网红), which in China means people who are famous on social media.
She originated from the city of Sydney, Re-postat ''New Zea ...
- Australian internet celebrity active in China
* Winston Sterzel - South African social media figure in China
* China–Germany relations
China–German relations were formally established in 1861, when Prussia and the Qing dynasty concluded a Sino-German treaty during the Eulenburg expedition. A decade later, the German Empire was established, with the new state inheriting the Pru ...
References
Further reading
* - Video
*
External links
*
Review: Book presentation with Afu Thomas
- German Centre for Industry and Trade Shanghai, BayernLB Group
Living people
1988 births
Social media influencers
German expatriates in China
German Internet celebrities
People of Volga German descent
People from Gummersbach
Ruhr University Bochum alumni
Fudan University alumni
{{China-stub