Rose & Anzai Country Life

Adikin Rose Maryhttps://www.independent.co.ug/ugandan-born-adikin-rose-mary-stars-on-chinese-tik-tok/ (born: ),Timestamp 3:57 https://youtu.be/CnEDFoEYBzI?si=d9fp6IMQF1bs7isy going by her YouTube name Rose & Anzai Country Life,https://youtu.be/c2ZI_9KMq3o and better known as Rose (Mandarin: 肉丝; pinyin: ròu sī), is a Ugandan-Chinese YouTuber who specializes in culinary and vlogs of country life.
Rose's videos primarily focus on Chinese-themed or centered culinary and lifestyle vlogs surrounding her life in the rural countryside in Zhejiang province, China. Rose’s vlogs often showcase her with her husband and son and occasionally her Chinese friends.
==Early life==
Born in 1993 in Tororo, Ugandahttps://youtu.be/-zgI2lX8eRY to a rural family that was not wealthy, Rose helped her parents with farm work from an early age. As a teenager, Rose worked for a furniture company in selling furniture. In order to facilitate communication with Chinese colleagues and customers, Rose began to learn Mandarin.https://min.news/en/featured/126eabec52fad82abbe0838ce5e90cbc.html
Rose befriended a fellow female colleague from Lishui, Zhejiang, who specialises in importing and exporting trade. The colleague is from the countryside of said province, and was the one who introduced Rose to her cousin and Rose’s now husband Wu Jianyun (Mandarin: 吴建云; pinyin: wú jiàn yún). 
 
The two started off interacting online. Rose initially refrained from sending photos of herself due to the Chinese’s racism and prejudice towards Africans, but eventually did some time later. They initially faced language barrier and thus had to use WeChat's translation tool on their phones to communicate. The said tool did not translate well. so Rose and Jianyun communicated through hand gestures.
Rose emigrated to China in 2014 and travelled around with Jianyun before getting married in April 23, 2015. Rose further improved her Mandarin through the help of her husband, who taught her so through writing Mandarin characters on paper. She learned it quickly with the help of her friends and neighbors as well. Many African languages are tonal and monosyllabic like Mandarin, hence Rose was able to learn Mandarin easily and with proper tonal pronunciation.
Rose earned her Chinese visa on March 31, 2015. The two later have a son born in January 2016 named Wu Zi’an (Mandarin: 吴子安; pinyin: wú zi ān), nicknamed Anzai (Mandarin: 安仔; pinyin: ān zǎi)https://www.laitimes.com/en/article/3olmq_45amk.html Rose has currently been in Zhejiang for 8 years, and had only made a few trips back to her native country Uganda to see her family there due to financial struggles. Whilst in Zhejiang Rose would post videos of her life on social media so her family could see how she is abroad.https://archive.is/f7LIa Rose initially worked in a coffee shop full time. She picked up her culinary skills through her husband and his two brothers who worked as chefs in the past.
The first video Rose vlogged was on her Douyin (Chinese TikTok) channel, where she shop clothes for her son Anzai, the video is well-received among netizens hence Rose continued vlogging consistently.https://youtu.be/bZZtGE97BgE?si=9PZLAdx2x7ZKrwfp A local culture promotion company spotted Rose and offered her a job as an influencer.
Rose initially started vlogging on Chinese social media platforms like Douyin and XiaoHongShu (Chinese Instagram) in early 2021 and garnered 12 million and 700 thousand followers respectively, making her among the most followed non-Chinese influencer and the most followed African influencer on both platforms. On Douyin, Rose’s demographic is predominantly female which makes up almost 80% of her followers. Her largest demographic range is 18 to 24 years old, which takes up almost 30% of her audience base.[Mandarin] https://www.feigua.cn/article/detail/556.html
Some time later, Rose expanded her online presence by posting her vlogs on TikTok and Facebook. Rose currently has over a million followers on the former platform.
==Career==
Rose joined YouTube in June 15, 2022 and vlogs daily. Rose’s videos are directly taken and reposted from her Chinese accounts but with translated English subtitles.
Rose’s videos are mostly about her cooking for her husband and son in Yecun Village of Suichang County, Lishui City in east China’s Zhejiang Province. She often shows the whole cooking process, from the field to the table, and cooks all kinds of dishes like hotpot. In her videos, she interacts with her family and neighbors amiably in Mandarin with a local Suichang accent.
Rose's most viewed video is her cooking noodles for her son Anzai titled "It's been eight years since I got married in rural China. Cooked some noodles for Anzai today." which currently has more than 5 million views. Rose's most viewed short is a still image of her and her husband and Anzai titled "Happy Family".
Rose pivoted to retailing food she harvests in her farm. Around January to February 2033, Rose promoted and sold her own grown Morchella esculenta mushrooms to her viewers at the countryside she resides.https://www.youtube.com/live/_UkHG_nuCuE?si=qmPDFLIzYLUn0W2h[Mandarin] https://video.weibo.com/show?fid=1034:4920437688172581
Outside of culinary videos, Rose also vlogs her with her son exploring the countryside and sometimes the city area of Zhejiang, or interacting with local residences and friends.
In mid June 2023, Rose was featured in Lishui "Two Mountains" Practice Achievement Promotion Week held in Shanghai, which celebrates the efforts of local food and agricultural content creators.[Mandarin] https://www.sohu.com/a/685709826_120244154https://www.tiktok.com/@roseinchina1/video/7248119005360295186
Between January to February 2023, Rose’s subscribers count jumped from 12,000 to 136,000 subscribers.https://socialblade.com/youtube/channel/UCsVKn32MwIVd9cPa6Yo1ztg/monthly In June 30, 2023, Rose received her Silver Play Button for surpassing 100,000 subscribers on her YouTube channel. In celebration of reaching the subscribers mark, Rose made a Q&A and unboxing video for her viewers.https://www.facebook.com/roseinchina1/posts/pfbid0BJZH4hjVp6X8it9ZSQPJknAAX71BRX13Rh25GicJRUFN7KT3J1PxyTpVuZBcpXmvl
Rose brought her son Anzai back to her home country Uganda during his 2023 summer vacation to visit his maternal relatives. The family vlogged videos in Uganda.https://youtu.be/n2CE8Mbl2A8?si=c1k4U3Ba4pDntXjd Rose was sponsored by the country’s official tourism brand, Explore Uganda.https://youtu.be/qrAX4TCdlHU?si=pk94VRXkDzfHgevl
In late October 2023, Rose and her family are invited and acted as spokespersons for the Belt and Road Forum held at Zhejiang. As part of improving economic and trade ties between Africa and China, Rose announced how under the initiative she sought to promote African and Chinese products and cultures between the two through her role as a content creator/vlogger.https://youtu.be/d84lHlK4DXs?si=6SzfZmP8wYDYthpv
== Personal Life ==
Rose is of Adhola descent. Adhola are a Nilotic ethnic group of Luo peoples that live in Tororo District of Eastern Uganda. In a Q&A, Rose revealed how she is multilingual, she can speak Dhopadhola natively, Dhopadhola is a dialect among the Adhola people. She can speak basic English which she learnt in school back in Uganda. Since her emigration to China, Rose learnt to speak fluent Mandarin. Rose mentioned how she formerly spoke Luganda, a language from Kampala, Uganda. However, since her years in China she has forgotten the language.
In November 2023, Rose and her husband are expecting a second child.https://youtu.be/aCczcS5zF_g?si=A90Ww9WC1Sli81CB
== Philanthropy ==
Rose and her friend gave away academic supplies like stationery and notebooks for the former's child relatives and neighborhood children.https://youtu.be/Pf_ACINTFV8?si=W21ocr3K30siwVL3
Rose and her vlogging team partnered with ANTA, a local sportswear brand to provide sneakers and clothing to Ugandan school children in Rose's alma mater.https://youtu.be/TQMD53rb4S0?si=rn1ESJlU35JxNSNehttps://youtube.com/shorts/EayTs2podPU?si=XV-phjG8m82lLrZ8
==Trivia== 
*Rose is dubbed as "African Liziqi" among Chinese netizens because of her culinary skills and how she lives and films in the countryside similar to Liziqi.
*Rose is called Rou Si (Mandarin: 肉丝; pinyin: ròu sī) by Chinese friends, relatives and netizens. The name's literal translation means "shredded meat", it is stemmed from homophonic, similar sounding pronounciation of the English word for the flower "rose", which translates to "Mei gui" (Mandarin: 玫瑰; pinyin: méi guī) in Mandarin instead.
**Official Chinese news outlets called Rose as Lu Si (Mandarin: 露丝; pinyin: lù sī) instead.
*Rose's YouTube channel title is derived from her name and her son's nickname, Anzai.
*The team behind the filming and editing are a small group of Chinese youths from Rose's culture promotion company. One of them is her cameraman nicknamed Shao Shao (Mandarin: 邵邵; pinyin: shào shào).
==Gallery==
=== Pre-YouTube ===
File:RoseinChina early photos.jpeg|Young Rose
File:RoseinChina1 past photo.jpeg|Young Rose in Uganda.
File:RoseinChina early 2010s in Beijing.jpeg|Rose in Beijing circa 2014/2015.
File:RoseinChina 2015 marriage.jpeg|Marriage ceremony, circa 2015
File:RoseinChina with her son Anzai.jpeg|Rose with her toddler son, Anzai.
File:RoseinChina with her friends.jpeg|Local friends.
File:RoseinChina1 friends photo.jpeg|Local friends.
File:RoseinChina1 family photo.jpeg|Rose’s family.
=== YouTube Career ===
File:RoseinChina1 YouTube Avatar.jpg
File:RoseinChina with her husband.jpg|Rose eating with her husband
File:RoseinChina Cooking 4.gif|Rose cooking for friends
File:RoseinChina Cooking 3.gif|Rose's cooking process
File:RoseinChina Cooking 2.gif|Rose preparing spicy food
File:RoseinChina Cooking.gif|Rose cooking Chinese fried rice
File:RoseinChina Farm House Exterior.jpeg|Exterior of farmhouse
File:RoseinChina Silver Play Button 2.jpeg|Rose with her 100 thousand subscribers plaque
File:RoseinChina Silver Play Button 1.jpeg
File:Rose Anzai maternal family.png
File:Rose Anzai family photo.png|Family photo
File:Rose Anzai maternity photoshoot.png|Maternity photoshoot. Rose dons a Mamianqun skirt with a stand collar Mandarin blouse.
==References==
Category:Cooking YouTubers
Category:Vlogging YouTubers
Category:Ugandan YouTubers
Category:Chinese YouTubers
Category:Users who joined in 2022