Donning hijabs and floor-length abaya gowns over shorts and tank tops, Chinese students at an e-commerce school perform into a smartphone camera as they learn how to sell the clothes to overseas TikTok users.
It is the final day of a two-week course on selling products abroad via the short video app — which despite being blocked in China is a platform more and more Chinese vendors are turning to.
Succeeding on TikTok requires tools for bypassing internet restrictions as well as foreign-language skills, challenges that have prompted a boom in courses and consulting services.
At the school in Guangzhou in southern Guangdong province, an instructor holds up the Middle Eastern-inspired garments to the camera and rattles off prices and sizing information for Muslim buyers in the UK.
"This is chiffon, it's really breathable!" she gushes in English as her proteges model the goods and sort through racks of satin robes under stark studio lights.
"We teach people which products are selling better, and which markets are more suitable for their current stages," said 27-year-old Wang Yaxuan, another instructor at the school.
