Afu Thomas

Thomas Derksen (born 26 October 1988[1]), known as "Afu" Thomas (Chinese: 阿福Thomas), is a German internet celebrity active in China.

He was born in Gummersbach, North Rhine-Westphalia and had five siblings.[1] His hometown is Marienheide, in the same state.[2] A student at Engelbert-von-Berg-Gymnasium Wipperfürth, he took Chinese for two years there and did a student exchange trip to China in 2007, his first time in the country. After briefly working in banking at Kreissparkasse Köln he studied at Ruhr University Bochum, taking courses about business and Chinese. He lives in Shanghai and has done so since 2016.[1] There he attended Fudan University.[2]

His videos depict his experiences in Shanghai.[2] His wife and two employees help Derksen manage his social media profile,[3] including Bilibili,[2] Meipai, Tencent QQ, and Sina Weibo.[3] He expressed an interest in expanding e-commerce in the Chinese model.[4]