A meat cleaver that doubles as a cellphone case; a holder for a watermelon slice; a metal contraption that makes flicking someone on the forehead more painful: These are just a few of the creations designed and made by China’s “useless inventor.”
Geng Shuai (耿帥), 34, also ironically called “Edison” by his fans, broadcasts his work from his home studio in a village in Hebei Province on a live-streaming app almost every day. With more than 2.5 million fans on the platform, Kuaishou, he is one of China’s latest live-stream celebrities.
Geng is part of an industry that generates as much as US$4.7 billion in revenue and one that has few parallels outside of China, where the most popular live streams are not of live events or the feeds of friends, but performances or shows held by strangers. Popular live streams range from people playing video games, singing karaoke, to studying or farming.
Unlike YouTube stars, perhaps the closest comparison, China’s live-stream celebrities interact with their fans, who make comments, ask questions, and, most importantly, send virtual gifts that can be turned in for cash. Top live-streaming celebrities can make as much as 10 million yuan (US$1.45 million) per year.
Geng, who dropped out after junior-high school to work with his father welding pipes and doing other metal work, started to become popular this autumn after a few local media profiled him. Geng had been building his contraptions and recording videos for more than a year.
“Once after chopping some vegetables, I put the knife to the side and answered a phone call. After hanging up, I put my cellphone on the knife and then it occurred to me. I could make a cellphone case out of a knife. I thought it would be interesting and I wanted to share this with other people. I never thought it would become so popular,” Geng said.
Geng now earns most of his income from donations given online, advertisements and selling his items online.
His other inventions include a 66cm-long comb made out of iron, a device that pushes food up on a skewer to aid eating street food, or an alarm that goes off if your fly is open.
“I like things that are unique. They bring novelty to your life, and these new things in everyday, boring life can make you happy,” he said.
The popularity of live streaming in China, and people’s willingness to spend money on a free platform, has been attributed to the sense of community that the videos give to isolated young people and busy young professionals — the so-called diaosi (屌絲) or “loser” class of disenfranchised Chinese.
Others say the shows offer unedited entertainment in a country where official channels are so tightly regulated.
In his live stream, Geng tries to listen to his fans. He asks them what they would like to see him make and their requests are often more extreme than his own ideas: iron pants, underwear or swimsuits. One asked if he could make a spaceship.
“It’s not only children who are playful,” he said. “Everyone has a childish heart, no matter how old they are.”
CONFRONTATION: The water cannon attack was the second this month on the Philippine supply boat ‘Unaizah May 4,’ after an incident on March 5 The China Coast Guard yesterday morning blocked a Philippine supply vessel and damaged it with water cannons near a reef off the Southeast Asian country, the Philippines said. The Philippine military released video of what it said was a nearly hour-long attack off the Second Thomas Shoal (Renai Shoal, 仁愛暗沙) in the contested South China Sea, where Chinese ships have unleashed water cannons and collided with Philippine vessels in similar standoffs in the past few months. The China Coast Guard and other vessels “once again harassed, blocked, deployed water cannons, and executed dangerous maneuvers” against a routine rotation and resupply mission to
GLOBAL COMBAT AIR PROGRAM: The potential purchasers would be limited to the 15 nations with which Tokyo has signed defense partnership and equipment transfer deals Japan’s Cabinet yesterday approved a plan to sell future next-generation fighter jets that it is developing with the UK and Italy to other nations, in the latest move away from the country’s post-World War II pacifist principles. The contentious decision to allow international arms sales is expected to help secure Japan’s role in the joint fighter jet project, and is part of a move to build up the Japanese arms industry and bolster its role in global security. The Cabinet also endorsed a revision to Japan’s arms equipment and technology transfer guidelines to allow coproduced lethal weapons to be sold to nations
Thousands of devotees, some in a state of trance, gathered at a Buddhist temple on the outskirts of Bangkok renowned for sacred tattoos known as Sak Yant, paying their respects to a revered monk who mastered the practice and seeking purification. The gathering at Wat Bang Phra Buddhist temple is part of a Thai Wai Khru ritual in which devotees pay homage to Luang Phor Pern, the temple’s formal abbot, who died in 2002. He had a reputation for refining and popularizing the temple’s Sak Yant tattoo style. The idea that tattoos confer magical powers has existed in many parts of Asia
ON ALERT: A Russian cruise missile crossed into Polish airspace for about 40 seconds, the Polish military said, adding that it is constantly monitoring the war to protect its airspace Ukraine’s capital, Kyiv, and the western region of Lviv early yesterday came under a “massive” Russian air attack, officials said, while a Russian cruise missile breached Polish airspace, the Polish military said. Russia and Ukraine have been engaged in a series of deadly aerial attacks, with yesterday’s strikes coming a day after the Russian military said it had seized the Ukrainian village of Ivanivske, west of Bakhmut. A militant attack on a Moscow concert hall on Friday that killed at least 133 people also became a new flash point between the two archrivals. “Explosions in the capital. Air defense is working. Do not