“对于那些厌倦了这个痴迷年轻、新奇、教育、名声、财富和美貌的国家中，攀爬社交和经济阶梯的人来说，沈巍成为了一个反英雄。”

《华盛顿邮报》记录了沈先生“走红”之路（以下文章编译自《华盛顿邮报》）：

人们最后一次见到52岁的沈巍时，他骨瘦如柴，坐在一辆白色梅赛德斯的奔驰车里，由一位身穿橙色夹克的中年男子护送。

当被问及要去哪里时，沈说:“去避难。”

在上车之前，一个20多岁的男人跑过来要签名，沈转身在他的笔记本上签名。

（图源：华盛顿邮报）

中国最新的网络红人并不是一位富有的商人爱抚着他那价值数千美元的宠物鸭子（暗指王思聪），也不是一个儿童合唱团为科技巨头华为献上一整首歌。

他是个流浪汉，没有社交媒体账号，也没有智能手机；他不墨守成规，受过良好的教育，口才好，能养活自己。

他在中国网络上被称为“流浪大师”或“沈大师”，他的每一个字都被直播者录下来，在社交媒体上以15到30秒的视频形式分享，被数百万人密切关注和分析。

当了三个月的网红后，他受够了。

3月22日，在他的名气达到顶峰时，沈巍曾对媒体说：

“我不怪任何人，但是我讨厌网络，互联网带给我的只有麻烦。”

当他引用亚里士多德、孔子和但丁的片段开始出现在短视频平台抖音上时，这位原本不可能走红的人被社交媒体关注。

令许多人吃惊的是，这个流浪汉——头发没梳，衣服没洗，胡子没洗，竟然精通文学和哲学。

抖音上的一条评论代表了很多人对他的看法:

“一头道士般的秀发，一双炯炯有神的眼睛，一副绅士的派头，这才是真正的大师应该有的样子。”

对于那些厌倦了这个痴迷年轻、新奇、教育、名声、财富和美貌的国家中，攀爬社交和经济阶梯的人来说，沈巍成为了一个“反英雄”。

（图源：华盛顿邮报）

但在3月中旬，沈巍的名气实在是大得吓人：

在一段视频中，大量游客纷纷涌入上海浦东一个不起眼的社区里，顺着路标指向的位置，寻找沈巍。

这些朝圣者中，甚至不乏小有名气的电子商务人士，他承诺以六位数的报酬换取商业代言，好奇的观众也渴望一睹这位名人的真身。

（图源：华盛顿邮报）

在接下来的几天里，“流浪大师”这个名称开始在微博上流行起来，他的视频在短短几个小时内，就在短视频平台获得了千万的点击量。

从3月17日开始，人们逐渐知道了他的真名——“沈巍”。

这个名字在中国搜索引擎百度上的搜索量慢慢超过了“流浪大师”，与“流浪大师”相关的帖子被阅读了千万次。

（沈巍的避难所，已经被到访的游客挤到水泄不通）

然而，他的平静的生活却被彻底破坏了。

每天早晨，当这个流浪汉打开大门时，他会发现几十人，甚至几百人，已经在他的临时避难所——一个废弃的办公室储藏室门口等着他。

每次他一张嘴，就会有几十个电话和相机随时准备记录下来。

他刚说完一个“金句”，无论有无道理，人们都会报以雷鸣般的掌声和欢呼。

（图源：华盛顿邮报）

沈巍很快意识到——他被以另一种形式，剥削了。

3月19日，沈巍在一段25秒的视频愤怒而无可奈何地说:

“我知道你们把我当猴子看待，没有人带着一颗真诚的心来看我，你们就是为了钱。”

的确，和沈巍的相关的周边都被炒了起来:

一位自称是沈巍女友的女士，在开通抖音账号后，四天就成功吸引了40万粉丝；

一个身穿红色外套的失业青年，自称是沈巍的孩子，一举成为热门直播频道的常客；

就连沈巍在一张废纸上写着的10个字，都在网上以1.3万多美元的价格售出。

（沈巍的书法，被一众网友吹捧为王羲之再世）

在过去的26年里，沈巍一直将这个狭小的空间当作自己的家。

据《成都经济日报》报道，沈出生于成都一个相对富裕的家庭，在上海长大，是文革后第一代考上大学的中国人。

徐汇市审计局也证实，大学毕业后，他在上海的一个区政府办公室担任审计员。

但好景不长，1993年，他因为“不正常的行为”被迫提前退休，包括从办公室垃圾桶里捡废纸和整理只有“乞丐”才会碰的可回收垃圾。

之后，他曾两次住院。

1995年，他决定做一名全职清洁工，沈巍在接受媒体采访时表示:

“我命中注定是要成为一名拾荒者，我钦佩圣雄甘地，想要像他一样过一种苦行的生活。”

微博上一张广为流传的照片显示，一群年轻人拿着智能手机围在他身边，在美国人看来就好比是耶稣在山上的布道。

在长达一个多月的围观中，沈巍最终采取了极端措施。

他洗了个澡，剪了头发，他蓄着修剪过的小胡子，梳着齐肩长发，穿着一件崭新的黑色西装出现在多个直播网站上，虽然仅仅是几个镜头。

到了周一，他经常蹲着的地方上出现了一张纸条，上面写着:“沈先生身心俱疲，要离开一段时间，谢谢大家！”

谁也不知道他究竟去了哪里，就好像他从来没有来过。

电影《楚门的世界》中，楚门自小被设计在一场大型的真人秀中，所有的观众都可以通过直播24小时窥探。

在楚门历经了人造的风暴、雷电、巨浪的考验后，承载着他走向真相的船，无情地撞破了那个蓝得刺眼的美丽但却虚假的天空。

在那一刹那，一个神话结束了，一个阴谋被置于阳光之下。

（图源：豆瓣）

如今，“流浪大师”沈巍像是楚门一样被所有人观看，到底什么才是真实？什么才是虚假？

现实的悲剧性在于——在这个媒介无处遁形的时代，谁都难以逃脱楚门的命运，谁也没有十足的底气说自己与楚门无关。

在各种形式的真人秀节中，难道我们不会见到楚门的影子吗？

在大家在为“流浪大师”狂热呼喊的时候，难道我们不会在自己的身上看到那些抱着电视与楚门厮守的观众的影子吗？

在经济利益驱动一切的今天，商业逻辑的泛滥，已经逼迫我们不得不把自己玩弄于股掌之间。

我们只有自娱自乐，并在狂欢的刹那间，出卖我们的金钱、隐私、自由，乃至生命。

来源：

《华盛顿邮报》:

《中国互联网为这个引经据典的流浪汉疯狂，

现在，他从名声中逃遁了》

翻译：北美留学生日报。真实独立有味道的留学生媒体，欢迎关注！

原文：

Asia & Pacific

The Internet was obsessed with this philosophy-quoting homeless man in China. Now he’s fled the fame.

Shen Wei, or “Master Shen,” during a “fanmeeting” in Shanghai last month. (Zhuang Fang/Bonfire)

By Lyric Li

April 2

BEIJING — The “Vagrant Master” has beenoffline for more than a week.

The last time people saw him, the scrawny52-year-old known as Shen Wei was being escorted into a white Mercedes-Benz bya middle-aged man in an orange jacket.

When asked where he was going, Shenreplied, “To seek refuge.”

But even before he could get into the car,a man in his 20s ran up to ask for an autograph. Shen turned to sign the fan’snotebook.

China’s latest Internet sensation isn’t awildcat locked in a staring contest with her zookeeper, a wealthy businessmancaressing his thousand-dollar pet ducks or a children’s choir dedicating awhole song to tech giant Huawei.

He is a vagabond who doesn’t have a social mediaaccount and doesn’t own a smartphone. He defied stereotypes: Shen is educatedand eloquent, and he provides for himself. He is dubbed the Vagrant Master orMaster Shen on the Chinese Internet, and his every word has been recorded bylive-streamers, shared across social media in the form of 15-to-30-secondvideos and closely watched and analyzed by millions.

After three months of stardom, he’d hadenough.

“I blame no one, but I hate the Internet,”Shen told Chinese newspapers on March 22, at the height of his fame. “TheInternet has brought me nothing but trouble.”

This unlikely viral star was discovered bysocial media when clips of him quoting Aristotle, Confucius and Dante began tosurface on Douyin, a short-video platform. To the surprise of many, thishomeless man — with uncombed hair, soiled clothes and unwashed beard — turnedout to be well versed in literature and philosophy.

YouTube

Viewers were intrigued.

“Extraordinary hair worthy of a Taoistpriest, eyes brimming with radiating vigor, and the deportment of a realgentleman,” read a top comment on Douyin. “This is what a true master shouldlook like!”

Shen quickly became an antihero for thosetired of trying to climb social and economic laddersin a country obsessed withyouth, novelty, education, fame, wealth and good looks.

But Shen’s virtual fame became all too realin mid-March.

One video showed a road sign pinpointingShen’s location, and visitors soon started flooding

into the otherwise unremarkableneighborhood in Shanghai’s suburban Pudong district.

Among the pilgrims were e-commerceguruswho promised him a six-digit payment in exchange for commercial endorsements,curious spectators eager to catch a glimpse of the celebrity in person, andInternet-fame wannabes fighting for the best camera position to get up closewith the master.

“I know people are treating me like amonkey,” Shen says in one video. (Zhuang Fang/Bonfire)

Over the following days, “Liu Lang Da Shi”(literally “the Vagrant Grand Master”) began trending on Weibo, a microbloggingsite like Twitter, and clips of the erudite vagabond easily got hundreds ofthousands of views within hours on short-video platforms.

Short videos are huge in the world’ssecond-largest economy. China has nearly 830 million Internet users, and morethan 70 percent of them now use short-video or live-streaming applications,according to the state-run China Internet Network Information Center. By 2020,the short-video sector is expected to exceed $5 billion in market value.

To attract more traffic, established mediaapps such as TikTok, Kuaishou and Vigo Video seek out pop stars, artists andbig names from other social media sites.

Starting on March 17, the name “Shen Wei”topped searches on the Chinese search engine Baidu, and Weibo posts related to#Vagrant Master were read by tens of millions.

Every morning when the vagabond opened hisdoor, he would find dozens, or even hundreds, of people already waiting at thedoorstep of his temporary shelter — a deserted office storeroom. Each time heopened his mouth, dozens of phones and cameras were ready to record. As soon ashe finished a memorable quote, people would respond with thunderous applauseand cheers.

Shen quickly came to think he was beingexploited.

“I know people are treating me like amonkey,” Shen said in a 25-second video on March 19, more to himself than to afull room of smartphone-wielding spectators. “Nobody came to see me with a pureheart. You did this for money.”

People who hung around Shen sought variousrewards: A woman in a leather jacket who claimed to be Shen’s girlfriendattracted 400,000 followers within four days after setting up a TikTok account.A jobless young man in a red coat, purporting to be Shen’s child, became aregular guest on popular live-streaming channels. A 10-word piece ofcalligraphy Shen wrote on a piece of scrap paper was reported to have sold formore than $13,000 at an online auction.

Smartphones are trained on Shen Wei as hecollects items from a recycling bin. (Zhuang Fang/Bonfire)

Mainstream media took notice, too. Led bythe Red Star News, newspapers and TV crews began arriving at the modest spacethat Shen had called home for the past 26 years.

Soon, everyone wanted to know themysterious man’s life story.

Born into a relatively well-off family inthe southwest city of Chengdu and raised in Shanghai, Shen was among the firstgeneration of Chinese after the Cultural Revolution to attend college,according to the Chengdu Economic Daily. After graduation, he worked as auditorat a district government office in Shanghai, the Audit Bureau of Xuhuiconfirmed.

In 1993, he was forced into earlyretirement for his “abnormal behavior,” including salvaging waste paper fromoffice trash cans and sorting recyclable garbage that only “beggars” wouldtouch, Shen told the Meiri Renwu newsmagazine.

After that, he was hospitalized twice. In1995, he decided to live as a full-time garbage man, local newspapers reported.

“I was destined to be a trash collector,”Shen told the Red Star News. “I admire Gandhi and want to live an ascetic lifelike him.”

By March 19, Shen’s cult following onsocial media had a cult following on social media. A widely shared photo onWeibo shows smartphone-wielding young people surrounding him, drawingcomparisons to Jesus’ Sermon on the Mount.

Citing safety hazards and the disturbanceto neighbors, police cordoned off the area around Shen’s squatting space andset up meter-high wood fences. But his fans remained undeterred, with somegathering before 7 a.m.

Shen took extreme measures.

He showered and got his hair cut. Ofcourse, videos of him with a trimmed mustache, combed shoulder-length hair anda brand-new black blazer appeared on multiple live-streaming sites withinminutes.

By Monday, there was a note on his squatthat read: “Mr. Shen is exhausted, both mentally and physically, and will beaway for a while. Thank you!”

本文转自《华盛顿邮报》文章，编译：北美留学生日报。

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