In Yixing, Jiangsu province, Natalya Moisseyeva, a Kazakh woman, has found success as a practitioner of traditional Chinese medicine and a livestreamer, captivating a big audience across China with her engaging content.
Moisseyeva, who leads a fulfilling life alongside her Chinese husband and three children, has established a harmonious family and amassed a following of 1.8 million fans on Douyin, the Chinese version of TikTok.
Her deep ties to China go back to her teenage years.
Moisseyeva was born in Kazakhstan in 1992, the first of four siblings. When she was a teenager, her mother suffered from hyperthyroidism but, despite taking medication, failed to recover.
Later, a Chinese immigrant used acupuncture to help her mother overcome her hyperthyroidism, sparking a strong interest in traditional Chinese medicine among members of Moisseyeva's family.
After Moisseyeva completed high school, she faced two options presented by her family: studying in the United States or learning TCM in China. Opting for the latter, she arrived in 2010 in Shaanxi province, where she spent two years studying Chinese in the provincial capital of Xi'an before gaining admission to Shaanxi University of Chinese Medicine in the city of Xianyang.
She studied acupuncture and massage therapy there and, on completing her studies, returned to Kazakhstan. During a family visit to Russia, she met her future husband, a Chinese college student from Yixing, in Moscow.
After they married, Moisseyeva settled in Yixing, where she opened a Douyin account to talk about her family's daily life. Her emotionally resonant videos quickly attracted attention, particularly from local residents, and gained thousands of likes per video.
Moisseyeva now considers herself a China expert and, in particular, a Yixing expert. Chinese products, such as cars and electronics, are highly popular in Kazakhstan as well as throughout Central Asia, she said, attributing this trend to the success of the Belt and Road Initiative.
"We often film videos about Chinese NEVs and other Chinese products, which are well received by internet users," she said.
Since she graduated, Moisseyeva has encouraged her siblings and others to study TCM in China.
Today, her siblings have opened a TCM clinic in Kazakhstan, promoting Chinese acupuncture and massage culture locally, she said.
Guo Jun in Nanjing contributed to this story.