Life on this side of Firewall throws up a pleasant surprise
A farmer from Shandong is my hero this week. His elevation was by default really because, like many other surfers in the Middle Kingdom, I washed up on local video sites as I couldn't access YouTube.
Zhu Zhiwen loomed large on the radar screen when Baidu reported he was the Chinese Web's most searched individual. I clicked on a couple of sites to watch him sing some folk opera songs and pitch hay on his farm. Then I spent a perplexed 30 minutes or so wondering what all the fuss was about. He seemed like an ordinary farmer in an army surplus coat to me.
Duh! I should have caught on when the subtitles to the show he performed on, Shandong TV's I am a Big Star, referred to him as the "Male Susan Boyle". It is a familiar narrative. Instead of a polished young performer with idol looks, find a visually challenged (and I don't mean he needs glasses) nobody and make them a star instead. They get the sympathy vote and everyone feels good about it. It's like charity but better.
