Comments (2)

By Angie, May 12, 2010 3:14 pm

We all love a good human interest story.

Like the handsome beggar’s rapid rise from obscurity, there are stories about other Chinese internet sensations.  While there is nothing new about internet fame – especially when one looks to Youtube and the number who earn their 15 minutes via self-posted videos – I feel that the difference in China is that many of those who are widely recognized on Chinese video-sharing sites, like Youku or Tudou, are ordinary citizens who were not seeking fame, but who had it thrust unexpectedly upon them.

One of these sensations is Ren Yueli, a now 22 street musician from Zhuozhou, Hebei Province.   She was forced to quit school at 14 due to economic constraints and at age 16 went to Beijing in hopes to make money to send home to her poverty-striken and disabled parents.  Constantly cheated of her payment while working at a local restaurant, she decided to try something new.  For 100 RMB (around 12 USD) she convinced a guitarist she met performing in an underground tunnel to teach her to play and ended up practicing every night.  When she was confident enough, she began busking herself – through the freezing winters, where her fingers were often too stiff to strum, to the swelteringly hot summers.  By doing this, she was able to earn 1000RMB a month, sending half home to her family.  Her monthly room rent was a few hundred dollars and she lived off 10RMB a day for food.  Last January, a passerby recorded her singing in the Xidan subway underpass, and posted it onto Yukou. Within one week, it was viewed 3 million times and quickly exceeded well over 30 million views (not to mention the millions of hits on re-posts and other user-generated videos featuring Ren Yueli).

The speed in which this information travelled was incredible.  At its peak, the viewer tally went up by 10,000 views per minute and was reposted on many major BBS discussion forums.  “Xidan girl” ranks amongst the fastest rising search engine keywords.  Human flesh searches (scroll to the bottom of the post) were even conducted to find Ren Yueli’s constant whereabouts and to learn information about her life and her past.

Ren Yueli - "Xidan Girl"

Due to her internet success and popularity, Ren Yueli has signed on with a local Chinese record label and is in the process of recording her first album.  Occassionally, she will return to the underpass where she started and sing.  “I just want to help my family live a better life. If things don’t work out, I will go back underground and sing,” she says.

Reading online discussions about the top web celebrities of 2009, I was actually really surprised by how many became sensations based on appearance alone.  Some of them include:

Gu Jiawen, a bus ticket seller dubbed “bus beauty”, from Shanghai.  She was ‘discovered’ after an admiring customer took her photo and posted it online.

Another is Kang Xiaohan, nicknamed “Tanghulu Xi Shi”.  Tanghulu is a snack similar to a candied apple, but using hawthorne, yams, or other fruit skewered on a bamboo stick, and Xi Shi is the name of one of the Four Beauties renowned in ancient China.

Kang is from a poor rural family in Anyang, Henan province, and works in Xi’an near a local university selling Tanghulu.  Similar story to “bus beauty”, where she was noticed, her photo taken and uploaded online, she became an overnight star.

Yet another is a policeman, Meng Kunyu, given the title of “most handsome traffic cop in Beijing”, after a group of female university students took his photo and posted it online.

Meng Kunyu -"Most Handsome Cop"

I wonder what the fascination with nice-looking ordinary people is amongst Chinese netizens.  Does it lie solely in their looks?  Or in the fact that young, good-looking people are not usually seen working jobs (e.g. bus ticket sellers) that are normally occupied by an a-yi (older women, “auntie” type)?  Or is it a beast all unto itself, where quick-talking, sensationalism-desired netizens can create topics of interest out of practically anything?  Regardless of what it is, the remarkable force, power and speed of the Chinese online community is astounding.

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Comments (12)

By Angie, March 3, 2010 1:32 pm

I am finding this SO fascinating, and I’m not sure why exactly!
Perhaps because it’s so rare that beggars are so publicly recognized.  Perhaps it’s because the Chinese internet community has gone totally and wildly berserk about this man.  Perhaps because it’s just incredible to see the lightening-fast speed information travels online in China.  I think it’s all of the above.

“Brother Sharp”, as Chinese netizens have dubbed him, is a beggar.  But with a smoldering, disheveled, handsome look that clearly appeals to netizens all over China.

On January 23, 2010, photos of Brother Sharp were taken by a passerby in Ningbo and posted on a Chinese forum.  Overnight, Brother Sharp became an internet phenomenon.   A video discussing the beggar was posted on Youku on February 25, 2010, and within 24 hours, the number of views approached one million.

Pretty hunky, no? ^_~

Chinese netizens have even started putting his photos on mock magazine covers and performing Human Flesh Searches on him, hoping to find him and see him in person.  (Note: through Human Flesh Searches, netizens have indeed located him and scores have been trying to meet him, which has actually frightened the man considerably…)

Netizen-produced mock magazine cover

What’s a Human Flesh Search?

Human Flesh Search (Chinese:人肉搜索) is an internet phenomenon originating from MOP, a popular Chinese BBS, where the term was coined by Chinese netizens.  It is an action of mass cooperation and research via all kinds of social media, including blogs, forums, BBS, SNS, etc. to search and locate a human anywhere in the world.  People conducting these searches are commonly referred to as “Human Flesh Search Engines”.

The beauty of this is the collaboration and real-time aspect of it, which makes it easier to acquire information usually difficult or even impossible to find via conventional means (e.g. library, or simple search engines).

The successes and continuation of Human Flesh Searches, unique in China, can possibly be attributed to many factors. Some of these include:

- The sheer number of Chinese netizens, which exceeds the population of the United States.
- The openness at which Chinese netizens have embraced the internet.  At Starcom, we have conducted research talking to internet users from youth to mums, in China and around Asia.  In no other country does the scope and scale of internet usage compare to Chinese users.  Their love for all things online – posting, commenting, shopping, streaming, searching, etc. – is astounding.
- Their need for information.  Chinese netizens are information-hungry and will not be satisfied with simple search-engine searches.
- Their inherent culture of community.  This enables netizens to form bonds with others online and to speak and cooperate with people they may not know nor have met before.
- The seamless integration of their offline and online lives.
- Their strong sense of right/wrong and upholding justice.  Many Human Flesh Searches are a product of netizens sharing acts by others that violate public morality.  For example, there are cases where netizens have cracked down on individuals found to harm animals, or to have hurt others, or bullies, etc.   Though cooperation by many, these individuals are tracked down via information shared in real-time online.  The target will find his/her personal information posted for all to see online and will even find themselves confronted by netizens in person.
- Their love for sensationalism.  Aside from tracking down those who do wrong, Human Flesh Searches are also done on celebrities or people who have done good.  Chinese netizens love a good, juicy story (case and point: Brother Sharp).
- Their youth.  Over two-thirds of internet users in China are 30 or under (Source: China Internet Network Infomation Center, 2008), this leads to a culture of netizens who are naturally curious, enthusiastic, and energetic.

What does this all mean?
In today’s society, where time is scarce and people just want to find information as quickly as possible, searches powered by people and not programs will become the way to go. Google’s search engine will not tell me where to find Brother Sharp, but Sunnygirl01 from Tianjin might be able to.

Also, no one in this world, not even an unassuming beggar, is immune to the seeking eyes of millions upon millions of curious Chinese netizens.