Recently, the mainland Chinese internet sensation “Northeast Rain Sister” has been embroiled in a series of scandals. After being exposed for selling HeXie (river crab) labeled as Panjin Rice Field Crab, she was fined for selling fake sweet potato noodles. The troubles seem to keep coming, as her oil stain remover product has also been targeted by consumer rights activists for potential false advertising, facing a possible compensation of over a hundred million yuan.
On October 12, the Market Supervision Administration of Manchu Autonomous County and Chaoyang County in Liaoning Province issued a notice targeting the manufacturer of the problematic sweet potato noodles sold by “Northeast Rain Sister” – Chaoyang County Liuhe Noodle Manufacturing Co., Ltd. The company was ordered to cease production and business operations, with a fine of 6.7176 million yuan.
According to the announcement, the source of sweet potatoes in Liuhe Company’s sweet potato noodles was not detected. The ingredient list only indicated “sweet potato starch, drinking water, edible alum,” which constitutes false content.
Additionally, Benxi Rain Sister Media Co., Ltd. claimed in a live broadcast that the sweet potato noodles contained only “sweet potato starch, drinking water, edible alum” with no other additives, which was found to be misleading. As a result, the media company was fined a total of 1.65 million yuan.
On September 23, bloggers “Bounty Hunter Ashes” and “Da Wa” revealed that after purchasing sweet potato noodles sold by “Northeast Rain Sister” in May and August this year, tests showed that cassava starch was added instead of sweet potatoes. Subsequently, their team confronted “Northeast Rain Sister” for false advertising, resulting in physical assault and restriction of personal freedom, drawing public attention to the incident.
After three days of silence, on September 26, “Northeast Rain Sister” updated a video on social media platforms and publicly apologized through a live broadcast regarding the alleged violent incidents and sweet potato noodle controversy.
Two days before the official announcement (October 9), CCTV reporters interviewed the director of the Market Supervision Bureau of Manchu Autonomous County, Liaoning Province.
According to CCTV reports, the main location featured in the short videos of “Northeast Rain Sister” was a small village called Moshiyu, where many netizens questioned whether she was a resident of the village, suggesting the village served as a filming location for her videos. Villagers disclosed that “Rain Sister” only came to shoot skits and was not present there regularly.
In reality, the wide attention received by “Northeast Rain Sister” on the internet is credited to the extensive promotion by CCTV and local authorities. In order to promote the so-called “Panjin Rice Field Crab,” CCTV previously reported on “Northeast Rain Sister,” boosting her national recognition rapidly.
However, on September 7, “Northeast Rain Sister” admitted in a live broadcast that the alleged “Panjin Rice Field Crab” was actually “HeXie (river crab) from the Panjin reservoir placed in the rice field.” She stated that the sketch was filmed at the official’s invitation to promote the crabs in Panjin.
According to CCTV’s introduction, “Northeast Rain Sister,” real name Chang Xiaoyu, is from Benxi County, Liaoning Province, nearly 1.8 meters tall, with a sturdy figure, braided hair, and always appearing in a capable and tough image. Another main character in the videos is her husband, “Lao Kuai,” a man in his forties who appears submissive in front of Rain Sister.
As of now, “Northeast Rain Sister” has over 22.41 million followers on the Douyin platform. It was observed that apart from the apology statement issued on October 12, “Northeast Rain Sister” has not posted any new videos for the past two weeks.
Regarding the successive scandals involving “Northeast Rain Sister,” Red Star News commented on October 13 that from the earlier staged Panjin Rice Field Crab incident actually being river crab, to selling “Northeast Native Stroll Goose” which turned out to be geese, and now the absence of sweet potato in the sweet potato noodles. The repeated deceit by Northeast Rain Sister seems to have become a habitual operation driven by immense profits.
According to Upstream News on the 13th, renowned consumer rights blogger Mr. Wang (screen name: Frog Brother Strikes) recently released a new episode of exposing videos, revealing potential underfilled issues with the oil stain remover sold by “Northeast Rain Sister.” He conducted tests on 3 bottles of the product labeled as 500ml, showing actual volumes were short by 10%, 16%, and 20%, with the minimum capacity being only 400ml.
After the video release, netizens from Guangdong, Hebei, Tianjin, Inner Mongolia, and other regions shared images in the comments section, detailing underfilled products they purchased from “Northeast Rain Sister.”
Chongqing practicing lawyer Nie Weichang stated that according to the Consumer Rights Protection Law, operators involved in fraudulent activities should compensate consumers three times the purchase amount if found guilty, with a minimum compensation of 500 yuan (i.e., “refund tripled”).
Statistics suggest that the exclusive oil stain remover for Rain Sister has a sales volume of 1.869 million units. Therefore, if this product is determined to be deceptive by relevant authorities, according to the “refund tripled” and “not less than 500 yuan compensated 500 yuan” regulations, “Northeast Rain Sister” may face a huge compensation in the tens of millions yuan.
Currently, “Northeast Rain Sister” has taken down related product links, and contacts with customer service and manufacturers are unavailable (there is even no contact phone number on the packaging of the oil stain remover).
Reportedly, “Northeast Rain Sister” is also praised in the industry as the “Wolf Warrior version of Li Ziqi.” Some netizens believe her videos portray a more authentic rural life. However, some opinions suggest that the editing style and character portrayal on Rain Sister’s account are meticulously crafted.
Data shows that in the past month around September this year, “Northeast Rain Sister” conducted a total of 4 live broadcast sales sessions, each with over 5 million viewers on average, with total sales ranging between 25 million and 50 million yuan. In the data platform evaluations, “Northeast Rain Sister” is categorized under the “top expert” column.
According to Huge Star Chart, a 21-60 second short video by “Northeast Rain Sister” is priced at 1 million yuan, while videos exceeding 60 seconds are valued at 1.2 million yuan, ranking at the top of the Must-Select list for three agricultural weeks/months.
Live broadcasting is currently the primary channel for “Northeast Rain Sister” to monetize. Feigua data indicates that since 2024, “Northeast Rain Sister” has conducted a total of 28 live broadcast sales sessions, with total sales exceeding 100 million yuan. Products endorsed by “Northeast Rain Sister” mainly include food and beverages and fresh products, with an average of over 4 million viewers per broadcast.
Tianyan Cha App shows that “Northeast Rain Sister’s” husband, Bai Guohui, is connected to a total of 3 active companies. Through direct or indirect shareholding, Bai Guohui controls the actual operations of 28 enterprises, encompassing industries like commerce, media, advertising planning, and e-commerce livestreaming.