The Chinese Star Wars Kid?
Posted on by Jason Li
The phenomenon is known as “小胖” (Little Fatty). Forum posts about it go
as far back as 2003, but it still manages to pop up here and there.
First there was a photograph from an unknown source:
Then came the photoshop spoofs! For example:
And:
For more great photoshop glory, check out this article on Sina.
Speaking of long-lasting net-memes (the “meme” term being loosely employed here), 芙蓉姐姐 (Ms. FuRong) is still second in Baidu’s most popular people searched for list, with famous football commentator (Mr. Huang, blogged about here) coming in first.
Thanks to Le Monde’s Quand la Chine déblogue for reminding me to blog about it.
I wish we could find out more about the child, as we did with Starwars boy. The effect of becoming an unwilling cyber image or personality is interesting in its own right and I wonder how it would play out for a Chinese kid.
Recommended Reading: The Virtual China Blog
With two cultural anthropoligists writing on the blog, it should not have been a surprise to find the concept of a “meme” being applied to a cultural phenomenon in China known as “little fatty”.
China Daily has (belatedly) picked up the story:
http://www.chinadaily.com.cn/china/2006-10/10/content_705229.htm
The article has a link to the Xiao Pang Web site:
http://www.chinadaily.com.cn/china/2006-10/10/content_705229.htm
The link for the Xiao Pang website is:
http://www.xiaopang.cn/