Fifty years ago, artist Andy Warhol famously said.
“Everyone could be famous in 15 minutes.”
Today, no one dares to refute this prophecy.
In just a few short years since the dawn of the self-publishing era.
We have witnessed one ordinary person after another, promoted to the top stream overnight.
In the last year, there is the middle school student who burst into the limelight by imitating his teacher Vimeo Vee, Zhong Meimei; there is also the criminal law teacher who has thousands of fans with his humorous and funny lecture videos, Luo Xiang.
There is also with a sunny clean smile fire throughout the network of cattle ranchers, Ding Zhen ……
It is not difficult to find that “netizens” are now becoming famous in a variety of ways, with no definite number.
The most important thing is that it is not the same as what many people think, just by looks to win.
Today, Uncle Fish would like to talk to you about a very special netizen – the
The “Emperor of Awkward Dance” Gu Donglin.
Not long ago, he just passed away after a long illness.
Perhaps, you have also seen his video.
With a handful of red hair on his head, he danced wildly in the park without any rules.
Once, he was a popular online celebrity anchor.
With millions of fans, wave after wave of disciples and friends.
In Zhengzhou, Henan Province, he can often be seen leading people through the various parks and streets, crazy dance.
Even came out with a documentary “Emperor Red Hair” featuring himself. Killed into major film festivals and won many awards.
But when he became seriously ill with cancer and was bedridden, all those glories were gone.
His peers in the dance circle were carrying the stereo and twisting their crotches in front of his house.
His former fans were making money live from his bedside.
Everyone wanted to squeeze the last bit of heat and value out of him.
At the end of his life, he was still broadcasting live in front of the camera.
Even the funeral has become a live-streaming orgy.
This scene may remind you of the ramen noodle brother, the coat brother, or the grandmother selling cakes who was kidnapped by the live broadcast.
But in Gu Donglin, there is something different.
Being rubbed, being surrounded by spectators, being bloodsucking, all of which he was willing to do.
It’s like…
The “Netflix” line he has been in for too long, can not go back.
1
Before 2016, Gu Donglin was just an ordinary person.
He was a soldier, but did not enjoy any preferential treatment after his discharge.
He opened a humble little barber store and lived on a meager income.
At that time, his life was very simple.
He gave haircuts, picked up his daughter from school, and danced.
He loved to dance.
When he was young, he danced ballroom dancing, and then he started to dance.
After the price of discos rose, he went to the park to dance.
Set up a stereo, shaking his head and shaking his shoulders like no one else.
Although there is no rules, known as “awkward dance”.
However, this is a rare respite from the cracks of his heavy life.
In 2016, the video of him dancing in the park was recorded and uploaded to the internet.
Coinciding with the rise of the short video era, he caught the express train and was instantly on fire.
His dance spread across the country through the Internet, and the number of video plays rose to several million.
Because of his conspicuous red hair, he got the nickname “Red Hair” and his fans called him “Brother Mao”.
In this way, Gu Donglin became the “red hair emperor” of the awkward dance circle from an ordinary barber store owner.
Every time Gu Donglin danced in the park, he was surrounded by three layers of spectators and blocked to the ground.
When Yue Ting, the director of “The Emperor of Red Hair”, came to shoot, he was shocked by the situation.
“At that time I was scared, everyone was like crazy!”
Gu Donglin didn’t care, he was happy that he was on fire.
After the fire, the number of people dancing with himself became more.
There were mothers who had lost their daughters, young people who were unemployed, and young men who had been cheated out of their jobs ……
The company’s main goal is to provide the best possible service to its customers.
The huge dividends came along with it.
The bounty from the live broadcast became a pot of gold that he couldn’t even think about in his first half of his life.
Gu Donglin’s hometown is located in Shangshui County, Zhoukou, Henan Province.
In 2019, the county’s per capita disposable income is less than 17,000 yuan, located at the bottom of Zhoukou cities and counties.
And when Gu Donglin was at his hottest, his income for one night was close to 100,000 yuan.
Of course, Gu Donglin’s greatest triumph is about his documentary “Emperor Red Hair” which was shortlisted for several film festivals, including FIRST.
He wore a shirt and pants, walked the red carpet and stood on the award podium to receive the award.
After receiving the award, Gu Donglin changed his account to “Actor Redhead”.
It was as if from this moment on, he was no longer the popular blogger, but a serious and serious literary worker.
But fate did not develop as he had hoped.
As time went on, the local residents became more and more dissatisfied.
The group of dancers, who were “like crocs”, were soon overwhelmed by the public’s curses.
They were evicted from the local park and kept changing positions.
That’s not all.
The real fatal blow was that their accounts started to be restricted and banned.
On the ever-changing short video platform, fans have long since lost their appeal to something fresher and more interesting.
Gu Donglin’s popularity took a sharp turn, from a few million plays at the beginning to a few hundred later.
Perhaps the gifts of life really have all been marked up in price.
After Gu Donglin passed out, cancer came to him.
In March of this year, Gu Donglin’s condition was beyond control.
The tumor bulged high on his shoulder, and the pain tormented him to the point where he couldn’t sleep or eat.
He needed money to cure his illness, but the money he had earned before had long been squandered.
A friend originally opened a crowdfunding campaign for him, but it was withdrawn a few hours after it went online due to complaints of vulgarity and suspected fraud.
The only people who came to see him were various netizen anchors and fans.
They danced live in front of Gu Donglin’s house.
Moments before his death, they also turned the camera on him and filmed the scene of gagging.
On April 16, Gu Donglin passed away.
At the funeral, one by one, the anchors cried loudly into the camera for mourning.
Fans surrounded the funeral road.
Everything, as if back to the years when his popularity soared.
2
Gu Donglin is undoubtedly an outlandish and complicated person.
Most unintentional fire netizens either intend to make a profit to improve their lives, and it’s not a loss to go over the top.
Either thinking about how to stretch the line of battle to create a long-term pot of gold.
But Gu Donglin are not.
Perhaps it is limited by personal level.
He neither tapped on the dance, bringing something newer.
Nor did he take advantage of the high popularity to transform and try other content.
Although he also acted in movies after the documentary became hot, but they were also bad movies with little splash.
He continued to take advantage of the heat to do live, with the same old awkward dance, continue to make money.
The most hot time of Gu Donglin live, all the money earned is used to squander.
The company’s main business is to provide a wide range of products and services to its customers.
One fan made a special trip from Gansu to find him, and later became his girlfriend.
He completely lived in the eyes of the crowd, life only awkward dance, social.
Hot, but fickle.
It’s like having no worries at all, never thinking about the future.
It never occurred to him that his fever would cool down one day, and he would change from being the king of dancing to Gu Donglin, who no one asked for.
When he returned home after his downfall, he lived in the same old dilapidated house, without even a little repair.
He also could not get the money to cure the disease.
At the beginning of the disease, there are only a few small hard lumps on the legs, go to the hospital to do an operation to control the disease.
But at this time, Gu Donglin was already poor and could not afford the cost of medical treatment.
He chose to save money on prescriptions, cooked his own herbal packs and pounded them around.
Eventually delayed his illness and took his life.
When he was seriously ill, a blogger who also danced awkwardly was taking care of him at his home.
Of course, in addition to taking care of it, what can’t be left behind is to guard him to open a live broadcast and rise in popularity.
The result was a conflict with another “insider” during the live broadcast.
The other party drove here directly and smashed the door in the middle of the night, wanting to fight.
This kind of situation is common in the awkward dance circle.
The average quality of this circle is not high, and most of them follow the primitive way of solving problems.
Fighting and cursing are the norm.
Gu Donglin, as a former generation of awkward dance emperor, is the best in it.
He not only curses people out of the flowers, but also especially calculating, often with people feud.
Some fans questioned him in the live stream, he directly opened a special cursing, cursing to the ancestors of the eighteen generations.
When breaking with his former dance partner, in order to grab fans, he can jump into the river to live.
How out of the ordinary how to come, how to hunt how to come.
He knows that these things viewers love to see, then he riveted to bring more peculiar content.
But he also understands that this kind of out of the ordinary is not good.
The director mentioned in the interview that Gu Donglin had asked him during filming if it was wrong to do so.
Obviously, he knew what the outside world had to say about him, or about them as a group.
People felt that this kind of activity was vulgar and disturbing, and banners were pulled up everywhere to boycott the awkward dance activity.
Gu Donglin knew all this.
If you can’t continue to go to the park to jump, then he will jump at home, jump in bed.
As long as the live phone is set up, no matter where he is, he is the emperor of the million popularity.
Gu Donglin may have long seen the situation is not what it used to be, and no longer hope that he can return to the top.
Just.
Although he knows, but can not stop.
3
A cell phone screen, isolated Gu Donglin’s two lives.
From his body, one can clearly glimpse the ups and downs of a grassroots in the era of big net popularity.
In an interview two years ago, Yue Ting, the director of “The Emperor of Red Hair”, said.
“What I want to express is the relationship between people and the media.”
The media can bring people information, knowledge, and culture.
At the same time, it can also bring fame, and dividends.
With the spurt of the Internet, people’s lifestyles and production methods have been turned upside down.
Suddenly, we are no longer just pure viewers sitting on the TV set changing channels.
Everyone can walk into the camera, become the protagonist of the video, and become the center of traffic gathering.
Racer, Jitterbug, B-site ……
Live streaming, bloggers, netizens ……
In just a few years, a large number of “celebrities” have been replaced under the huge wave of this era.
Some people have made money on the wave that they didn’t even think about before, and have even achieved a class leap.
There are also people who go further on the wave, making a form of a culture.
However, this huge wave is actually not stable.
The people on the wave may fall hard at any time.
Gu Donglin is one of these people.
Once tens of thousands of yuan per night, for most people are dream numbers.
He raised a high building, a banquet guests.
Nowadays, but the popularity is scattered, the building collapsed.
From the beginning of the popularity, Gu Donglin put on the mask called “performance”.
In his own live broadcast is a performance.
In the park when surrounded by people is a performance.
Performing in media interviews.
He was still performing during the filming of the documentary “The Emperor of Red Hair”.
What to meet, what to say, what to do.
How to bring popularity, how to generate heat.
His perceptions are not always correct, but they are all done according to this perception.
The director’s notes say, “He’s hard to break.
The thing that is hard to break is the mask.
In his last days, Gu Donglin was already too sick to stand up.
But still he would go to the alley in his wheelchair and watch the bloggers who came to dance.
He didn’t mind being caught on camera and was still willing to say hello to the live viewers.
Even sitting down to dance a bit, to help cheer.
This mask, until his death did not take off.
In fact, Gu Donglin heart and understand very well.
He told reporters.
“People came hundreds of miles to come here, a day or two, to do what? It’s just to get me to dance and shoot a segment.”
The reporter then asked him if he wanted to dance.
Gu Donglin did not answer positively, but said.
“I have to dance even if I don’t want to.”
This sentence, he said twice.
When he said the second time, he hung his head, avoided the eyes, and his tone was much lighter.
As if it was such a moment, he showed a hint of helplessness in front of the camera.
The mask has grown with him, inseparable.
He wanted to take it off but couldn’t.
Someone asked him how to see his cancer but have fans to live rubbing it in.
His answer was.
“I don’t mind, the fans are everyone’s.”
Perhaps, in his heart, he also longed to be rubbed.
Because only then, this penniless grassroots can look back on that moment of dignity and glory.
For Gu Donglin, who has passed away, there is no need to be overly critical.
But for this flashy and noisy era of net popularity, Uncle Fish still wants to ask a question.
In this increasingly developed era of self-media, what exactly are we chasing?
The role of the media is being infinitely magnified.
The attributes of the media are penetrating into the body of every person.
The boundary between human and media is gradually dissolving.
The attributes of human beings are gradually changing.
We try to put on the mask of performance and align ourselves to the glorified lens to create an ideal persona.
To make others fall in love with ourselves –
The gorgeous, the fantastic, the part that belongs to the medium.
And the part that belongs to the person becomes increasingly irrelevant.
As Andy Warhol predicted, everyone can be a star for 15 minutes.
Like a firework, it explodes with a loud bang.
And quickly, the smoke dissipates.
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