Chinese signage salesman wins global fandom through humor

⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Tony Zhu, a Chinese salesman who blends comedy with LED promotional signs, has amassed a global online following by transforming ordinary ads into humorous skits.

In the short clips, Zhu promotes signage products with uncanny accents and impersonations, playfully affecting the speech of the American rural south and even the working-class Londoners of old.

Users from all over the world have professed their affection for this young man in the comment sections of his videos, winning him a fandom he never expected.

"It feels very awesome. I could say, yes, I never imagined that I could be like this, even just one year ago," said the young salesman.

Growing up, Zhu's parents worked at a skate shoe factory in Guangdong Province's Dongguan and encouraged him to study hard. In school, his favorite subject was English, which eventually led him take a job in marketing at the signage company in Guangzhou.

Initially, he made conventional product videos like many others. After a year of seeing the videos gain little traction, he decided to draw inspiration from the Western comedians he admired.

Some of these videos garnered millions of views, bringing in new customers.

"It's not as people thought it could be, like five times or 10 times of growth. No. We made a growth from 5 to 10 percent in total. And to me, that's actually pretty good," he said.

Each day, Zhu and his team create about two videos for social media. To maintain the momentum, a lot of brainstorming is required.

While Zhu views himself as just a salesman doing his job, his fans seem to project onto him something far greater. Some internet comments have even said that Zhu could fix U.S.-China trade relations.

His own aspirations may not reach those heights, but the young salesman does hope to foster more exchanges between businesses on both sides.

"I went to America and I found a lot of ideas that we could learn from. And we also have a lot of American sign company customers coming to China, and they look at what we do and they also find something they can learn. I find it a very amazing thing. Rather than treating each other like an enemy, I think it'd be much better if we chose to learn from each other during competition, during cooperation. It would eventually benefit both sides, I think," he said.

Chinese signage salesman wins global fandom through humor

The United States' push to revoke China's Permanent Normal Trade Relations (PNTR) status, or granting the Most Favored Nation (MFN) treatment permanently, is a clear instance of unilateralism and trade protectionism, according to a white paper released by China's State Council Information Office on Wednesday.

The white paper, titled "China's Position on Some Issues Concerning China-US Economic and Trade Relations", aims to clarify the facts about the bilateral economic and trade relations between the two countries and lay out China's position on relevant issues.

The white paper said that the PNTR status is the ballast of China-U.S. economic and trade relations.

The U.S. push to revoke this status violates the rules of the World Trade Organization's (WTO), undermines China-U.S. relations, and disrupts the global economic order, the white paper noted.

According to the white paper, WTO rules require its members to unconditionally grant MFN treatment to all other members, a requirement that has binding legal force.

Over the past two decades, the PNTR has served to stabilize China-U.S. economic and trade relations. Revoking China's PNTR status will see China-U.S. economic and trade relations returning to the uncertainty and unpredictability that preceded China's accession to the WTO in 2001.

China opposes any unilateralist and protectionist acts that sabotage the multilateral trading system and hopes that the U.S. will be clearly aware of the possible harm caused by its attempt to revoke China's MFN status, the white paper said.

The white paper called on the U.S. to work constructively with the overwhelming majority of WTO members in safeguarding a fair and reasonable global economic and trade order and environment.

Rescinding China's most favored nation status undermines foundation of China-US trade relations: white paper