When passion becomes a profession

Bilibili's top creators, from medieval history to tech reviews, share what drives their success, Wang Xin reports in Shanghai.

Qu, a 30-year-old content creator who calls himself Augustinus Lugdunensis on the Chinese video-sharing platform Bilibili, never expected so many Chinese people would be interested in the medieval history of Europe, a niche field even for many people born there.

Having started to upload videos on Bilibili in March 2022, Qu shares the history and stories of the Middle Ages, a period spanning from about the 5th to the late 15th century. To date, he has more than 1 million followers and nearly 68 million views on the platform, and was named one of the top 100 content creators at the Bilibili 2025 UP100 grand ceremony held in Shanghai.

Qu has been fascinated by history since high school, and attended university in France where he studied medieval European history, with a focus on the Christian church and society. Referring to himself simply as a "storyteller", Qu's videos center on his professional research field and also expand to the lesser-known elements of that period, like marriage, work and diet.