This unlikely viral star was discovered by social media when clips of him quoting Aristotle, Confucius and Dante began to surface on Douyin, a short-video platform. To the surprise of many, this homeless man — with uncombed hair, soiled clothes and unwashed beard — turned out to be well versed in literature and philosophy....
Shen quickly became an antihero for those tired of trying to climb social and economic ladders in a country obsessed with youth, novelty, education, fame, wealth and good looks.....
One video showed a road sign pinpointing Shen’s location.... Every morning when the vagabond opened his door, he would find dozens, or even hundreds, of people already waiting at the doorstep of his temporary shelter — a deserted office storeroom. Each time he opened his mouth, dozens of phones and cameras were ready to record. As soon as he finished a memorable quote, people would respond with thunderous applause and cheers....
“I know people are treating me like a monkey,” Shen said in a 25-second video on March 19, more to himself than to a full room of smartphone-wielding spectators. “Nobody came to see me with a pure heart. You did this for money.”...
“I was destined to be a trash collector,” Shen told the Red Star News. “I admire Gandhi and want to live an ascetic life like him.”....
ADDED: Either WaPo needs better editing or it's trying to get in on the mysterious words of wisdom game. Explain this line from the article: "By March 19, Shen’s cult following on social media had a cult following on social media."
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24 comments:
Recursive cult followings may be how the Washington Post gets published every day.
Gotta go, the Amazon truck just pulled up...
It helps that he looks the part--he's right out of Hollywood.
By March 19, Shen’s cult following on social media had a cult following on social media.
Could be bad editing, but it could mean his followers have followers. Which happens to most prominent philosophers.
Diogenes would have been better with social media.
A meta-cult.
he’s fled the fame
he’s fed the flame
By March 19, Shen’s cult following on social media had a cult following on social media.
It's only NOW, when all the copy editors have been laid off, that newspaper and newspaper-online readers understand what those people did.
I do hope the copy editors have found new jobs teaching English (SWE or standard written English is the sneer) to middle-school students.
A few more years of this, and we'll be reduced to communicating in emojis.
It would make a good Jackie Chan movie.
Democracy died in darkness.
Every time I look at you I don't understand
Why you let the things you did get so out of hand
You'd have managed better if you'd had it planned
Why'd you choose such a backward time in such a strange land?
If you'd come today you could have reached a whole nation
Israel in 4 BC had no mass communication
"It would make a good Jackie Chan movie."
Reminiscent of Drunken Master, one of his earliest and best.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i4SkO3ypCXw
Is this an antidote to Trump's positive thinking. Admire whining gripers who find nothing good enough for them. They can only see the world full of deplorable Christians clinging to their Bibles and other weapons of hope for a free life.
And Trump laughs.
Take a trip to China to see the philosophers in their natural environment: a room in an office building.
Aristotle: We are what we repeatedly do, but parts is parts.
Confucius: When it is obvious that the goals cannot be reached, insist on making it complicated.
Dante: One dollar abandon, ye who enter here!
Every morning when the vagabond opened his door, he would find dozens, or even hundreds, of people already waiting ...
I think they’ve already made the movie. It was called The Life of Brian.
"Shen’s cult following on social media had a cult following on social media"
This could be the kind of joke I've seen many times over the years. I remember hearing it long ago when some character on TV (I think it was Gidget's unattractive female friend) said she was so excited her "goosebumps have goosebumps."
I was trying to think of other examples of the form. One would be: "My dog's fleas have fleas."
But if it's not an editing mistake (the most likely option), then it's probably the serious idea that fandom can reach a proportion that the phenomenon of fandom is itself adulated.
Were there Beatlemania maniacs — people not so much into The Beatles per se but people who go crazy for the excitement of those who have gotten excited about the original object of admiration?
Maybe it's like being in love with love....
It's just a damned editing error... but what an editing error!
Alexander blocks the sun but a cult following casts even more shade.
Larue!
Here's a Larue-focused episode from Season 1 (free on Amazon Prime).
Oh, good Lord! You're going to get me binge-watching Gidget on Amazon Prime.
My bucket list has a bucket list.
The first cult follow Shen by recording him and putting their recordings on social media. The second cult follow the Shen-recording-cult on social media.
Gadget, geez. Sad how Sally Field turned out.
Explain this line from the article: "By March 19, Shen’s cult following on social media had a cult following on social media."
The next sentence makes the intended meaning clear as it references a "widely shared" photo of his followers surrounding him.
Also, it's a joke.
Also, I share Master Shen's title as I am a Klondike Grandmaster on Microsoft solitaire.
The time spent and the opportunity cost of that time is a little embarrassing, but I didn't have to dig in the dumpster to get there.
It's like when your blog has its own blog.
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