“My colleagues think I’m just being silly, but I don’t care. I know what I’m doing,” Zhao, 29, told China’s Sixth Tone site.
Playing mermaid is an increasingly popular form of entertainment in China, especially among young people. Videos of mermaids performing in aquariums around the country often go viral on social media and there are even national mermaid competitions.
Zhao is currently one of the best mermaids in the country. He won the men’s mermaid competition held in Wuxi, Jiangsu province this year and led his own men’s mermaid team, competing across the country.
![The mermaid became a trend in China - Photo 1. The mermaid became a trend in China - Photo 1.](https://gamek.mediacdn.vn/133514250583805952/2023/6/9/photo-2-1686196128931138101167-1686285470560-16862854706631024534906.jpg)
Zhao became a male mermaid performer in the summer of 2017 and was one of the first men to pursue the work.
At the time, as a recent chemistry graduate, he had just started a job as a lab technician in Shanxi province and came across a WeChat post recruiting mermaid performers for newly opened aquarium.
Zhao is a good swimmer, but he knows he needs more training to become a professional mermaid performer. Zhao needed to learn to swim while wearing a long fishtail dress that tied her legs together but there was no course taught, so Zhao started watching videos of mermaid shows online.
“I was a bit scared when I first put on the fishtail dress. And the water at the aquarium is salt water, which is easier to float than fresh water, but makes diving more difficult,” Zhao said.
After months of self-study, Zhao passed the aquarium’s recruitment test at the end of 2017 and went on to earn a scuba diving certification.
However, while performances by mermaids are widely accepted, male mermaids are few and far between. Zhao estimates that mermaids make up less than 30% of the performers.
![The mermaid became a trend in China - Photo 2. The mermaid became a trend in China - Photo 2.](https://gamek.mediacdn.vn/133514250583805952/2023/6/9/photo-1-1686196127920911188212-1686285471162-168628547123035826385.jpg)
On China’s social networking platforms Xiaohongshu and Douyin, mermaid videos still get most people’s attention, while “mermaid” videos often feature negative comments about her appearance. image.
At first, Zhao found it difficult to see negative comments, but he persevered with his passion. Zhao started posting videos of his performances on Xiaohongshu and his follower count gradually grew to over 2,000.
Zhang Jiawei, a friend, joined Zhao’s mermaid team in 2021 after watching Zhao perform at the aquarium.
“He always told me he wanted to be a fish and here he is,” said Zhang, 27.
Their team of mermaids has received more and more attention in recent years. A special part of their performances is the integration of Shanxi culture into daily activities, including drum and lion dance.
There are signs that their success is changing the way people think about men in the industry. After the performance of the play in Shanghai in May, an audience member told CCTV television that the mermaids were “stronger”.
Source: Sixth Tone