Yang Mei

yangmei_szdaily@163.com

ON April 27, Oli Barrett released a video on the YouTube channel “Barrett” announcing that he and his father Lee Barrett will leave China for a while and go back to England to be with families and friends.

The announcement came as a shock to many of their fans who had been following their travel videos in China, but most of their followers were supportive and sent their best wishes for their journey ahead.

During a two-day trip to the city of Shaoguan with Shenzhen Daily, Lee confirmed Saturday that he and Oli will head back to the U.K. in June, but will return to China one day. He didn’t give a specific return date but assured that he and Oli would continue to bring China-related content to their audience.

Lee and his wife Hu Wenjuan joined other photographers and vloggers in the Shaoguan trip. “It was quite interesting to see the tigers up close like that. It’s important to preserve the tigers, with so few now left in the wild,” Lee said.

Lee and Oli’s YouTube channel now has over 339,000 subscribers and their videos focus on various topics such as food and travel, culture, politics, technologies, infrastructure and urban development, with the majority of them related to China. Their accounts on other social media platforms such as Twitter, Bilibili, Douyin and Toutiao have also drawn huge followings.

As for the reasons for their decision, Lee said that travel restrictions during COVID is one thing, as most of their content is based on their travel experiences across the country. However, the main reason is that they haven’t seen their families for almost three years due to the pandemic, so he was eager to reunite with his parents, other children and 1-year-old granddaughter. Lee added that his cancer diagnosis last August also served as his wake-up call to value family more, with his cancer now in remission.

Lee, who has been living in Shenzhen for four years, told Shenzhen Daily that he felt sad to leave China, even temporarily. “I’m excited to go back to the U.K., but I also feel quite sad to leave China too, because after all, China is my home now,” he said.

Lee told Shenzhen Daily that he will go to Hong Kong and make some videos about the city. “Actually, we have many subscribers in Hong Kong, and they ask us to come to Hong Kong. We will make videos related to food, architecture, shopping and the differences between Hong Kong and the mainland,” he said.

Lee said he also plans to travel to India and Southeast Asian countries including the Philippines, Indonesia, Malaysia and Thailand to visit Chinatowns there.