Tenzing Tsondu (

Tibetan Tibetan may mean: * of, from, or related to Tibet * Tibetan people, an ethnic group * Tibetan language: ** Classical Tibetan, the classical language used also as a contemporary written standard ** Standard Tibetan, the most widely used spoken dial ...

: བསྟན་འཛིན་བརྩོན་འགྲུས་; Chinese: 丁真珍珠; Pinyin: Dīngzhēn Zhēnzhū; born 7 May 2001), known professionally as Ding Zhen (Chinese: 丁真), is a

singer,

Internet celebrity An Internet celebrity (also known as a social media influencer, social media personality, internet personality, or simply influencer) is a celebrity who has acquired or developed their fame and notability through the Internet. The rise of social ...

and businessman from

Litang Litang may refer to: * Litang County (理塘县), Sichuan *Litang, Guangxi (黎塘镇), town in Binyang County *Li Tang (hall of worship) The Confucian church ( or ) is a Confucian religious and social institution of the congregational type. It ...

, Sichuan Province,

China China, officially the People's Republic of China (PRC), is a country in East Asia. It is the world's most populous country, with a population exceeding 1.4 billion, slightly ahead of India. China spans the equivalent of five time zones and ...

Early life

He was a

Kham Kham (; ) is one of the three traditional Tibetan regions, the others being Amdo in the northeast, and Ü-Tsang in central Tibet. The original residents of Kham are called Khampas (), and were governed locally by chieftains and monasteries. Kham ...

pa herdsman who did not finish primary school and barely speaks

Mandarin Mandarin or The Mandarin may refer to: Language * Mandarin Chinese, branch of Chinese originally spoken in northern parts of the country ** Standard Chinese or Modern Standard Mandarin, the official language of China ** Taiwanese Mandarin, Stand ...

Ding Zhen Phenomenon

On 11 November 2020, he became famous on the Internet for a 7-second TikTok video clip, and was named 'Sweet Wild Boy (Chinese: 甜野男孩; Pinyin: Tianye Nanhai)' by Chinese netizens. Within a few days, his related message was read by over millions people on

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 ...

. On 18 November, he was recruited by Litang Culture, Tourism and Sports Investment Development Corporation Limited, a local

state-owned company A state-owned enterprise (SOE) is a Government, government entity which is established or nationalised by the ''national government'' or ''provincial government'' by an executive order or an act of legislation in order to earn Profit (econom ...

to promote the local tourism industry. Other East Asian countries, such as

Japan Japan ( ja, 日本, or , and formally , ''Nihonkoku'') is an island country in East Asia. It is situated in the northwest Pacific Ocean, and is bordered on the west by the Sea of Japan, while extending from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north ...

and South Korea, have also covered him. Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Hua Chunying also reposted photos of Ding Zhen on Twitter. The "Ding Zhen phenomenon" has led to a large number of Chinese tourists travelling to Tibetan areas, with a significant increase in orders for destinations such as

Kangding airport Kangding Airport is an airport serving Kangding, the capital of Garzê Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture in western Sichuan Province, China. It is located northwest of the city center. Construction of the airport began in September 2006 and the a ...

and Daocheng Yading airport. However, the Central Tibetan Administration criticised the Chinese government's use of Ding Zhen to

propaganda Propaganda is communication that is primarily used to influence or persuade an audience to further an agenda, which may not be objective and may be selectively presenting facts to encourage a particular synthesis or perception, or using loaded ...

as not really promoting Tibetan culture, especially their religion.

Works

On 4 February 2021, Ding Zhen released his first album ''1376 All Wishes Come True'' (1376心想事成) in collaboration with a Tibetan band,

ANU Anu ( akk, , from wikt:𒀭#Sumerian, 𒀭 ''an'' “Sky”, “Heaven”) or Anum, originally An ( sux, ), was the sky father, divine personification of the sky, king of the gods, and ancestor of many of the list of Mesopotamian deities, dei ...

Controversy

Ding Zhen has caused great controversy in China since obtaining a position in a Chinese state-owned enterprise requires fierce competition, including low pass rate exams. Many highly educated job seekers express their dissatisfaction with this.

References

{{Reflist

External links

Ding Zhen
on

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 ...

21st-century Tibetan male singers Chinese Internet celebrities 2001 births Living people