Austin Guidry

Austin Guidry (born January 31, 1989) is an American video blogger (vlogger) and creator of online educational videos about China. He currently operates the YouTube Channel under his own name, although formerly, it was called "Let China Sleep". He was Lanzhou University of Technology's first-ever foreign exchange student before becoming a foreign English teacher at Lanzhou Jiaotong University. He rose to fame in mainland China because of his popular video series "Eat ALL OF THE THINGS!," which currently has over 29 million cumulative views. He is currently a foreign teacher at Tianjin Foreign Studies University.
Personal life and Career
Guidry was born in Flowood, MS to parents Stephen and Debra. After moving a few times, his family settled in Tyler, Texas when he was ten years old. He admitted to being a relatively shy child until his high school years as a student of Grace Community School. He credits his teachers as figures of influence in many of his life decisions, such as the decision to pursue history as his field of study, as well as his particular focus on China. Guidry attended East Texas Baptist University, where he majored in History. He studied abroad in China from Spring-Fall 2011, and before leaving, started a YouTube channel as a kind of diary. While in China, he studied Chinese and completed his senior thesis, "Lanzhou and Lanzhou University of Technology During China's Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution." After working in the USA for roughly one year, he returned to China in Fall 2012 to begin teaching in Lanzhou After working there for two years, he left Lanzhou for Tianjin to take a job as a foreign English teacher at Tianjin Foreign Studies University.
Video Blogging
Before leaving to study abroad in Lanzhou, Guidry created a YouTube channel as a sort of "video diary" and window into the daily life of a foreigner living in China. After returning home, but before returning to Lanzhou to teach, he created a Youku channel in order to share his experiences with any Chinese who might be interested. His first video was an introduction of his hometown in Chinese.
In August 2012, Guidry returned to China to begin teaching at Lanzhou Jiaotong University as a foreign English teacher to non-English major students. It was during this time that he began filming videos about food. It was not until early 2014 that the videos would be discovered by Chinese citizens, translated, and uploaded onto the Chinese video-sharing site ACFun, where they quickly went viral. Guidry quickly gained tens of thousands of followers and millions of video views. He continues to make videos about his experiences with food in China until this day, posting them on Youku, ACFun, and 56.

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