When we sit down for lunch Jessica Beinecke (more commonly known by her Chinese name, Bai Jie 白洁) deftly guides our waiter through the delicate process of making an Arnold Palmer. And the cross-cultural mingling only expands from there.
With some 40 million views online, Bai Jie’s popular OMG美语, BaiJieLalala and CrazyFreshChinese video series have become the go-to places for learners of English and Chinese to pick up colloquialisms and fun phrases: everything from “Good point!” to “Twerk.” Other popular videos include English and Chinese versions of “Sup Bro,” “Freakin’ Awesome,” and House of Cards.
We had a chance to sit down and chat with Bai Jie, and we broke down how this one-woman-and-a-few-interns operation has become such a viral hit.
The inspiration:
I’m always thinking of new words to do. If I’m having a conversation with a friend, or on the phone with my mom, or talking to somebody at the coffee shop and I think of a word, it goes in the notebook and it will become an episode.
I’m literally constantly thinking and working. I was just in Hunan and one of the women in Yueyang at dinner was singing a song about hot peppers and I was like, “We have to shoot a show about this song!”
On the CrazyFreshChinese side [teaching Chinese to English-speakers] I think, “What would the average teenager in Ohio want to learn to say in Chinese? What is something they would learn in Chinese right now that they could instantly use?”
Maybe just to replace an English word every once in a while. Instead of saying “Sup bro,” they can say “Ge’mer, zenme yang?”
For BaiJieLalala [teaching English to Chinese-speakers], I think of my former roommates in Beijing and Hangzhou; they were truly the first people who helped me connect with Chinese language and culture.
I love to base videos on requests. Some of them are too weird to do, and I’ll say, “Sorry, that’s too weird.” I definitely vet it, but the more I can make it about the followers and what they want to learn, the better.
The production:
I shoot a lot of stuff selfie-style, on the go. I mostly shoot in my apartment, with a big projector screen I bought on Amazon that folds down and goes behind my couch. I live in a less-than-400-square-foot apartment in New York City, and I shoot everything on my iPhone. It connects to a little tripod I rigged up for it.
At the moment I still process all of the videos by myself. There’s something about the way the video flows that I’m really obsessed with controlling. I developed a flow and an energy to these shows, how it should look and sound.
These videos are about 30 seconds long, usually. I write it, I shoot it, I cut it, I put it online and I curate the social media. I “put it online” means I upload it to 8 platforms, so it’s quite time consuming.
It’s great to have a plan, but then meetings pop up, and you go to China, and you do all of this other stuff, and your process gets flipped around and it turns out being a re-run day. There are re-run days, I admit. Sometimes it’s just necessary.
On twerking:
Everybody loves the “Twerk” episode. People think it’s so funny. Kids in China and the US know twerk, and they think it’s funny that that’s the Chinese term for it. Diàntúnwǔ 电臀舞 [that is, “electric butt dance”] is just hilarious. It’s such a literal term, it’s probably my favorite Chinese word right now.
I try to focus on what young people would want to use right now, and I want to give them a balance of the basics as well as something that is relevant to pop culture. I’ve also done themed weeks like House of Cards [which included, among other things, dressing in a wig and eating ribs] and I’ve been thinking about a Beyoncé week.
The fans:
It blows my mind that people are so nice to me online in comments. I don’t know how I got so lucky.
Chinese fans are the best fans on the planet. I love all fans equally, but I love Chinese fans a little bit more. They are so passionate about learning English, and they are all so positive with their comments and their interactions with the blogs. There’s just a love there that doesn’t exist anywhere else in the world. Chinese fans are the bomb, I love them.
I just returned from Hunan, and I visited more than 1,000 students in high school and middle school in a day and a half. They were all so excited. The most incredible part was when this school in Zhuzhou brought out the entire 8th grade: how do you interact with 600 kids?
So I said, “Ok we’re going to learn some words!” And in the mountains of Zhuzhou, the word “Swag” rang clear. They’re screaming words like “Flip Flops” and “Swag” and “Gorg” and “Totes” at the top of their lungs. They were so into it and so excited.
The celebrity:
If I go to China Town or a Chinese restaurant in New York, people are like, “Are you that girl?” I’ve had this kid come up to me in a dim sum place in China Town and ask for a selfie. I’ve met so many college students in America who have come up to me and said “Thank you so much.” It’s that same love that I hope to establish with English-speaking fans, but they’re harder on me.
There are also so many kids in America taking Chinese now. Many colleges and high schools see Chinese as something they have to offer, or that they should offer and they just haven’t gotten the chance yet. It’s obviously being discussed and considered.
I’ve been approached by people of all backgrounds who are learning Chinese and they’re like, “We watch your show! Oh my god Crazyfresh!” It’s really cool to experience that.
Learning a new language is painful for a very long time, but then it’s not! And you feel proud about the work that you put in. The videos are something to encourage people to keep going. You’re not going to get fluent from watching them, but you’re going to have fun and gain some new inspiration for the language you’re learning.
The new Da Shan?
No. People keep saying that, but I don’t believe them. How could I be Da Shan? He’s almost like a mythical creature. Nobody’s like, “Hey, you’re from America, do you know Bai Jie?”
// To learn more about Bai Jie’s work, check out CrazyFreshChinese.com, where you can binge-watch from her video library. Her work is sponsored by the 100,000 Strong Foundation and the Asia Society.
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