Tenzing Tsondu

Tenzing Tsondu^[2] (Tibetan: བསྟན་འཛིན་བརྩོན་འགྲུས་; Chinese: 丁真珍珠; Pinyin: Dīngzhēn Zhēnzhū; born 7 May 2001), known professionally as Ding Zhen (Chinese: 丁真^[3]), is a Tibetan singer, Internet celebrity and businessman from Litang, Sichuan Province, China.^[4][5][6]

丁真
བསྟན་འཛིན་བརྩོན་འགྲུས་
Pronunciation	Tenzing Tsondu
Born	(2001-05-07) 7 May 2001 (age 24) Litang, Sichuan, China
Nationality	Chinese
Citizenship	China
Education	Primary school dropout[1]
Occupation	Singer
Years active	2020 to present

Early life

He was a Khampa herdsman who did not finish primary school and barely speaks Mandarin.^[2][1]

Ding Zhen Phenomenon

On 11 November 2020, he became famous on the Internet for a 7-second TikTok video clip taken by Chinese photographer Boge,^[7][8] and was named 'Sweet Wild Boy (Chinese: 甜野男孩; Pinyin: Tianye Nanhai)' by Chinese netizens.^[9] Within a few days, his related message was read by millions of people on Sina Weibo.^[10] On 18 November, he was recruited by Litang Culture, Tourism and Sports Investment Development Corporation Limited, a local state-owned company to promote the local tourism industry.^[11][12] Other East Asian countries, such as Japan and South Korea, have also covered him. Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Hua Chunying also reposted photos of Ding Zhen on Twitter.^[13] The "Ding Zhen phenomenon" has led to a large number of Chinese tourists travelling to Tibetan areas,^[14] with a significant increase in orders for destinations such as Kangding airport and Daocheng Yading airport.^[15]

Works

On 4 February 2021, Ding Zhen released his first album 1376 All Wishes Come True (1376心想事成) in collaboration with a Tibetan band, ANU.^[16]

Controversy

Ding Zhen's sudden ascension to wealth and fame caused great controversy, especially among China's Small-town Swots.^[17] Some netizens disparage his success as the "epitome of superficiality" while they struggle because their only path to success is in hard work in school and the workplace.^[1] Ding lacks formal education and yet gained wealth and status, including a job in a Chinese state-owned enterprise, which usually requires fierce competition to obtain.^[17][18]

The Central Tibetan Administration criticized the Chinese government's use of Ding Zhen as propagandistic and not really promoting Tibetan culture, especially their religion.^[19][20] Other critics argued that Ding Zhen's status as an ethnic minority contributes to fetishization and colonial female-gazes from a China with Han people being the majority, who view him and Khampa culture as an exotic "other".^[21][8] Furthermore, in attracting tourists interested in fulfilling their cottagecore fantasies, he risks shifting local traditions toward conformity with tourists' expectations.^[2]