Cecilia Cheung crashes server with 1st Douyin sales livestream

As most of us start checking out deals and discount codes ahead of the 11.11 sales, one celebrity has already gotten Chinese netizens into a buying frenzy.

Hong Kong singer-actress Cecilia Cheung recently went on Douyin — the Chinese version of TikTok — to host a sales livestream for the first time and netizens were enamoured.

She attracted a million viewers within 10 minutes of her appearing onscreen, and her session drew a total of 27.6 million viewers. It's not certain how long it lasted.

According to media reports, the 41-year-old was quite the savvy salesperson, stressing that she has personally tried all the products that she was recommending.

"My eldest son complained that the air is too try so I got this lip balm for him," she cooed. Lucas, 14, is her son with ex-husband, actor-chef Nicholas Tse.

When promoting beauty products, she coaxed male netizens to take good care of their complexion so that they would leave a good impression on women.

Cecilia even sold rice during the livestream, telling viewers to eat rice when they are unhappy.

Her tactics — which included dancing the Para Para Sakura with the crew — and popularity worked phenomenally. The server hosting the sales platform crashed at one point but she was still the top seller for the day, clocking over 61.16 million yuan (S$12.9 million) in sales.

Perhaps this could be a new career for Cecilia. As she said, her Chinese name read backwards sounds like 'livestreamer Cheung'.

ALSO READ: Cecilia Cheung's third son Marcus almost reveals face in candid photo

kwokkarpeng@asiaone.com