MEBRO
DISINFO DESK
Technology & AI
The Sobbing 'Poor Boy' Begging Chinese Grandmothers for Help Isn't Real — He's an AI Selling Face Cream
"Xiaohai" has racked up over 600 million views on Chinese short-video platforms with sob stories about poverty and a single mother. He doesn't exist — he's an AI character built to sell overpriced goods to elderly women, and at least one grandmother boarded a train to find him.
FILED OCT 25, 2026 · 3 SOURCES
The Claim
Across dozens of accounts on Douyin, China's TikTok equivalent, videos show a boy called "Xiaohai" tearfully describing life in poverty with a single mother who can't afford to feed him [1][2]. He calls viewers "auntie" and "mom," sings for them, asks about their health, and in one clip even appears to donate blood [2]. A related hashtag passed 600-620 million views [1][2][3].
Xiaohai is not a real boy. His face and voice change between videos — he's a mass-produced AI character, not a single person, run by accounts that exist to sell products [1][3].
The Evidence
Chinese state broadcaster CCTV and other local outlets reported on the scheme after it drew hundreds of millions of views, and the OECD's AI incident monitor independently logged the persona as an AI-generated "digital persona" case on October 15, 2026 [1][3]. The accounts behind Xiaohai follow a sympathy-to-sales pipeline — Chinese commentary calls it "卖惨" ("selling hardship") — using the manufactured heartbreak to sell goods ranging from soy sauce to cosmetics, including luxury face cream, mostly to middle-aged and older women [2][3]. Operators told reporters the payoff is real even if the boy isn't: commissions reportedly run up to 55%, and one operator said a day earning only "two or three thousand" yuan (roughly $280-$420) counted as a slow day [3].
The harm is not hypothetical. A 79-year-old woman believed Xiaohai's story enough that she boarded a long-distance train to go meet him in person — and only discovered on board that he was an AI character with no physical existence [1][3].
Who's Spreading It
Xiaohai is reportedly a successor to an earlier AI character, "Wang Jianguo," whose accounts were shut down en masse once platforms cracked down — after which operators pivoted the format to a new fictional character [2]. The format survives crackdowns because it's cheap to rebrand: China's AI short-drama market reached 22 billion yuan in the first half of the year, and AI video views on platforms like Kuaishou were up 321% by July compared with six months earlier [1]. Some users have pushed back by making mocking counter-videos recasting Xiaohai as a greedy criminal, and viewers who bought products have expressed regret in comments — but the format persists [1][2][3].
The Verdict
SOURCES · 3
- [1]Seoul Economic Daily - AI-Generated Boy Draws 600 Million Views in China Product Sales Scam
72/100 · en.sedaily.com
- [2]Sixth Tone - Chinese Users Get Back at AI Male Teen, Casting Him as a Grifter
72/100 · sixthtone.com
- [3]OECD.AI - AI-Generated Digital Personas Exploit Elderly Consumers in China
72/100 · oecd.ai
MEBRO · DISINFO DESK · mebro.app
Investigative report — not a user-submitted fact-check.
AI-built, source-verified. Every claim here was checked against the sources cited above before publishing — but don't just trust us: follow any citation to its source and confirm it yourself. That's the whole point.