Peng Bo has become much busier interacting with netizens since her video promoting local rice was published last month.

In the video, Peng, deputy director of the cultural and tourism bureau of Yuhong district in Shenyang, Liaoning province, garnered a lot of attention and likes as she seamlessly switched between her fluent English and northeastern dialect while livestreaming in a rice field.

Within just two days of its release, the video had accumulated tens of millions of views on various online platforms.

Born in 1983, Peng graduated from Shenyang Normal University with a major in English, and became a civil servant in Yuhong, mainly responsible for translation and interpretation.

In June, Peng became deputy director of the district’s cultural and tourism bureau. “After I took the position in the bureau, I collected historical information about the district to find the stories of Yuhong,” she said. “I found Yudong was the first place that started planting rice in Shenyang.”

To create a contrast, she decided to promote rice in English and the northeastern dialect. She and her colleagues contacted the district’s agricultural and rural affairs bureau and asked them to help recommend several high-quality grain growers, she said. “We captured videos when they were busy harvesting rice and invited a villager to introduce his rice,” she said.

The creative team consisted only of her and another employee from the district government, she said, adding that the video’s popularity was somewhat accidental. However, she found communicating with netizens very enjoyable. “In two days after the video went published, I replied to over 3,000 comments,” she said. “I found that they were quite curious about Northeast China, and I have added a few friends from the comments section on WeChat.”

After the video went viral, the villager featured in the video, Zhao Heping from Wanjin village, and the other four farmers who left contact information at the end of the video have become increasingly busy.

Farmers in the village sold over 100 metric tons of rice within a few days after the video was posted.