'Thunder people' shock passengers on subway
By Jules Quartly (China Daily)
Updated: 2010-02-10 10:18
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All the world's a stage and the subway has become a popular platform for struggling models, actors and exhibitionists to show what they've got. It's better than busking because no one's holding out a hat at the end.
The subway has a lot of advantages for these itinerant players. First, there's a large captive audience. Second, it's warm and dry. Third, there's always the possibility they'll be filmed for posterity and their underground performance will become a nationwide hit. There's even a term for it: "Thunder people videos" (雷人视频).
Take Shanghai's "Leopard Print Man", for example, a cross-dresser who worships a Korean model and carries a homemade bag around with her picture on it. Leopard print dresses, or leggings, are his other trademark fashion statements, along with a pair of sunglasses. If there's space in the carriage he will do a kind of muted pole dance.
He's famous. Major portals like Sohu, Tianya and the shopping website taobao have run articles on him, even dressing up real models in the clothes he wears. His blog has photos of him in various freaky poses, a text explaining why he wants to be the Korean model, all under the header: "I want to become as evil as you."
Following on from the man who dresses up, is the female model who takes her clothes off, on what appears to be Nanjing's subway. Dolled up in leopard and tiger print faux furs (there's a pattern here), she starts removing her clothes, casting them on the floor of the train, revealing another set of clothes. Her timing is pretty good. By the time she has stripped down to a yellow vest and hot pants, and posed, it's time for her to get off the train, leaving the clothes in her wake.
Then there's the unwitting comedian on Beijing's subway who uses his smart phone to play "bowling". He fiddles with his phone, winds himself up, then "throws" a ball down the aisle of the carriage. He checks his score, fiddles, and does it again. The train arrives at a station, the door opens and he has the bright idea of "bowling" toward the platform.
He redoubles his efforts, falls and the phone slips out of his hands. The train door closes and there is a wonderful moment when you can see him reaching out for the phone, trapped behind the door, while realizing it has gone forever. The embarrassed exhibitionist makes a dramatic exit, down the carriage, hiding his face from the person videoing him.
It's like these people have attention-deficit disorder. Not the ADD that kids take Ritalin for, but the gnawing anonymity that comes with living in huge cities and drives people to do something so outrageous they will be noticed and feel they are no longer just part of the crowd.
I'm all for it. It doesn't harm anyone and if someone's prepared to make a fool of themselves to make us laugh, or provide some color in our commuter-colored lives, then "hurrah" and "encore".
As for the performers, it's a certainty that one particularly talented or lucky individual will have their act go viral, be interviewed ad nauseum, find mainstream acceptance and end up on the CCTV Spring Festival Gala, eyeballed by 700 million people.
Then they'll be too famous to take the subway.
(China Daily 02/10/2010 page18)