When passion becomes a profession

"The vast majority of audiences, even Westerners today, have no real idea about what the Middle Ages and people's lives then were actually like," says Qu.

He notes that many people stereotypically view those in the Middle Ages as "ignorant and backward", but the truth is that they were essentially similar to ourselves — given the context of their social environment. Blending complex and obscure historical knowledge with well-understood narratives and visual scenes, Qu presents the people and stories in history in an innovative and vivid way.

"China boasts a vast land and profound history. Compared to young people from overseas, we see that young Chinese audiences naturally have a deep appreciation for history and ancient wisdom. We tend to feel connected to the world as a whole, and resonate with countries with diverse histories," says Qu.

Qu released his first video about the medieval period — on the topic of diet — nearly three years ago, and it was an instant success, with more than 2 million views. The positive feedback Qu received gave him the confidence to become a full-time content creator, and constantly drives him to share the little-known stories of the Middle Ages with a wider audience. It can take over two weeks for him to produce a single episode, but Qu enjoys being a storyteller.

Despite being one of Bilibili's top 100 content creators for 2025, Qu is still a "newcomer". Over 60 of the top 100 creators have been making content on the platform for between five and 10 years, while 18 of them have been doing it for more than a decade. Between them, the top 100 creators have over 49,000 videos with a cumulative runtime exceeding 990,000 minutes, garnering a total of more than 65.6 billion views.