Getting kicked off a reality TV show may not be something to celebrate, but it’s a dream come true for this Russian whose unusual experience has made him one of China’s “funeral culture One of the icons of Chinese “funeral culture.
Vladislav Ivanov, who rose to fame under his stage name Lelouch, is currently one of the hottest stars on the Chinese Internet.
His bored, indifferent face has taken over social media, becoming a hashtag and an emoji of sorts. Thousands of young people see the 27-year-old as a new symbol of “mourning culture,” a youth subculture centered on pessimism and indifference.
It all started when he made the worst (and possibly best) decision of his life.
Trapped in a reality show
Earlier this year, Leroy was asked to teach Chinese to two Japanese contestants participating in Tencent’s reality show “Creation Camp 2021,” which hopes to create China’s next sensational male duo.
The Russian model, who has lived in China for several years and speaks fluent Chinese, agreed.
Next, Rilusho’s handsome appearance caught the attention of the show’s producers. A few days before the show started taping in early February, the production team asked him: Do you want to participate (in the reality show) too?
Thinking he had nothing to lose, he said yes. In a later interview he admitted that at the time he wanted to try a new life.
As one of the show’s 90 contestants, he promptly joined a training camp for a men’s group, undergoing many hours of repetitive singing and dance training as his every move spread to all corners of China.
According to reports, the contestants were unable to leave their homes set up on Hainan Island, where they were cut off from the online world, denied access to computers and even had to surrender their cell phones.
Leroy Hsiu bluntly admitted that this did not meet his expectations.
He said bluntly in an interview, “I didn’t want to dance and I didn’t really fit in as a man group. So I’m really tired. I want to go home this month. “
But there were few ways to leave; the contract the contestants reportedly signed spelled out that they would be fined a huge amount if they decided to leave, and the only way they could get away with it was if the audience didn’t vote for them to leave.
Therefore, Leroux decided that he wanted to be the worst performer in the competition.
For week after week, he slept late, acted sullenly in show interviews, attended classes listlessly, and seized every opportunity to slack off in rehearsals.
While the other contestants sang romantic songs with emotion or participated in dance competitions with vigor, Rilusho twice sang Russian rap songs in a low, mournful manner, hoping to casually handle the competition.
Sadly, to his surprise, the audience loved everything about him: the tiredness, the expressionless answers, the understated frustration of being trapped in a 21st century Kafkaesque nightmare.
Sensing that he was the focus of the audience’s attention, the show’s production team deliberately presented his reluctance on the show when compiling the reality show. At the same time, his fans skyrocketed, naming themselves “Shots” and voting for him multiple times to ensure he could stay on the show for a few more weeks so people could watch He was so distraught during the show.
That’s how this reluctant phoenix emerged as China’s lazy new star.
The “Funeral Culture”
China’s “funeral culture” has emerged in recent years, a reverence for purposeless and hopeless behavior, mostly embodied in jokes or emojis that are popular online. It is also used in the promotion of products such as milk tea.
According to some online articles, this culture can be traced back to the popularity of the “Ge You Lie” stills in July 2016. The stills were taken from the 17th and 18th episodes of the 1993 sitcom “I Love My Family”, “The Uninvited Guest”, in which Ge You played Ji Chunsheng lying on a sofa wearing a short-sleeved shirt with flowers, his eyes vacant and lost, and the stills were then widely distributed and made into expression packs with text. The stills were later expanded to include the comic character Pepe the Frog, the Japanese comic character Fried Egg, and the American animated horse Bojack Horseman.
In recent years, the Chinese Communist Party has used “positive energy” as a slogan to construct an achievement-oriented culture in China, and some analysts believe that The emergence of a “culture of mourning” is a disillusioned display of resistance to this dominant ideology.
In contrast to previous generations, young people today face worsening inequality and unemployment, coupled with rising house prices in major cities, and many are finding the traditional goal of working to earn money to buy a house increasingly difficult to achieve, experts say.
Dr. K Cohen Tan, associate professor of digital media and cultural studies at the University of Nottingham Ningbo, said, “Much of China has been lifted out of poverty, but it is becoming increasingly difficult for young people to realize their dreams because of social inequality compared to their parents’ and grandparents’ generations. There is a greater degree of inequality than in the parents’ and grandparents’ generations. “
“So it’s a huge obstacle, but at the same time, the expectation that they do well hasn’t changed. “
Dr. Xiaohui Chi, associate professor of modern Chinese literature and culture at the University of Kansas, said the “culture of mourning” represents “an illusory utopia that allows young people to escape their exhausting, anxiety-filled daily lives.”
Dr. Xiao told the BBC that the new crown pandemic exacerbates the sense of powerlessness among Chinese audiences in 2021, creating a resonance with the kind of relaxation-seeking spirit displayed by Lilusho.
Leroy’s emojis have gone viral online, featuring phrases he often uses during his performances, such as “I’m really tired”, “When are we going to get out of class? I’m really tired”, “When do we get out of class” and “I want to take a vacation “, all of which have become popular.
Dr. Chen said that Leroy’s boredom with having to work hard reflects the frustration many young people feel when faced with China’s infamous “996” work culture, where they work six days a week, starting in the morning. That is, working six days a week from 9 a.m. to 9 p.m.
This feeling of being trapped and helpless is what many young people feel, they work long hours but can’t quit even though they want to,” he told the BBC. “
A turning point in the program was when Leroy was given an F grade for mediocre performance, to which he responded, “F stands for freedom. “
Dr. Chen said Leroy’s statement immediately changed the perception that many young Chinese are afraid of getting a bad grade, but now that bad grade has ironically become a collective call to action, reflecting a desire for “liberation from the pressures that many people face “.
“If you love me, don’t support me.”
Perhaps the only person who hates the idea of Leroy becoming a lazy idol is Leroy himself.
In the show he pleaded with his fans through video after video, “If you love me, please don’t support me. “
Two weeks ago he finally got his wish and breathed a sigh of relief as he was finally voted off the show after staying on for three months.
In that episode, he waved on stage with the other contestants before he rushed to the exit with the production crew in hot pursuit.
Shortly after, a new post popped up on his official Twitter account, although it’s not clear if it was written by him or the show’s producer: “Thanks for all the support, I can finally get off work. “
Since leaving the show, he has kept a low profile, not speaking much to the media. He has not responded to BBC interview requests.
He declined to tell the Chinese media what his next move would be, saying only vaguely, “I don’t want my freedom to be restricted. “
But there are signs that he intends to make money from his newly sprung fame. Over the weekend, he inserted a mobile game on his Weibo account with the ironic hashtag, “Leroy Xiu who works on Labor Day,” and he made a deal with another A deal was struck with another game developer.
Of course, China’s newly crowned god of laziness seems to be enjoying a well-deserved break at the moment.
This week, he posted a photo of himself lying in bed on Instagram, using a mix of English, Mandarin and Russian: “Finally rest and relaxation.
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