About

Xiaomanyc, real name Arieh Smith, is a YouTuber and polyglot from New York City. He is best known for his vlog-style videos in which he speaks to people from different cultures in their own language. Xiaoma first began uploading YouTube videos in 2017 and primarily made content in Mandarin and Cantonese but began to adopt different languages in his content after 2020, often using the phrase "shocks locals" in his titles. Xiaoma has sometimes been accused of making clickbait content and using unassuming older immigrants in his videos for his own benefit by his critics. In 2023, Xiaoma notably traveled to the Amazon forest to interact with the Waorani tribe, receiving generally positive reactions from some of his critics on Twitter.

Background

Xiaomanyc first began posting videos to his YouTube channel in 2017, with his earliest upload being posted on March 8th, 2017. The video^[1] was titled, "White guy speaks Chinese in 8 accents!" and gathered over 50,000 views in six years (seen below, left). Xiaomanyc's first video^[2] to cross 1 million views was posted on July 16th, 2018, and was titled, " 问美国人：你有多少存款," which translates to "Ask an American: How Much Savings Do You Have?" (seen below, right).

Criticism

Xiaomanyc has received some criticism over the years for his clickbait-style content, which often employs the use of phrases like "White boy speaks the local language" and "shocks locals." Other commentators criticize Xiaomanyc for seeking validation in return for rudimentary and crude linguistic abilities, which sometimes confuse indigenous speakers.

On June 29th, 2021, TikToker^[3] @chino_cholo posted a video criticizing Xiaomanyc for trying to speak Chinese with a local when visiting Mexico. The post gathered over 40,000 plays and 9000 likes in two years (seen below, left). On May 28th, 2022, TikToker^[4] @zioraaaa criticized Xiaomanyc for trying to speak Creole to a Jamaican woman, gathering over 28,000 plays and 4,000 likes in a year (seen below, right).

Online History

In May 2023, Xiaomanyc began posting a series of videos in which he visited the Waorani tribe in the Amazon forest. On May 12th, 2023, he posted a video^[5] titled, "I Made Contact With Lost Amazon Tribe by Speaking Their Language," gathering over 1 million views in two weeks (seen below, left). On May 16th, he then posted a video^[6] titled, "I Went Hunting Naked in the Amazon Jungle With Waorani Tribe," gathering over 450,000 views in a week (seen below, right).

Various Twitter users reacted to the change in content on Xiaomanyc's page. On May 22nd, 2023, Twitter^[7] user @Sturgeons_Law posted a tweet that read, "In the latest Xiaomanyc vid, our intrepid protagonist finds out that circumcision makes wearing the traditional Waorani cord difficult," gathering over 10,000 likes in three days (seen below, left). On May 23rd, Twitter^[8] user @buckadeath posted a tweet that read, "Let's check in on everyone's favorite multilingual white boy," gathering over 500 likes in two days (seen below, right).

Search Interest

External References