Kitchen on the Hilltop: Vietnamese Youtuber caught plagiarizing Ly Tu That, Chinese netizens are outraged

"Kitchen on the Hilltop" is a YouTube channel about cuisine and life of a Vietnamese creator, accused by the Chinese online community of copying the idea of "country fairy" Ly Tu That. The incident forced the channel owner to "hide" for a while.

About 4 years ago, Tam An, owner of the YouTube channel "Kitchen on the Hilltop" received a lot of attention. At that time, she quit her job as a designer and moved to live in the middle of Muong Hoa valley, in Y Linh Ho village, Sapa to work as a housekeeper and chef for a homestay.

Her main job every day is to take care of the homestay, cooking vegetarian dishes for guests. In her free time, she plays with the neighborhood children, and records clips to preserve her beautiful memories of the Northwest mountains and forests. The series of culinary videos "showing off" elaborate macrobiotic vegetarian dishes and the interesting life in the Northwest mountains and forests, with the cute neighborhood children, has captivated many people.

In her culinary videos, Tam An often wears coarse, indigo-dyed or brown-dyed fabric, with her hair braided or tied in a bun at the back. The dishes she cooks mainly use locally sourced plant ingredients, vegetables picked from her garden or the forest.

Some of the cooking utensils that Tam An used, such as large pans, bamboo steamers, and especially the light-filled kitchen on the hilltop at that time, reminded many people of the image of Ly Tu That - the Chinese "country fairy" who inspired many young people to leave the city and return to the countryside.

There are people who follow the YouTube channel and are crazy about Tam An, calling her life a dream in real life. There are also people who analyze every angle, every scene, pay attention to the way Tam An walks and dresses, and think that she is "copying" Ly Tu That and has no unique creative personality. This incident was noisy on both Vietnamese and Chinese social networks, the debate was so intense that Tam An had to "hide" for a while.

Since the beginning of 2020, Tam An has not been in the Northwest, in the familiar kitchen corner with the mountain children, the friendly neighbors and the old lady who loves her like family, but has been living in Krong Bong, Dak Lak. This time, she is not going out to play, but returning to her hometown to start a business.

Tam An returned to her hometown to start a business on her parents' old coffee land. The 3-hectare old coffee garden had been left unused for nearly 5 years, so she decided to destroy it all to plant forests, intercrop beans, and build an agricultural processing factory.

At first, there was no electricity, no water, far from the village, the road was muddy, in the rainy season, anyone who went on this road shook their head in dismay. When friends came to visit, I had to run out to help them push their carts because it was muddy.

Every year when it rains a lot, the road to the village is flooded, making it an isolated oasis. Even my parents initially told me: "Let me go find another piece of land with better facilities and conditions, because how can we live there?", she recalled.

Going back to the countryside to start a career is like that, not the path of a dreamer but must be exchanged with love and hard work. After 2 years of hard work, the wild garden of parents has become Tam An's little paradise: There is electricity for daily life, there is also 3-phase electricity for production, clean water from the waterfall is brought in for use, the roads are occasionally rented to dump rocks so it is better.

Tam An also built an agricultural production area. She became the small owner of a farm, with her family, parents, and aunts, sisters, and uncles in the village as workers...

Returning to her hometown to start a career, Tam An "just in time" to get married and have children. Her mother often shows off pictures of cute baby Dau with corners of the house and green fields, making many of Tam An's followers "flutter".

While focusing on building her business, her channel "Kitchen on the Hilltop" was almost inactive. For more than 3 years, Tam An has not released a new clip.

However, recently, when Ly Tu That suddenly returned to work after 3 years of absence, Chinese netizens were surprised to dig up the story of the YouTube channel Bep Tren Dinh Doi that had "plagiarized" Ly Tu That's videos. Many people found that the Bep Tren Dinh Doi channel also stopped posting videos for exactly 3 years like Ly Tu That.

And most recently, coincidentally, both channels posted videos again after a 3-year hiatus. This made netizens feel that Bếp Trên Đỉnh Đồi was copying the "3-year video hiatus" as well.

However, if we look at it fairly, it seems like this is just a coincidence. Because Ly Tu That just returned on November 12, that is, 1 day ago, while the channel Bep Tren Dinh Doi posted a new video 2 weeks ago. Moreover, during the time Ly Tu That was almost completely hidden, the owner of the channel Bep Tren Dinh Doi was still quite active on other platforms such as Facebook and TikTok.

Currently, the owner of the Kitchen on the Hill channel has also switched to the main activity of producing and trading agricultural products. In response to the plagiarism scandal, she also spoke up to explain, saying that she is currently focusing on business.

Currently, the issue related to the channel Kitchen on the Hill and the coincidence with Ly Tu That's channel is still causing many mixed opinions on social networks.