Editor’s note: In the age of the attention economy, social media has the power to change lives by propelling any ordinary Joe to celebrity status in an instant. But what happens when that 15 minutes of fame ends?
Sixth Tone is republishing five stories from “After the Spotlight Fades,” a 10-part series by The Paper that revisits people and places in China whose fortunes were transformed — sometimes only briefly — by viral fame.
In the video clip that made him a viral sensation, Na Guoping wears an expression that many of us will empathize with: utter exasperation.
Standing over a boiling pan filled with raw ingredients, the chef glances around at the sea of customers outside his tiny open kitchen and grimaces.
Although just a secondslong cameo in an update on the rising popularity of a food street in Tianshui, in the northwestern Gansu province — the so-called “home of China’s spicy, rich malatang soup” — Na quickly began trending on social media.
