MANY Chinese consumers said they didn’t expect that they could learn English while going shopping online.

The bilingual hosts, provided by the livestreaming e-commerce platform Oriental Selection, owned by the New Oriental Education, has recently gained popularity with more than 1.3 million online shoppers participating in three days, making livestreaming with cultural connotations a trend in China.

Dong Yuhui, one of the teachers at New Oriental, became a big hit on popular short-video platform Douyin over the weekend. In the livestreamings, anchors like Dong introduce products in both Chinese and English.

For example, when Dong sells peaches, he also introduces the English word “peach,” along with its usage in a phrase and its derivative “peachy.” Using this method, Dong sold more than 6,700 orders of peaches in just a few minutes.

Such a method of teaching English and selling goods at the same time soon attracted the attention of young people. So far, the Oriental Selection livestreaming account has about 2.5 million followers.

Driven by the popularity of the livestreaming, many topics related to livestreaming with cultural connotations quickly hit the hot search list.

“I never thought I could learn English through a live broadcast studio” soon moved to the top of the search list of Douyin.

“A New Oriental master becomes a popular anchor,” “New Oriental anchors” and other topics went viral on Sina Weibo. “It’s really a good deal to pay for knowledge and be rewarded with shrimps,” a netizen joked.

“It’s really great for New Oriental teachers to have the opportunity to do livestreaming,” commented another. “It has provided a new route for livestreaming anchors that consumers are welcoming.”

Yu Minhong, the company’s founder, also appeared in the studio, selling products with teachers. Talking about selling products in two languages, he said this is a very important transformation for New Oriental. “They have changed from being teachers to being livestreaming hosts, which has attracted public attention and recognition, all thanks to consumers’ tolerance and support,” Yu said.

While the livestreaming has attracted wide attention, sales have also skyrocketed. From Thursday to Friday, the number of viewers of the live broadcast of Oriental Selection increased from 650,000 to 7.6 million, and total sales in a single day went from 980,000 yuan (US$146,075) to more than 10 million yuan.

Affected by the news, shares of New Oriental Online once rose to 45% up and closed at 39.37% with HK$6.23 on Friday. Since May 12, shares of New Oriental Online have gained more than 107%.

New Oriental Education and Technology Group, which was one of China’s largest private education providers, dismissed tens of thousands of employees last year after an educational reform policy called “double reduction” drastically cut classes and ordered such institutions to turn into nonprofits.

The policy aims to ease the burden of excessive homework and off-campus tutoring for students and promote equality in the education sector by extending on-campus classes for every student.

Amid the implementation of the “double reduction” policy, Yu said that the U.S.-listed New Oriental will stick to its main business of education, while Hong Kong-listed New Oriental Online has opened a new business of live broadcasting.

Other education institutions such as Good Future and Doushen Education have also started selling teaching aids online for survival.

(Global Times)