Tao Xiangli, a migrant worker from Anhui now living in Beijing, has only five years of primary education. Yet he single-handedly designed and built a functioning submarine out of oil drums, taking his submersible craft into the depths of a reservoir.
Millions of Chinese learned of this legend originally from Youku. As has happened to many [...]

Chuan Zi (川子), a Beijing grassroots singer who enjoys a good reputation within the Youku community and even once dedicated a concert to Youku fans, is promoting a new song destined, I’m betting, to be another hit on the site: Happy Lane (Xingfu li,幸福里).
Obviously heavily influenced by Cui Jian, the “Godfather of Chinese Rock, [...]

It’s only fitting that the Youku user who uploaded this little pastiche of Christmas decorations around Beijing should have been shot exclusively in shopping centers around Beijing — Shin Kong Place, Wangfujing and so forth. It’s become almost entirely banal to note the extent of commercialization of Christmas in China — not that I really [...]

Once again from our omnipresent Youku paike have uploaded another excellent video report. Mr. Qin Shi Shiping (秦仕平), a Tangshan (唐山) peasant who has worked in the construction industry for many years, was struck back in 2005 by the idea of recreating the most famous Chinese classical painting, Along the River During the Qingming Festival [...]

This adorable little boy, now 4 years old, thrilled millions of Chinese with his Michael Jackson style street dancing. He has an English nickname, Morning Baby, but his Chinese nickname is cuter:　Precious Jr. (XiaoBao, 小宝). He shot into fame when he performed on one popular talent television show, Very 6 +1 (非常6+1), which kind of [...]

China may not have been slammed quite as hard as the U.S. in the economic downturn, but Chinese college graduates are having a tough time finding work. They’re spending longer in the job hunt, starting the search for employment as much as a year ahead of graduation and waiting for hours in some cases just [...]

We loved this video, which appears to have been shot at Adventure World, Shirahama, Wakayama prefecture in Japan. There’s a video on Youtube featuring the same twin baby pandas - not like I can tell one panda from another - in what appears to be the same enclosure. Not sure it’s the same video. In [...]

This paike video clip artistically and subtly renders the loneliness and alienation that a self-described Ant Tribe member feels as he rides the crowded Beijing subway day in and day out. The video has been viewed 855,257 times as of this posting.
“Ant Tribe” (蚁族, yizu) is a new phrase that’s recently become popular in China. [...]

We’re beginning a new weekly feature here where we’ll briefly describe the five most-viewed videos on Youku of the week, each Friday. We hope this provides some insight into what Chinese Internet video viewers are watching, and what they think of it!

Uploaded on: November 29 09
Total Views: 1,756,334
Thumbs Up: 99.9%
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Kelly Cha (Zhazha) interviews [...]

Probably no figure to have emerged recently in Chinese pop culture has been more widely reviled than Zeng Yike, the singer dubbed “Brother Zeng” by detractors for her supposedly androgynous appearance (I don’t really see it). Her somewhat anemic voice and tendency to wander off key stirred up indignation from many watching Hunan Satellite Television’s [...]