Chinese vloggers filmed Dhaka’s slums and called it New Delhi. Why?

PTC Web Desk:  Some Chinese vloggers in Bangladesh’s capital are livestreaming from poor neighbourhoods and telling their viewers back home that they are in India. Reports say the number of such Chinese nationals in Dhaka is around 150, though no exact count exists.

The streams also include rude and false remarks about how Indians live. That has led many to ask whether this is just a money-making trend or something more planned.

What Prothom Alo found

On November 6, Bangladeshi newspaper Prothom Alo published an investigation. It said Chinese nationals were filming in the narrow lanes of Tekpara and Uttara in Dhaka. They streamed live on Chinese apps like WeChat and Douyin, which is China’s version of TikTok. They told viewers the footage was from New Delhi.

The paper’s reporters visited the area on October 27 and November 3 and tried to speak with 17 Chinese nationals. 

One woman, who goes by “Mianmian” and says she is from Sichuan, was filming beside a canal in Uttara’s Sector 12 on November 1. She told viewers, “This is New Delhi. Their homes are extremely dirty.” She also said the area was underdeveloped and unsafe.

Another streamer, called “Wang Wei,” filmed local tea stalls in Tekpara. He told his audience that people there were drinking “cow urine tea.” The tea was ordinary, and the claim was false.

Some Chinese women in the streams also said they live in India with their husbands and families. The footage was shot in Dhaka.

Not the first report

This has been going on for months. In May, The Business Standard reported on Chinese vloggers filming in Tekpara. Its team found videos on Chinese sites like Bilibili and Youku with titles that used words like “poor,” “dirty” and “slum.” Many showed the vloggers as kind helpers handing out aid to poor people.

In July, the Bangladeshi paper Kaler Kantho reported that more and more Chinese nationals were turning up in Uttara’s Sector 12. Locals said the filming had been going on for three or four months.

One resident said, “They go into every shop and record videos. We don’t know what their real plan is.”

Privacy complaints

The bigger worry for locals is privacy. Residents told Prothom Alo that some vloggers walked into homes and even bathrooms while filming. The Business Standard heard similar complaints about kitchens and other private spaces.

Both papers also found that local Bangladeshi women were working as guides for the vloggers. One of them told Prothom Alo she earns Tk 700 to Tk 800 a day. 

Kaler Kantho described another odd moment. After a Chinese national was approached by its reporter, they phoned someone, then handed the phone to a pharmacy owner. The person on the line reportedly told him to collect the reporter’s number and ask the team to leave.

What the vloggers and police say

A streamer called “Fangyou” told Prothom Alo the broadcasts were part of product promotion. She would not say why this neighbourhood was chosen. A Kaler Kantho report from July quoted another streamer saying the same thing.

The police chief at Uttara West Station told Prothom Alo he does not know why they make these videos or where they are shown. He said senior officers have been told. 

Money or a plan?

Foreign viewers have long been curious about poverty in South Asia. There are documentaries about slums and tourists pay for guided tours of them. An India Today report from March 2026 said guides in Mumbai’s Dharavi earn up to Rs 15,000 per tourist.

So one simple explanation is that these vloggers are chasing views and sales. But passing off Bangladesh as India, while mocking how Indians live, is harder to explain that way.

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