Fiji is a pearl-like island in the South Pacific, says China Daily Newspaper reporter and vlogger Peng Yixuan.

“I just love Fiji Water, I often buy Fiji water in the supermarket; the taste of the water is very mild. Fiji Island is a pearl-like island in the South Pacific. It consists of many islands.

“I know Fiji has a lot of flowers and there are people wearing flowers everywhere and I would love to see it.”

“Legend has it that thousands of years ago, the Melanesians were the first to migrate to Fiji. Later Polynesians also came to settle in Fiji. In 1774, the British explorer Cook discovered some islands in Fiji, which was a British colony for a long time.”

“So people in Fiji and people in China will have an emotional connection. I think this is probably what I know about Fiji, I hope to have a chance to see it”, she added.

Ms Yixuan has 1.2 million followers on her own social media account Vlog / Video Blog.

The 27-year-old from Hunan Province in China, studied Master of Arts in Anthropology and Documentary, and completed a MA in International Journalism. She completed her undergraduate education in China, majoring in digital media, and later in the United Kingdom.

Ms Peng is currently a reporter and director of China Daily Newspaper. When she first joined China Daily, she was a video director, and at that time their newspaper had just started to have a new media department.

In 2019, she was the first person to combine Vlog with current affairs.

“The form of Vlog was very popular in the world, so I started to do Vlog news reports. At that time, I was the first person to combine Vlogs with current affairs news in China. Therefore, it attracted attention.”

“Because of my background in anthropology and documentary, I pay a lot of attention to the characters in the stories. I have made many attempts to report on people, but unfortunately, as you can see, what everyone pays most attention to is the Vlogs of meetings in China’s current political events.

During the 20th National Congress of Communist Party of China CPC, the young reporter was known to many foreign journalists as she took short video interviews with them.

“In fact, before interviewing them, I did not have much practical purpose. I have participated in almost all political activities in China in the past five years, but this is the first time I have seen so many foreign journalists participating, which makes me very curious.”

“I wonder, why did they come? What are they going to report on? Are they satisfied with the overall arrangement? Do they need help? Can we be friends? This is what I want to know. Everything stems from curiosity, and I think this is also the intuition of every reporter.”

In the relatively early days, her videos were all published on the China Daily accounts. She started to build her own social account after 2020, and there are about 1.2 million followers.

Ms Peng said after receiving messages from her viewers she realised that she has inspired many of her followers.

“I have received a lot of messages from viewers. Many people have said that they want to learn English or become a journalist, which moved me very much.

“For me, when I was just learning journalism, my dream was to change the world, but when I really got involved in the world, I realised that change is difficult.”

“But what I’ve done so far, and the feedback I’ve received, makes me think that small stones may also create continuous ripples in the water, and if I keep doing it, it will all make sense. I hope people will see a positive, happy and hopeful world in my coverage.

Story by: MERELEKI NAI

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