After refreshing the page and scanning it again, Freshman James Chung screams loudly before bolting from his room to spread the news to his family and later, his friends and fellow Jajuca member Freshman Catherine Zhu. On his desk, his laptop screen displays the Youtube channel Jajuca, with the subscriber count reading a distinct “100”.
Chung and Freshman Julian Wright created Jajuca in May 2013. Zhu joined in and the name was made: Ja for James, Ju for Julian and Ca for Catherine. Wright has left the group since then, while Jajuca has made itself more known in school.
“I actually found out from James, because he visits our account more frequently than I do,” Zhu said. “When I found out, it really hit me, because we’ve made so much progress since we started Jajuca.”
On Facebook, Chung and Zhu advertise the Jajuca page with help from their friends. While this limits the pool of people who see the advertisements, Chung and Zhu are also trying to reach out to people who are not from the school or state. Meanwhile, their friends use varying methods to advertise on Facebook which sometimes, come in the form of references to the channel or ideas for more videos.
“It makes me feel good because most of the time, people don’t even bother to watch our videos,” Zhu said. “It’s nice to know that they care and support us.”
Jajuca does not have a set schedule for video uploads because Chung and Zhu make them whenever an idea appears. When this happens, the two talk over Facebook to plan out where to meet and film. They plan the scripts on the spot and usually use a tripod to record, but at times, their friends help film or star in videos. After filming, Chung edits the footage and uploads it to the channel, which can take a few days to a month.
Jajuca is filled with multiple videos that could be categorized under “comedy,” though most of them have to do with music at the moment. The channel uploads consist of parodies, challenges, music videos and how-to’s. Their latest upload is a music medley of parodies from Disney’s Frozen, titled “Do You Want to Make a Video?” While these videos come around once a month and do not follow a schedule, Jajuca does plan to stay together for a long time.
“For me, I think that we should continue making videos until college or something,” Chung said. “It’s like a hobby.”
Viewers often send hate to Youtube channels. When Chung and Zhu first began they were no exception and even now, they receive the occasional mean message. Every once in a while, someone will send a message in Zhu’s Ask.fm, stating that they “hate Jajuca” or think that the team is “really bad.” By this point, however, the faces behind Jajuca do not really care or let it bother them.
“We don’t do this to get people to like us,” Zhu said. “We do it because it’s fun.”
TCHS School Newspaper