Bitten by the passion bug

Online influencer creates 300-plus insect and reptile vlogs, peppered with dollops of humor, to draw more than 2.4 million fans, report Yang Feiyue in Beijing and Hu Meidong in Fuzhou.

Zheng Xiaoyang reaches into a glass tank sitting in the back of his workstation, fumbles for a while and then whips out something that makes his visitors gasp in horror.

As a small, green snake wraps itself around his hand, the 29-year-old resident of Fuzhou, capital of East China's Fujian province, says: "It is not venomous and doesn't bite. You may touch it."

His reassuring words and the seemingly tamed creature often allay concerns, and encourage some to feel the snake's slimy skin.