preface
It is an accident and inevitable thing to know Liu Houkun. In a WeChat subculture community, I know several “masters” of the subculture known as “WeChat six junzi” — another term for them is “cybernerds”. The common feature of these alternative “little web celebrity” is that they are either thought to be mentally ill by netizens, or they pretend to be. A large number of “black fans” and netizens who pretend to be believers circle around the “Lord” in the WeChat group all day, foolishly making a living by playing with them, and then “offering” them small red packets. In the words of a Tsinghua doctor who has investigated the community thoroughly, “this cultural phenomenon is very common and interesting among some less educated people in China’s third-tier and lower-tier cities today, but it is not known to the public”. Liu houkun is one of these “little web celebrity”. He calls himself “emperor han of the universe” and says that he will call himself “the room of recovering the han dynasty”. His heart is on world peace. So I decided to try to find Liu Houkun.
1
When we met, Liu Houkun cut to the chase and told me that he was liu Bang’s descendant.
He probably did not find it very convincing himself. By the end of the Western Han Dynasty, liu Bang’s descendants had reached more than 200,000. Up to now, there are more than 60 million People with Liu’s surname in the whole country. Theoretically speaking, all of them are descendants of Liu Bang.
But he stressed that the question of direct descendants was a secondary one, and that what mattered was “the idea and determination of ancestors.”
He said the world was a headache: North Korea was testing nuclear weapons all day, and the news the other day suggested that the German right was back on the stage. This makes him feel that his unfinished work is “more urgent” because “we humans are in such a crazy state” and he is in the role of savior, the ultimate solution to mankind’s peace.
He sighed deeply. “We are at a crossroads, can we save ourselves…”
“Messiah” awakening from Liu Houkun on the beginning of a period of time. He said he had been a sensitive person since he was a child, and once watched a TV show in which a bear was killed and skinned, crying alone until midnight.
At that time, Inner Mongolia often had power cuts at night. Liu Houkun, 13, lit candles and read a book about Hitler’s massacre of Jews during World War II on and off for two months. During the days of reading, Liu was heavy and dreamy, thinking about the scenes in the book day and night. On the way to meet the teacher, the teacher took the initiative to greet him, he hung his head did not respond.
When I finished the book, I was nearsighted to 175 degrees. He didn’t mind the blurring of his vision, but just wondered: Why are humans like this? Why are humans so fierce and barbaric to the extreme?
Liu houkun feels confused that his parents, who have only a primary school education, can’t help him solve these problems. He went to the teacher’s office and asked, “Is everything in the book true?” The teacher told him it was true.
After that, he began to read a great deal about history and sociology, and his mind was filled with the ultimate problems of man. When he was a sophomore in high school, Liu Houkun borrowed Das Kapital from a classmate’s home. After reading it, he sorted out the historical clues of human development. Morgan divided human history into three periods: the age of ignorance, the age of barbarism and the age of civilization. Marx divided the civilized age into four societies: the primitive society, the slave society, the feudal society and the capitalist society.
He began to think: We are in an age of civilization, but this is an age of extreme brutality, extreme barbarism, as the book says, so why not put an end to this age once and for all?
It was the tail end of the Cold War era, with the U.S. landing on the moon, the Soviet Union building the space station, and humanity’s first steps into space beyond the earth. This inspired Liu, who felt that we could be entering a new era – the Age of the Universe.
In the first half of his senior year, Liu Wrote his thoughts and handed them to his head teacher, who stared at him and told him not to read the books in a mess.
He felt that the teacher could not understand his thoughts, so he took his article and ran to the platform of the four classes in the same grade. “Hello, students, this is the theory of the Age of the Universe that I came up with after reading Das Kapital. Let’s discuss it together. The result of the discussion was that his classmates all said that he was ill, the teacher reported him to the police and the police took him away.
2
Because of spending too much time on reading, Liu’s grades fell all the way down. Primary school to junior high school, he is the top three in the class, junior high school, has been ranked in the lower level of the class, to the college entrance examination, only took the test of more than 400 points, entered a college in Beijing, read accounting major.
In one year at school, he spent all his time studying the theory of the “universe Age” and did not pay attention to his classes. The next school year, Liu sent a telegram to his family: “I will stop studying and go to Guangzhou to do business.”
It was 1989, and Liu had made a quick buck in the clothing business. He wrote his own book, Thought Engineering, but no publisher wanted to publish it. In the end, Liu printed 5, 000 copies at his own expense and distributed them on the street without causing any stir.
At the beginning of 2000, he worked as a salesman in a biochemical products company and became a supervisor for a time. He could get more than 10,000 yuan in bonus every month — at that time, the average monthly salary in Guangzhou was less than 2,000 yuan. By 2002, liu, in his late 20s, had saved 400,000 yuan when his then-girlfriend urged him to buy a house and get married.
Just as liu was preparing to buy a house, the “9/11 Incident” derailed liu from his normal life track again. He “sensed that things were getting serious”, stopped buying a house and getting married, and firmly told his girlfriend, “With the international mess, there must be a catastrophe, and we must do this with money.”
The girl friend is very angry: “those pass you what business? We’ll all die together.”
Liu Houkun was silent. His girlfriend didn’t understand him. He felt sorry for his girlfriend, but “out of a sense of duty to save all humanity,” he knew he had to take all the money. The two men had a quarrel and parted naturally.
To spread his message, Mr Liu gathered his first following by hiring people to hand out leaflets and hold banners in Guangzhou. Later, each time he planned to go out and pull up a banner, Mr. Liu called supporters one by one, asking them to fill the scene. Naturally, liu’s activity was to disturb the social order. When the police arrested him and sent him to the police station, he angrily told them: “I have handed over over one hundred jin to you.” “It doesn’t matter if you want to kill them.”
In 2005, Mr Liu decided to “radiate his influence into the Beijing area”. He temporarily hired two men in Guangzhou and paid them 100 yuan a day. The three paid more than 1,000 yuan and took a sleeper train to Beijing. In Beijing, as soon as the banner was displayed, security arrived, and the two men hired to watch him be held down, pretended to be watching, sneaked back to Guangzhou by train.
During this period, 540,000 yuan was spent on publicity. In addition to his own 400,000 yuan, Liu also embezzled 140,000 yuan from his company account. After the money was withdrawn, Liu called his boss and told him that he had misappropriated the company’s money. “Do you report it or what?” he asked. “He asked the boss.” I’ve done millions and millions of business for you, so please lend me your $140,000.”
The boss was very angry and had no way out. So far, Liu Houkun had not returned the money.
After returning to Guangzhou, the police took Liu Houkun to several mental hospitals in Guangzhou for examination. They went to five or six hospitals before and after the examination, and the result was that he was mentally ill. Instead of working, liu watches TV, reads newspapers, plays chess and eats meat twice a day.
He spent 639 days in the hospital, during which time he felt he was running out of time, deprived of freedom and, more importantly, “the recovery room had to be stopped because of treatment.” Later, Liu said hello to people at the public security bureau and the hospital, saying that he would not do the “Universe Age”, and wrote a guarantee. This disguise got him out of the hospital on the condition that he never came back to Guangzhou again.
3
Liu’s parents found out about his antics in Guangzhou only after he was admitted to hospital. Back home, worried that he took the money to fool around again, so not a cent is willing to give him.
In recent years, Without a job, Liu spent his days at his parents’ home in Inner Mongolia “interacting with supportive netizens” and occasionally cleaning the house and caring for his mother, who suffers from diabetes, stroke and High blood pressure.
In his spare time at home, Liu read the theory of The British historian Toynbee, “He proposed that human beings want to achieve unification, and only the political system of China’s Han Dynasty can work”. Liu Houkun suddenly figured out: my family name is Liu, and ancestral home is also born in The Han Gaozu Liu Bang Peixian, then I am not the descendants of Liu Bang? The “universal age” of world datong is actually the revival of Han Dynasty!
He began to believe that his life was destined to save humanity and promote the “Recovery Room” around the world. But he posted his own brave words on tianya forum, the following netizens reply is: LZ ghost, right?
In 2015, liu houkun established several WeChat groups, moving the business of “recovery han room” to WeChat. In another subculture “Lord”, “living Buddha eagle flying high” group, a netizen sent liu houkun’s qq screenshot of those absurd propaganda, asked everyone: “this man is called liu houkun, claiming to be the emperor of the han dynasty, before has been playing QQ group, now with a large number of fans to WeChat group, would you like to play?”
In less than a day, liu’s WeChat group flooded in with more than 400 people.
These people come from all over the WeChat subculture, and fans from all over the world get together to chat, with more than 100 new messages in a minute, mostly memes and curses.
Finally, liu houkun came out to organize the order and conferred official titles to “han ministers” in the WeChat group. As soon as liu houkun told him the official position he wanted privately, he immediately conferred titles within the group. For example, a netizen in fuzhou was entitled as “fuzhou marquis”. Of course, For the beautiful female fans, Liu offered to arrange the harem positions for them, and also formed a separate “harem” group of 22 people.
This kind of virtual self-entertainment began in this way. Liu houkun established “chao song palace”, “weiyang palace”, “changle palace” and “harem palace” on WeChat to “propagate” his own thoughts. He asked his supporters to “develop han ministers,” and the red envelopes they gave him were counted as “tribute money,” included in the shares of Han companies, and promised to pay back 10 times as much when the state coffers were full.
Liu keeps a record of every red envelope he receives. September 28 was his highest income day, with 26 netizens sending him 351 yuan and 51 cents in total. Generally speaking, Liu receives more than 1,000 yuan every month, which is his only source of income at present.
In an effort to portray himself as a “real emperor,” Liu spent less than 1,000 yuan on an emperor’s costume, which was slightly tighter, and another 200 yuan on an emperor’s hat, only to be mocked online for both sides. He dressed up, took photos, recorded videos and did live broadcasts. In Shenzhen and Shenyang, he wore the suit and wandered around the streets, waiting for others to watch and take photos. He also wore the suit on the Mid-Autumn Festival and recorded a blessing video for several well-connected netizens. In the WeChat group, liu houkun calls himself “I”, but when I first met him, he took the initiative to ask me to call him “Lao liu”, because “it is more cordial, so as not to appear superior”.
But he believed that he always had authority, because he went out to dinner with his friends, who naturally sat on either side and gave him a place in the middle without him asking. Hundreds of people in the WeChat crowd cheered him on.
There were some girls in the group who said they wanted to be his harem. Liu Houkun gave them names and had several noble concubines. In fact, he knew they were all trying to trick him. Some had been “dating” for more than a year and had never seen each other before, except for asking him for a red envelope on WeChat. On several occasions, a noble concubine told him her coordinates and invited him to meet him for dinner, only to have Liu houkun go to the other party’s city, only to be put off by “too busy to work”.
Sometimes, Liu houkun would suddenly become irritable, scolding “the harem is all to cheat me, the old man”, “to cheat the me to offer a card, to cheat the me to get a new dress, to cheat the me to give a red envelope”, while he “is just a mentally ill old hobo”. Once, there was a “harem” cheated his naked photos, turned and sent in the WeChat group, by han ministers laugh.
4
In the “harem” group, Yaoyao is given the title of “Queen of The Emperor”. To be the empress, she just needs to post some selfies and make some flattering remarks. In real life, she is 26 years old, beautiful, unemployed, “gnaw at the old” at home, “lawless”, Yaoyao also know that she is playing with Liu Houkun, using him to pass the boring time, talk about “false disgusting”.
Liu Houkun didn’t think so. Several times, he and Yaoyao proposed to get married and promised to share his property — the house demolition fee plus the money from his parents, a total of more than 200,000 yuan.
Outside, Liu Houkun owed a large amount of debt, credit card up to now has more than 200,000 yuan has not returned, friends there is also a gap of 40,000 yuan, he intends to lose this money.
Liu Houkun and Yaoyao’s father are about the same age. Sometimes she feels sorry for Liu Houkun and advises him to find a job first and pay back the debt. Liu Houkun doesn’t listen to her and tells her repeatedly that as long as the recovery of han room is successful, she will not worry about money.
Yaoyao does not agree to marry him, and asks him “which empress will marry you”, Liu Houkun replies that “all are illusors, all are dreams”, and immediately announces in the circle of friends that “the harem has been dissolved, all are to reform the people’s women”. It was not the first time he had announced his dissolution, as he had said many times before, and the next day he backed out as “a psychopath’s word, not to be taken seriously”.
Now Liu’s ex-girlfriend has married and has two sons, neither of whom can speak a word a year, and the company he once worked for has grown to branches in more than 50 cities across the country.
Liu estimates that he has at least 50 loyal followers, judging by “giving red envelopes more than once” and “giving them 50 or 100 times”. “CAI Zong”, who supported him the most, gave him two red envelopes, one 200 and one 1000, in seven or eight years.
Nevertheless, Liu Houkun feels not satisfied, CAI Always has a start-up company of his own, in daily life of generous, in Shenzhen, a dozen “Han Minister” party to have dinner, it is CAI always pay. Liu asked CAI to support him with 100,000 yuan. “I am in debt and single. I have paid so much. Support me 100 grand what’s wrong?”
“So you think we’re all in debt and single and down and out like you?” Mr. CAI asked him in reply.
In an interview, one of Liu’s fans described himself to me as “social maggots of the Internet mob,” which may be a generalization for this group of fans — most of whom have a fair amount of free time, such as college students, unemployed youth, stay-at-home groups, and at the same time have a bad taste.
To his fans, Liu is like a spectator who drops a few coins for Kong Yiji and makes fun of him. In the WeChat group, people often intentionally send pornographic pictures to liu houkun, and after he replies, screenshots are posted in the group chat to mock.
Irritated that I had compared him to Kong Yiji, Liu sent me eight pictures of himself having dinner with his fans at a party, asking, “Does Kong Yiji live like this?”
Liu claimed that he had supporters all over the country and was invited to dinner wherever he went. However, his fans told me that most of the time, Liu paid for the dinner out of his own pocket. Only once outside the tea is the fans rush to buy a single, Liu Houkun whispered: cost.
5
Liu is also constantly being compared by fans to another “Internet psycho”, Goofy, deliberately provoking them into a “fight”.
Goofy’s self-introduction includes: the godfather of the only god network of human mentors, Buddha demons group excellent rogue exquisite Superman, niubi college chief god debate eagle goofy, about his theory does not need to introduce too much, anyway, no one is really concerned about his theory. Once, Gao Fei proposed to open a special CCTV to promote his theory, and also went to Beijing to submit his “academic achievements” to the leadership at that time, which was eventually repatriated as a neurosis.
Now, this rural man in northern Anhui works in Suzhou, where he earns less than 3,000 yuan a month. He spends 300 yuan a month renting a 20-square-meter apartment. He lives with his wife, who he bought for 22,000 yuan 13 years ago, and his children, both in primary school. Gao fei eats 5 yuan for breakfast and 10 yuan for lunch every day. His phone bill is the biggest expense, 300 yuan a month, and sometimes he has to buy extra traffic to communicate with his fans online.
He has also set up his own “pre-WeChat group”, in which he has to pay 100 yuan to enter the group, and at least 1 million yuan to become an elite student. So far only one has become an exceptional free elite student. Gao Fei sends a message in the circle of friends for 5 yuan, including marriage, making friends, advertising, etc. Most of the time, he sends 68 moments a day, and the recorded video blessing is 20 yuan a, Gao Fei stands in front of the camera and says a blessing, “I wish XXX a happy Mid-Autumn Festival”.
Because they both claim to save mankind and create new ideas, Liu Houkun is often compared with Gao Fei. A fan once pulled two people into the same WeChat group, titled “living Buddha VS emperor,” and more than 100 people watched gao fei and liu hou kun exchange curses in what was later described as “the battle of the century.”
Liu said he was “not in the mood to fly high”, but he always had netizens urging him on. This year, Liu Houkun went to Suzhou and a netizen tipped him off, telling him that Gao Fei was drinking tea with someone else at the Canglang Pavilion. Liu Houkun to canglang Pavilion, saw goofy, pretend to be a fight, forced goofy to record a small video to apologize to him, the video sent in the circle of friends, is the “Han Huang conquer goofy forces.
On another occasion, a fan of Goofy asked For Goofy and Liu Houkun to come out. As soon as Goofy appeared, a fan rushed up and slapped him. So Goofy shouted to go to the police station and left alone. Liu was so proud that many of His fans eventually came to believe in him.
In the eyes of fans, the two are equally entertaining objects. Some fans secretly recorded their videos and later edited them together, while others photoshopped intimate photos of the two, dubbing them “WeChat psychopaths”. (Another “psycho”, Huang Wei, has little interaction with the two.)
6
Said in the group of a few months ago, Liu Houkun saw Mr Ma said publicly that a third world war is coming, Mr Ma is referred to the social effects of the third technological revolution), WeChat group of netizens to know he fully understand is wrong, but still encouraged him to go to Mr Ma, can see the “consensus, in one operation.
In addition, thinking “Ma Said so Ma Huateng should also have action,” he also went to the gate of the Tencent banner. He took a bus for more than three hours and ran to Qingyuan. The other party received money and made four banners, two from Tencent and two from Alibaba. Liu Houkun calculated that he would be confiscated by the security guards and made an extra one for use. Finally, the security guards actually took it away.
He called on more than a dozen “supporters” in Shenzhen to join him online, only to be excused for being busy at work. Eventually, Liu made a trip to the Sanhe labor market, where he found three young men sitting by the side of the road waiting to pick them up. Said clearly to go to the gate of The Tencent company banner, agreed to an hour to pay each 100 yuan reward, four people set out in the subway. When they got to the door, one of the three men went back on his word. Finally, both of them hesitated. Liu raised the price to 150 yuan an hour.
In fact, less than a minute after the banner was pulled up, security arrived. Then it was no more than ten minutes before a few people left. Mr Liu gave the money to the two young men, who later called him back to ask when he would need more banners. It was a good deal.
Liu sent yaoyao a photo of him frowning in front of the camera as two security guards in black uniforms stood behind him, staring at him. In his description, it was “going to The Ma Huateng Company to collect tribute silver and beat the security guard”.
He is 49 and “the clock is ticking.” He went to Peking University, Nankai University, Shenzhen University and Hong Kong University, hoping to find teachers to talk about the reconstruction of The Han Dynasty. When he went to university, he didn’t know which teacher to look for, so he hung out in the office building and handed in his materials when he saw the professor. As a result, he was often rejected by the other side for lack of time. A teacher told him, “I understand your idea. There are a lot of folk who think they are highly intelligent, but I suggest you see a psychologist.”
Without the netizen’s support, will the recovery Han room still insist to do now? Mr. Liu failed to answer the question. On October 10, liu houkun suddenly announced in the WeChat group that in shenzhen “a meeting was held to decide to dissolve the han dynasty”, and the current settlement situation was that “all harem were sold to brothels”.
At the time, he was angry that no one had helped him carry a banner in Shenzhen, and that they were just trying to trick him now. However, on The 11th, Liu, as usual, called on everyone in the group chat to “develop han ministers”.
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