The over-the-hill standard of success

Recently, an aging rock star was spotted with a bulging waistline and a receding hairline. Worse, he was on the subway. Even though he was wearing dark glasses, snapshots taken by a fellow passenger surfaced online and he was identified as Dou Wei.

Dou was a principal member of a Beijing-based rock group active in the 1990s. He is more often labeled "the first husband of Faye Wong". Wong has been the prima donna of Mandopop for two decades and looks not much different now from when they were a young couple.

Some members of the public interpreted the photos as an unmistakable sign that Dou has fallen from the celebrity galaxy. Everyone gets old, albeit at varying rates, but a rock star not being chauffeured around in high style is simply beyond their imagination.