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Rock Hotpot: Why Chinese Celebrities are Opening up Their Own Hot Pot Restaurants

It remains one of China’s favorite dining styles: hot pot (火锅), also known as Chinese fondue – a dish that never seems to go out of fashion. Why are so many Chinese celebrities opening up their own hot pot restaurants?

Manya Koetse

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It is one of China’s favorite dining styles: hot pot (火锅), also known as Chinese fondue, an ancient dish that never seems to go out of fashion. In this special series, What’s on Weibo explores the latest trends in the world of Chinese hot pot. In this first issue: our recent visit to Beijing’s Rock Hotpot, owned by the popular Chinese rock band Second Hand Rose. Why is it a trend for Chinese celebrities to open up their own hot pot restaurant? (Check out our latest Weivlog here.)

It is a growing trend that started some years ago: Chinese celebrities are opening up their own hot pot restaurants across the country. Over the past few months, the celebrity hot pot boom has caught the attention of Chinese media sites and Weibo’s netizens, making ‘celebrity hotpot’ (明星火锅店) a much talked-about topic.

Alternative Beijing rock band Second Hand Rose (二手玫瑰) recently opened up its very first private hot pot place in Songzhuang, while the established celebrity hot pot chain ReLaYiHao just keeps getting more popular.

But there are also scandals; Chinese actor Bao Bei’er (包贝尔) was called out by Chinese state media earlier this year for serving fake duck blood in his hot pot joint.

Spicy hotpot served by Second Hand Rose.

Chinese hot pot (huǒguō 火锅, literally: ‘fire pot’) has a history of over 1000 years. The tradition is thought to have derived from Mongol warriors who camped outside and had dinner together, circled around a pot on the fire.

The main idea is that while the hot pot brew is kept boiling, you place fresh ingredients into the pot and cook them at the table. Nowadays, hot pot tastes vary greatly across different regions in China, but what matters most is its enjoyment: sitting with friends and family around the boiling stew, sharing food, eating slowly, and talking.

Celebrity Hot Pots

Over the past five years, it has become a trend for Chinese stars to invest in hot pot chains or start their own restaurants. As early as 2009, Taiwanese singer and actor Nicky Wu (吴奇隆) was one of the early adopters when he started a Thai-style hot pot chain by the name of Lemon Leaf (柠檬叶子). He now has three restaurants in Taiwan, and one in Beijing.

Many other celebrities followed over the past three or four years. Since September 2016, Chinese actor Ren Quan (任泉) started the hotpot chain ReLaYiHao (热辣壹号) together with fellow celebrities Li Bingbing (李冰冰) and Huang Xiaoming (黄晓明). The chain now has branches from Beijing to Nanjing, and, according to the latest media reports, is fully packed every night.

Popular Chinese actress Deng Jiajia (邓家佳), born in Sichuan, also opened up her own ‘HI hotpot’ (HI辣火锅) in Beijing last year. Celebrities Eric Tsang (曾志伟), Chyi Chin (齐秦), Xu Zhiqian (薛之谦), and many others, have all opened up their own hot pot restaurants since 2013.

Ren Quan, Li Bingbing, and Huang Xiaoming: the famous investors behind the “Re La Yi Hao” hotpot chain.

The reason China’s celebrities love the concept of hot pot is simple. With a fanbase of millions, Chinese celebrities use their fame and influence to bring business to their restaurants. Chinese actor and entrepreneur Ren Quan, for example, has a staggering 11,5 million fans on his Weibo page – the perfect place to promote his latest hot pot branch.

The threshold for opening up a hot pot eatery is also low because it does not require as much professional knowledge as needed for other types of restaurants; for hot pot, a restaurant basically has to serve its customers a proper broth and the right ingredients. There is no need to hire high-end restaurant chefs. Hot pot restaurants are relatively easy to manage and need far fewer investment costs than many other types of restaurants.

Besides the fact that they are easy to set up and manage, there are other reasons why so many Chinese celebrities are choosing for this type of restaurant. It is a dining style that is suitable for all audiences, young and old, and is popular across China; no matter if you are in Beijing, Sichuan, or China’s coastal areas, there is a strong demand for Chinese fondue and a great freedom in varying between broth flavors and ingredients.

Lastly, the concept of hot pot itself is ideal for duplicating. Since many Chinese celebrities are choosing to start hot pot chains with multiple branches, this genre makes it easy to start the same model in various places. What’s not to love about it?

The Hot Pot Pitfall

As easy as it sounds, stepping into the hot pot business is not all roses for Chinese celebrities. In March of this year, Chinese actor Bao Bei’er (包贝尔) was caught in controversy when journalists exposed that the Harbin branch of his LaZhuang Huoguo (辣庄火锅) served its customers fake duck blood, a popular hot pot ingredient. The branch passed off cheap ox blood as duck blood, which is much more expensive.

Since Bao Bei’er is the face of the restaurant, it was him who became the target of netizens’ anger. The hashtag ‘Bao Bei’ers Restaurant Exposed’ (#包贝尔火锅店被曝#) was viewed more than a million times on Weibo.

Pricy ox blood sold as ‘duck blood’ in Bao Bei’er’s hotpot restaurant.

Bao Bei’er later publicly apologized to his fans and customers, saying he took full responsibility for mismanaging his restaurants. As easy as setting up a hot pot place might be, it is essential for celebrities to ensure its service and quality. In the end, it is not the restaurant staff but the celebrity name that will be dragged through the mud if anything goes wrong.

Second Hand Rose: Rock Hotpot

Recently, another famous name has been added to the list of celebrity hot pot restaurants. Beijing rock band Second Hand Rose (二手玫瑰) opened its private hot pot diner ‘Rock Hotpot’ (摇滚火锅) in the Songzhuang art district, the biggest artist community in Beijing.

Rock Hotpot in Songzhuang, Beijing.

Lead singer Liang Long (梁龙) is a lover of both rock music and hot pot and initially opened the diner as a trial. Making all broths and sauces from scratch, each member of the band has his own soup base that reflects their personality. Customers can book their private table (there is just one private table available every night), or purchase the ingredients for takeaway hot pot.

Fresh sauces made from scratch at Rock Hotpot.

According to Liang Long, the hot pot restaurant only adds to the image of the band; both hot pot and rock music have the same powerful, quick-boiling “woosh” vibe to it.

Fans can hang out with their favorite band at Rock Hotpot.

For now, the opening of Rock Hotpot has brought Second Hand Rose nothing but good things, Liang Long told What’s on Weibo. Not only does the band enjoy experimenting with different flavors and ingredients, the restaurant also brings them closer to their fans and friends who head out to Songzhuang for a night of hot pot together.

Private dining space at Second Hand Rose’s Rock Hotpot.

In the near future, Rock Hotpot hopes to open up a bigger restaurant to welcome more fans and food lover to their Rock Hotpot. They won’t be the only Chinese celebrities to do so – having hot pot with your idol is the latest hype in the world of showbiz and Chinese fondue.


Check out our visit to Rock hotpot in this video.

Rock Hotpot Address:
Beijing, Tongzhou District, Songzhuang Town, Xiaoqiao West Street No. 34.
北京宋庄,通州区宋庄镇小堡西街34号.
Reservations / Mr Wang: 13946228228

– By Manya Koetse

©2017 Whatsonweibo. All rights reserved. Do not reproduce our content without permission – you can contact us at info@whatsonweibo.com.

Manya is the founder and editor-in-chief of What's on Weibo, offering independent analysis of social trends, online media, and digital culture in China for over a decade. Subscribe to gain access to content, including the Weibo Watch newsletter, which provides deeper insights into the China trends that matter. More about Manya at manyakoetse.com or follow on X.

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  1. jobs

    June 1, 2017 at 11:18 pm

    interesting

  2. jobs in china

    June 1, 2017 at 11:19 pm

    visit https://dbestinfo.com for jobs in china

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China Arts & Entertainment

Yearnings, Dreamcore, and the Rise of AI Nostalgia in China

From China’s first soap opera Yearnings to the rise of AI-fueled nostalgia.

Manya Koetse

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The year is 1990, and the streets of Beijing’s Fangshan District are eerily quiet. You can almost hear a pin drop in the petrochemical town, as tens of thousands of workers and their families huddle around their televisions, all tuned to the same channel for something groundbreaking: China’s very first soap opera, Yearnings (渴望 Kěwàng).

Yearnings tells the story of Liu Huifang (刘慧芳), a female factory worker from a traditional working-class family in Beijing, and her unlikely marriage to university graduate Wang Husheng (王沪生), who comes from a family of intellectuals. When Liu finds an abandoned baby girl, she adopts her and raises her as her own, against her husband’s wishes.

The couple is unaware that the foundling is actually the illegitimate child of Wang’s snobbish sister, Yaru. After Liu and Wang have a biological son, the marriage comes under further pressure, eventually leading to divorce. Liu is left as a single mother, raising two children on her own.

Still from Yearnings, via OurChinaStory.

Drawing inspiration from foreign dubbed television shows, Yearnings was produced as China’s first truly domestic, long-form indoor television drama. Spanning 50 episodes, the series traces a timeline from the onset of the Cultural Revolution in the 1960s through to the late 1980s—one of the most turbulent periods in modern Chinese history.

Before the series aired nationally on CCTV and achieved record viewership, the first station to air Yearnings in the Beijing region was the Yanshan Petrochemical TV Station (燕山石化电视台), China’s first major factory TV station (厂办电视台) located in Fangshan District.

Here, in this town of over 100,000, Yearnings garnered an astonishing and unprecedented 98% audience share. The series was truly groundbreaking and became a national sensation—not just because it was China’s first long-form television drama, or because it was a locally produced drama that challenged the long-standing monopoly of state broadcaster CCTV, but because Yearnings marked a major shift in television storytelling.

Until then, Chinese TV stories had always revolved around communist propaganda, or featured great heroes of the revolution. Yearnings, on the other hand, was devoid of political content and focused on the hopes and dreams of ordinary people and their everyday struggles—love, desire, marital tension, single motherhood—topics that had never before been so openly portrayed on Chinese television.

The show’s creators had perfectly tapped into what was changing: the Communist Party was slowly withdrawing from private life, and people were beginning to see themselves less defined by their work unit and more by their home life—as consumers, as partners and parents, as citizens of a new China filled with aspirations for the future. Yearnings’ storyline was a reflection of that.

 

Chinese-Style “Nostalgia Core”

 

Yearnings marked a cultural turning point, coinciding with the rapid spread of TV sets in Chinese households. In 1992, economic reforms triggered a new era in which Chinese media became increasingly commercialized and thriving, before the arrival of the internet, social media, and AI tools once again changed everything.

Today, Yearnings still is a topic that often comes up in Chinese online media. On apps like Douyin, old scenes from Yearnings are reposted and receive thousands of shares.

📌 It’s emblematic of a broader trend in which more netizens are turning to “nostalgia-core.” In Chinese, this trend is known as “中式梦核” (Zhōngshì Mènghé), which literally means “Chinese-style dreamcore.”

Dreamcore is an internet aesthetic and visual style—popular in online communities like Tumblr and Reddit—that blends elements of nostalgia, surrealism, and subconscious imagery. Mixing retro images with fantasy, it evokes a sense of familiarity, yet often feels unsettling and deserted.

The Chinese-style dreamcore (中式梦核), which has become increasingly popular on platforms like Bilibili since 2023-2024, is different from its Western counterpart in how it incorporates distinctly Chinese elements and specifically evokes the childhood experiences of the millennial generation. Content tagged as “Chinese-style dreamcore” on Chinese social media is often also labeled with terms like “nostalgia” (怀旧), “childhood memories” (童年回忆), “when we were little” (小时候), and “Millennial Dream” (千禧梦).

According to the blogging account Yatong Local Life Observer (娅桐本地生活观察), the focus on the millennial childhood can be explained because the formative years of this generation coincided with a decade of rapid social change in China —leaving little in today’s modern cities that still evokes that era.

🌀 Of course, millennials in the West also frequently look back at their childhood and teenage years, particularly the 1980s and 1990s—a trend also embraced by Gen Z, who romanticize these years through media and fashion. In China, however, Gen Z is at the forefront of the “nostalgia-core” trend, reflecting on the 1990s and early 2000s as a distant, almost dreamlike past. This sense of distance is heightened by China’s staggering pace of transformation, modernization, and digitalization over the past decades, which has made even the recent past feel remote and irretrievable.

🌀 Another factor contributing to the trend is that China’s younger generations are caught in a rat race of academic and professional competition, often feeling overwhelmed by the fast pace of life and the weight of societal expectations. In this high-pressure environment—captured by the concept of “involution” (内卷)—young people develop various coping mechanisms, and digital escapism, including nostalgia-core, is one of them. It’s like a cyber-utopia (赛博乌托邦).

🌀 Due to the rise of AI tools available to the general public, Chinese-style nostalgia core has hit the mainstream because it’s now possible for all social media users to create their own nostalgic videos and images—bringing back the 1990s and early 2000s through AI-generated tools, either by making real videos appear more nostalgic or by creating entirely fictional videos or images that recreate scenes from those days.

So what are we seeing? There are images and videos of stickers kids used to love, visuals showing old classrooms, furniture, and children playing outside, accompanied by captions such as “we’re already so far apart from our childhood years” (example).

Images displayed in Chinese Dreamcore.

And notably, there are videos and images showing family and friends gathering around those old big TVs as a cultural, ritualized activity (see some examples here).

Stills from ‘nostalgia core’ videos.

These kinds of AI-generated videos depict a pre-mobile-era family life, where families and communities would gather around the TV—both inside and outside—from classrooms to family homes. The wind blows through the windows, neighbors crack sunflower seeds, and children play on the ground. Ironically, it’s AI that is bringing back the memories of a society that was not yet digitalized.

Nowadays, with dozens of short video apps, streaming platforms, and livestream culture fully mainstream in China—and AI algorithms personalizing feeds to the extreme—it sometimes feels like everyone’s on a different channel, quite literally.

In times like these, people long for an era when life seemed less complicated—when, instead of everyone staring at their own screens, families and neighbors gathered around one screen together.

There’s not just irony in the fact that it took AI for netizens to visualize their longing for a bygone era; there’s also a deeper irony in how Yearnings once represented a time when people were looking forward to the future—only to find that the future is now looking back, yearning for the days of Yearnings.

It seems we’re always looking back, reminiscing about the years behind us with a touch of nostalgia. We’re more digitalized than ever, yet somehow less connected. We yearn for a time when everyone was watching the same screen, at the same time, together, just like in 1990. Perhaps it’s time for another Yearnings.

By Manya Koetse

(follow on X, LinkedIn, or Instagram)

 

Sources (other sources included in hyperlinks)

Koetse, Manya. 2016. “From Woman Warrior to Good Wife – Confucian Influences on the Portrayal of Women in China’s Television Drama.” In Stefania Travagnin (ed), Religion and Media in China. New York: Routledge.

Rofel, Lisa B. 1994. Yearnings: Televisual Love and Melodramatic Politics in Contemporary China. American Ethnologist 21(4):700-722.

Wang, Dan (汪丹). 2018. “《渴望》的艺术价值” [The Artistic Value of Yearnings].” Originally published in Beijing Daily (北京日报), October 12, 2018. Reprinted in Digest News (文摘报), October 20, 06 edition. Also see Sohu: 当年红遍大江南北的《渴望》.

Wang Min and Arvind Singhal. 1992. “Kewang, a Chinese television soap opera with a message.” Gazette 49: 177-192.

Zhuge Kanwu. 2021. “重温1990《渴望》:苦得“刘慧芳”希望被导演写“死” [Revisiting 1990’s Yearnings: The Suffering Liu Huifang Hoped to Be Written Off by the Director]. Zhuge Dushu Wu (诸葛读书屋), January 22. https://wapbaike.baidu.com/tashuo/browse/content?id=b699ee532cf79f862bfa14ad.

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China Celebs

Beauty Influencer Du Meizhu Accused of Scamming Fan Out of $27K

Manya Koetse

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🔥 Quick Take: Trending in China
This is a brief update from our curated roundup of what’s trending in China this week. A version of this story also appears in the Weibo Watch newsletter. Subscribe to stay in the loop.


Chinese beauty influencer and livestreamer Du Meizhu (都美竹) is facing online backlash this week after a former female fan filed a police report accusing her of scamming her out of nearly 200,000 yuan (approx. US$27,800).

The fan, known online as Sister Bing (Weibo handle @冰点人a冰点), has come forward with detailed allegations, claiming Du began swindling her in 2022.

Du Meizhu rose to national prominence in 2021 when she was 19 years old and became the first person to publicly accuse Chinese-Canadian pop star Kris Wu (吴亦凡) of rape and sexual misconduct. After at least 24 more victims also came forward, Wu was formally arrested on suspicion of rape in mid-August 2021 and was later sentenced to 13 years in prison.

It was around this time that ‘Sister Bing,’ whose real name is Ms. Zhu (朱, born 1979), started following Du Meizhu on social media. As a hard-working single mother of a daughter, she said she sympathized with Du and wanted to show her some support. In a Weibo post published in 2024, she detailed how Du Meizhu began noticing Zhu’s online interactions in early 2022 and added her as a friend on WeChat.

In private conversations, Du shared complaints about her difficult life, and as the two talked more and more, Zhu began transferring small amounts of money to help. Over time, Du said she needed money for various things—from financial support for school to legal disputes and expensive medical treatments for family members. Between 2022 and 2023, Zhu claims she transferred nearly 200,000 yuan in total.

At the end of 2023, Zhu–who works as a taxi driver–urgently needed money due to a family crisis. She reached out to Du to ask if she could repay the money. According to Zhu, she only returned 30,000 yuan (US$4,180) and refused to pay more, even though at the same time, Du was allegedly flaunting luxury brand purchases and had plans to buy a villa.

On June 25, 2025, Zhu posted an update on her Weibo account, saying she had traveled to Ulanhot City in Inner Mongolia – Du’s hometown – to seek justice and report the case to local authorities.

Du Meizhu has responded to the allegations on social media, writing that she “won’t admit to things I haven’t done.” She does not deny that Zhu gave her money.

She writes: “When she had money, she was lavishly spending it on gifts in all kinds of livestreams. Now that she’s broke, she wants it back from the streamers? After I transferred her thousands of yuan, she’s still not satisfied and is now starting to extort me. No amount of moral pressure will work. I have a clear conscience!”

The post by Du Meizhu

The case has blown up online. One post by Ms. Zhu has already received over 133,000 likes and is still gaining traction.

But the developments surrounding the case are puzzling to some. Du Meizhu has long maintained a social media image of wealth, showcasing a lifestyle filled with Dubai travel, horseback riding, luxury food, and fashion. Why would she need to take money from a single mum? Du is being criticized not only for faking her wealth, but also for accepting so much money from a woman who clearly needed the money for her own family.

Du Meizhu social media photos.

Although the story is attracting a lot of attention online because it exposes private conversations between Du and the woman – and, frankly, many netizens just enjoy the drama, – it also says a lot about China’s thriving livestreaming industry and just how close online followers can feel to the influencers they follow. In these kinds of online communities, it is common for fans and followers to send livestreamers money or ‘virtual gifts’.

In the case of Ms. Zhu, some netizens doubt that she can prove in court that she loaned Du the money instead of gifting it to her. People also criticize Zhu: why did she spend so much money on an online influencer instead of on her own daughter?

Either way, many Chinese netizens feel that it was not right of Du Meizhu to take advantage of a single mum like that. Even if she’s not legally wrong, they feel she lacks moral integrity.

Du’s most recent social media post—featuring her in so-called “old money fashion” outfits—has only added fuel to the fire. Dozens of commenters flooded the post with demands that she repay Ms. Zhu. Though Du seemingly tried to delete the negative comments, they kept pouring in. “At this rate, there won’t be any comments left,” one user wrote.

Whether or not Du Meizhu ultimately faces legal consequences, the backlash is already taking a toll. She might escape the courtroom, but won’t be able to escape the court of public opinion.

By Manya Koetse

(follow on X, LinkedIn, or Instagram)

Spotted a mistake or want to add something? Please let us know in comments below or email us. First-time commenters, please be patient – we will have to manually approve your comment before it appears.

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