Afu Thomas

Thomas Derksen (born 26 October 1988[1]), known as "Afu" Thomas (Chinese: 阿福Thomas), is a German sexpat and internet celebrity active in China.

He was born in Gummersbach, North Rhine-Westphalia and had five siblings.[1] His hometown is Marienheide, in the same state.[2] A student at Engelbert-von-Berg-Gymnasium Wipperfürth, he took Chinese for two years there and did a student exchange trip to China in 2007, his first time in the country. After briefly working in banking at Kreissparkasse Köln he studied at Ruhr University Bochum, taking courses about business and Chinese. From 2013 to 2014, he attended Fudan University,[1] and has lived in Shanghai since 2016.[2] He is fluent in Mandarin and has been learning the Shanghainese dialect.[3]

His videos depict his experiences in Shanghai.[2] His wife and two employees help Derksen manage his social media profile,[4] including Bilibili,[2] Meipai, Tencent QQ, and Sina Weibo.[4] He has expressed an interest in the Chinese e-commerce model,[5] writing a letter in 2017 to German Chancellor Angela Merkel on how Germany could follow China in its cashless payment system.[6][7] On June 2019, he was reported to have 15 million fans in the country.[8]

On February 2020, he uploaded a video interview with German virologist Rolf Hilgenfeld (de) who was in China at the time to assist with the COVID-19 situation; the video garnered more than 3.2 million views on Bilibili. He later followed with a video (where he spoke English instead of Chinese or German) titled "Fight the Virus not China".[9][10][11]

See also

References
  1. "Bio". Afu Thomas Official Website. Retrieved 2020-02-08. - German version
  2. Fu, Beimeng (2016-04-07). "This German Man Is China's Newest Internet Celebrity, Believe It Or Not". Buzzfeed News. Retrieved 2020-02-09.
  3. "Interview: German guys turned into Chinese Internet celebrities". Deutsche Welle (in Chinese). May 28, 2016.
  4. "Big in Shanghai – German Internet Star Thomas Derksen". Deutsche Welle. 2017-05-29. - German version: "Ein deutscher Internetstar in Shanghai"
  5. "Afu, a German Internet celebrity: I want to bring Chinese online shopping home". Xinhua. 2017-08-23. Retrieved 2020-02-08.
  6. Dave Hicks (September 11, 2017). "How China's Famous Foreigners Double as Diplomats". Sixth Tone.
  7. Lea Deuber (July 26, 2019). "Rudi Carrell for the Chinese". Süddeutsche Zeitung (in German).
  8. "15 million fans - This German is famous in China". Galileo (in German). June 17, 2019.
  9. "Fudan Alumnus from Germany becomes online influencer in Shanghai". Fudan University. July 30, 2020. Retrieved 2020-12-16.
  10. Thomas阿福 (February 3, 2020). "CORONAVIRUS | Don't isolate CHINA, isolate the VIRUS 隔离病毒，不隔离爱". Retrieved 2020-12-16.
  11. "Concerned about the epidemic | young people on the video platform". Xinhua (in Chinese). 2020-02-03.

Further reading
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