Viral video star Thomas Derksen is better known for poking fun than pushing for societal change. Yet in July, he attempted to do just that in his native Germany.

In the runup to the G20 gathering in Hamburg, the Shanghai-based funnyman wrote to Angela Merkel, the German chancellor, urging her administration to follow China's example of building a "cashless" society.

"My Chinese friends always tell me that they admire a lot of things about Germany, but now the time has come that we Germans should learn from the Chinese people," he wrote.