Li Jiaqi was trained as a dancer but discovered a knack for selling lipsticks in his early 20s. Even before he became one of China’s most popular online salesmen, his maverick style had won repeated praise from his customers and employers alike.
Until last week, when the influencer also known as Austin Li’s online sales broadcast was abruptly terminated following a brief appearance of a “tank cake” (seen by many as a symbol of the bloody 1989 Tiananmen Square crackdown), Li’s story was one of the many rags-to-riches tales touted in the media to inspire those young Chinese who wish to break into business.
