Anna Sophie Loewenberg is the star and producer of “Sexy Beijing,” an online series of sly, knowing videos about a hapless, curious foreigner which has proved popular among expats, language students, and mainland Chinese. (The début episode, “Looking for Double Happiness,” has been viewed more than one and a half million times on YouTube.) The videos, which run from five to ten minutes, are loose parodies of “Sex and the City,” with Loewenberg playing a hammy version of herself, careering around town to interview construction workers, dog-walkers, cranky old men, and, on occasion, Lubavitchers about their love lives. The latest episode goes online this week.

What brought you to China, and what was the most effective way you found for learning Chinese?

I came to China in 1996 with a program called V.I.A.—Volunteers in Asia. I was also interested in China because my German grandparents and my father had lived in Shanghai from 1933 to 1937. [They were German Jews who were part of a large Jewish diaspora in the city.] The best way to learn Chinese is to surround yourself with Chinese people. If you want to give yourself the accelerated course, take a Chinese lover—and not someone who speaks English! Let yourself feel uncomfortable and out of your comfort zone for a while and you will learn to speak more quickly.

Why “Sexy Beijing”?

We created “Sexy Beijing” for YouTube and other Web sites in 2006. So, at that point, multimedia was part of the plan. Chinese people often tell me I look like Sarah Jessica Parker, and when I created the show, with Luke Mines and Jeremy Goldkorn, I was single and in my thirties in Beijing. What could be more fun than a Chinese-speaking Carrie with glasses? I’m still single, but now I am enjoying single life more because hot men around town recognize me as the “Sexy Beijing” girl—so the show has done wonders for my love/social life. My personal issues aside, I thought the show would be an interesting approach to documenting Chinese culture.

What’s your best story about being a Jew in China?

The very first time that Luke and I went out to film, we were in a hutong asking an elderly man from the neighborhood about love when I mentioned my Jewish mother. The next thing I knew, his crotchety neighbor was laying out his ideas on Israeli foreign policy at the top of his lungs. I thought he was attacking us, but, as I began to listen more closely, I realized that was just the way he talked. Then he said, “You Jews really have it bad—everyone in the world hates you!”

From what you know, who is watching your work?

Young overseas Chinese, mainland Chinese, anyone interested in China and pop culture, Jewish hipsters.

What is the moment you most regret during the course of your time here?

The moment I fell in love with a Chinese rock star. Fall of 1996. There was no turning back.

(Photograph: Ben Miao)