Does anyone remember the Chinese YouTuber Office Ms Yeah (办公室小野)? Her videos about making food in the office used to be very popular. However, after an incident which ended badly for two young girls, her popularity plummeted.
Ms Yeah’s (real name: Zhou Xiao Hui, 周晓慧) viewers went from millions to mere thousands. She’s never quite managed to regain the same popularity she had earlier. Yet, the YouTuber seems fairly happy with her life now. In fact, she recently got married to her long time boyfriend!
In 2019, Ms Yeah encountered a serious incident thanks to one of her videos. Two young girls, aged 12 and 14, attempted to follow instructions in one of her videos to make popcorn. In the video, Ms Yeah used beer cans instead of the usual equipment. However, it backfired on the two girls. An explosion caused the 14-year-old to die from serious injuries, while the 12-year-old was severely burned.
Ms Yeah was accused of negligence, however she stated that she had put warnings to deter viewers from imitating her videos. The YouTuber did compensate the families but, regretfully, the damage to her reputation was too severe. Her video views dropped following the incident. Although she occasionally achieves a few million views on a few videos, she has not managed to reach the same numbers she did prior to the incident.
It has been two years since the unfortunate incident took place and the YouTuber has certainly bounced back from it. On 1st November, Ms Yeah announced news about the wedding on Weibo. “This day is comfortable for us, so naturally (we love it).” she wrote. “Thank you for your blessings, keep going wild!” She included several photos of the wedding which looks like it took place at the beach. Many netizens congratulated her in the comments and wished her well in the next chapter of her life.
Although it seems as though the YouTuber has moved on, she clearly has not forgotten the incident. Ms Yeah continues to apply warnings in her videos – however, she does maintain her creativity with her content.
We too would like to offer our congratulations to the YouTuber! Hopefully, she’ll regain her popularity someday.
Sources: Weibo, Xuan, BBC News
