Yinrun has to win Big Brother – she’s the reality star 2023 needs

From the moment she stepped into the Big Brother house six weeks ago, Yinrun has been my winner. Her fellow housemates were in the middle of a game of musical statues when she tiptoed into the deadly silent living room and instead of walking straight over to join them, the 25-year-old Chinese student hid behind a wall (presumably out of shock of walking into a room of several strangers pretending to be statues). It became an instant meme – and Yinrun became an instant reality TV star.

Tonight, Big Brother will crown its first winner in its new ITV era. Alongside Jordan (the current favourite to win according to bookies), Noky, Olivia and Henry, Yinrun is in the running to take home the £100,000 cash prize. All that stands between her and victory is one last round in the court of public opinion.

When the return of Big Brother was first announced in August 2022, I wasn’t convinced it would work, especially on ITV. Then, the channel’s biggest reality show was Love Island, which has transformed from a must-watch cultural phenomenon into a parade of wannabe influencers who care more about bagging a Pretty Little Thing deal than finding love in the villa.

It was clear the people chosen to enter the Big Brother housewould have to be worlds away from those picked for the dating series for it to work – and when it comes to Yinrun, at least, the casting team knocked it out of the park.

Yinrun moved to Harrogate from Shanghai two years ago and applied to Big Brother because she wanted to become “more immersed in British culture”. Despite the bravery and gumption it takes to move halfway across the world on your own, over the past six weeks Yinrun has been called meek and childlike by her detractors (including those in the house), but it’s wrong to dismiss her just because she’s kind, genuinely nice and often emotional. It’s those qualities that make her the perfect reality star for 2023.

In a genre that far too often celebrates fakery and deceitfulness, Yinrun’s authenticity has been a breath of fresh air. After years of ruthlessly ambitious Instagram influencers and “Turkey teeth” try hards, nowadays, we want our reality stars to be honest, soul-baring and even a little innocent. We want them to not care about the prize money or the fame, but to enjoy the once-in-a-lifetime experience that thousands at home would have killed for.

Yinrun embodies every one of these things, whether she’s singing cheery songs about eyes in the diary room or breaking down in tears over being forced to nominate another housemate for eviction (despite it being a fundamental part of the show she signed up to).

The very first shopping task, “Big Bro’s Ltd”, in which the Big Brother house transformed into an office, secured Yinrun’s place in the final. As one of the bosses – a “big wig” – Yinrun, alongside Henry and Trish, donned a comically large wig and set about ordering her housemates around.

The footage of her navigating a very tall hairpiece, sunglasses stuffed into it, was so iconic it could have easily been a Monty Python sketch. I’ve been repeating her accidentally viral catchphrase, “Hurry up girls! We have business to do,” for weeks now.

It’s a reality TV cliché to say we’ve watched a contestant go on a “journey”, but in this case it really is true. Over her month and a half in the Big Brother house, Yinrun has transformed from a diffident, girlish figure who worried about being left out to a confident woman who doesn’t let some behind-the-back bitching (ahem, Tom and Jenkin) ruin her day.

Reality TV needs people like Yinrun to keep it feeling fresh and relevant, otherwise we’re going to keep switching off in our droves. She has been the quintessential Big Brother contestant: one of a kind, harmless, and a true character. If it was down to me, she’d already be spending that £100,000.