Winston Sterzel

Winston Sterzel
Sterzel in Shenzhen, July 2017
Personal information
Born (1980-08-17) August 17, 1980
Cape Town, South Africa
Nationality South African
Residence Shenzhen, China
Occupation YouTuber
Website advchina.net
YouTube information
Channel
Genre China Vlogs
Subscribers 438,000
Total views 59,958,066
Associated acts
  • Matthew Tye
  • ADVChina
Catchphrase(s) Stay Awesome!
Variations of "Bunch of nonsense"
100,000 subscribers 2016
Subscriber and view counts updated as of June 28, 2018 (2018-06-28).

Winston Frederick Sterzel (born 17 August 1980[1]), also known by his YouTube pseudonym SerpentZA, is a South African born vlogger and video producer located in Shenzhen in the Guangdong province of China. His videos cover a variety of topics relating to life in China from a Westerner's perspective.

Life and career

Sterzel is of British heritage; he was born and grew up in South Africa. He has called his father, Frederick Sterzel, "the South African version of Steve Irwin".[2] He moved to China in his mid-twenties[3][4] after first visiting on business in 2005.[5][6] In 2015 he was one of twelve South Africans in China profiled by China Radio International.[7] A medical training manager, he now lives with his Chinese wife in Shenzhen; he started uploading videos in China in 2007[8] and became a full-time vlogger in 2016.[9] His videos primarily focus on introducing Westerners to China and helping them with visiting and living there;[3][4][10][11][12] sometimes he interviews people on controversial topics.[9] His first YouTube channel was "The PSP Traveller".[13]

Sterzel has also made videos about motorcycle trips through China. One on a journey to Guilin amassed almost 80,000 views.[3] With Matthew Tye (C-Milk, Laowhy86) and other friends, he has taken extended journeys and produced documentary series titled Conquering Southern China[14][15][16] and Conquering Northern China, for which he and Tye raised money on Kickstarter so that the trip and the episodes could be longer.[16] He operates the YouTube channel ADVChina with Tye; as of January 2015 he was also head engineer of a custom motorcycle business, Churchill Custom Motorcycles, which he started with Tye and another friend.[12]

References

  1. ↑ "SerpentZA". www.facebook.com. Retrieved 21 July 2017.
  2. ↑ SerpentZA, YouTube post, Jan 2, 2014, 7:05.
  3. 1 2 3 McGeary, Kevin (2014-06-05). "PRD People: Medical Trainer and Online Celebrity Winston Sterzel". The Nanfang. Retrieved 2017-03-19.
  4. 1 2 Ding, A (9 October 2017). "British YouTuber helps foreigners settle in China". Shenzhen Daily. Retrieved 28 June 2018.
  5. ↑ "Falling in love with SZ in three days". Shenzhen Government Online. 7 January 2008. Retrieved 29 June 2018.
  6. ↑ "My Chinese Life: Winston Sterzel--The Original China Vlogger" (with video). CRIEnglish. 21 May 2015. Retrieved 29 June 2018 – via China.com.
  7. ↑ Kemp, Yunus (26 August 2015). "South Africans find home away from home in China". Xinhua. Retrieved 29 June 2018.
  8. ↑ "南非男拍视频记录深圳". Sing Tao Daily (in Chinese). 14 December 2015. Retrieved 29 June 2018.
  9. 1 2 Gidge, Sky (20 December 2016). "Take 5: YouTube Vlogger Winston Sterzel". That's Shenzhen. Retrieved 29 June 2018.
  10. ↑ Yuanyuan, Wang (8 June 2012). "British-South African telling people 'how China is'". Shenzhen Daily. Retrieved 29 June 2018.
  11. ↑ Rossman, Sean (4 May 2018). "Chinese are OK with Utah teen's controversial cheongsam prom dress". USA Today. Retrieved 29 June 2018.
  12. 1 2 Roberts, Stephen O. (4 January 2015). "Custom Start-Up: Three Expats and A Two-Wheeled Dream". Here! Dongguan. Retrieved 28 June 2018.
  13. ↑ "The PSP Traveller". YouTube.
  14. ↑ Gidge, Sky (14 January 2016). "Expat's video featured". Shenzhen Daily. Archived from the original on 10 May 2017.
  15. ↑ Mullin, Kyle (20 August 2016). "Watch Two Crazy Vloggers Drive 5,000km Across Southern China on Handmade Motorcycles". The Beijinger. Retrieved 29 June 2018.
  16. 1 2 Gidge, Sky (29 March 2017). "YouTube Stars Turn to Kickstarter for China Motorcycle Adventure Series". That's Guangzhou. Retrieved 29 June 2018.


This article is issued from Wikipedia. The text is licensed under Creative Commons - Attribution - Sharealike. Additional terms may apply for the media files.