Fang Taozi
Fang Taozi is the AI-generated lead of the horizontal-format Douyin AI short drama The Girl Who Was Laid Off (被裁掉的女孩), which went live on Douyin on 12 June 2026 and ran to about 73 minutes, with a second season from 1 August. She plays a small-town girl who goes to the big (fictional) city of Shangnan to chase a modelling dream. Her own Douyin account opened two days after launch (first video 14 June) with vlogs, breakfast and cafe visits, outfits, set extras and dance trends; in her account she says she was 'created' on 1 April 2026. Reports put the drama at over 200 million Douyin views by late July (over 360 million per a later report) and the account at about 400,000 followers in early August and 465,000 on 11 August. Her first commercial post, a colour-contact-lens ad on 31 July, drew a regulatory complaint and was taken down after about six days; she reportedly appeared on a Cosmopolitan China digital cover in late August.
- Since
- 2026
- Last updated
- 19 October 2026
- Nature
- AI persona
- Niche
- Lifestyle
- Style
- Photorealistic
- Debut
- 2026
- Origin
- Douyin short drama; character set in the fictional city of Shangnan
Summary
Fang Taozi is the AI-generated lead of the horizontal-format Douyin AI short drama The Girl Who Was Laid Off (被裁掉的女孩), which went live on Douyin on 12 June 2026 and ran to about 73 minutes, with a second season from 1 August. She plays a small-town girl who goes to the big (fictional) city of Shangnan to chase a modelling dream. Her own Douyin account opened two days after launch (first video 14 June) with vlogs, breakfast and cafe visits, outfits, set extras and dance trends; in her account she says she was 'created' on 1 April 2026. Reports put the drama at over 200 million Douyin views by late July (over 360 million per a later report) and the account at about 400,000 followers in early August and 465,000 on 11 August. Her first commercial post, a colour-contact-lens ad on 31 July, drew a regulatory complaint and was taken down after about six days; she reportedly appeared on a Cosmopolitan China digital cover in late August.
Is Fang Taozi AI?
Yes. Fang Taozi is a fully AI-generated actress and influencer, the lead of the Douyin AI short drama The Girl Who Was Laid Off, run by a small production team and the studio My Film.
Every outlet the research found treats Fang Taozi as AI, and none names a human performer behind her. Jiemian reports that she has no real actor: her face, schedule, lines, social account and brand deals are all controlled by the production and operations team. The Paper calls her an AI virtual artist with no physical body, and says many viewers only realised after watching that the drama has no live actors. Lingua Sinica calls her a fully AI-generated actress and influencer.
The people behind her are named. Jiemian says the director and creator Feifeifei (菲菲飞) handled script and editing, a colleague named Chen Qian handled technology and generation, and a third member handled styling. The team started with three people and grew to eight for season 2. The Paper names the MCN My Film as the operator, and Lingua Sinica gives its full company name. Feifeifei is a former model whose real experiences inspired the story, but she is the author of the character, not the performer.
What is not known: which AI tools generate the face and voice, and whether any human voices the lines. The research could not read the Douyin account itself because of a login wall, so the counts and her own bio come from the press. No source suggests a real person's face was swapped or stolen.
Evidence
Jiemian states that Fang Taozi has no real actor and that her face, schedule, lines, social account and brand deals are controlled by the production and operations team.
m.jiemian.comJiemian names the three-person team behind the drama: Feifeifei on script and editing, Chen Qian on technology and generation, and one member on character styling, growing to eight for season 2.
m.jiemian.comThe Paper calls her an AI virtual artist without a physical body, says her ad lines come from a team's design, and names the MCN My Film as the operator behind her.
m.thepaper.cnLingua Sinica describes her as an artificial influencer generated by state-of-the-art AI, a fully AI-generated actress with no physical body, managed as an AI talent by the production company My Film.
lingua-sinica.org
Assessed 19 October 2026