Illustration: Liu Rui/GT

Editor's Note:

Luo Yufeng, better known as "Feng Jie" [big sister Feng], became infamous online in 2009 after handing out fliers in Shanghai listing the demanding requirements she had of a husband. Mocked for having aspirations about her "station" as an uneducated woman from a farming background, and for her claims of huge intelligence, she parlayed her brief moment into Internet fame, later moving to New York, where she worked as a manicurist. She has just been hired as a columnist by the popular ifeng news portal, prompting surprise and a boost in reader numbers. But is she a serious commentator, or just a gimmick?

From village girl to metropolitan star



By Zi Cha

Few would actually heed a plain-looking Chinese girl walking around the bustling downtown area in New York. But back in 2009, she rose to fame overnight when she claimed herself to be "the brightest human being over the past 300 years" and listed a variety of excessive requirements for her Mr. Right.

As a big shot on social media, Luo Yufeng, the 30-year-old woman known as Feng Jie, must have been quite accustomed to odd gazes and ruthless mockery from her fellowmen. It was such public attention, though unpleasant, that brought her on a bumpy journey from a southwestern village in Chongqing to Shanghai and then to New York. She came to settle down in the US in 2011, continuing to pursue her unrealistic dream of marrying a perfect bachelor while working hard as a manicurist to make ends meet.

Luo remained largely out in public eye over the past four years until ifeng announced it had signed her up as a columnist earlier this month. Her maiden works have drawn controversy on the Internet. Many Net users suspect the fluent, unadorned and readable articles can't be her creations but must be created by ghost writers in a bid for publicity. Nonetheless, what's important is that Luo, a woman who used to be an online laughingstock, has gradually gained social respect and commercial value in a humble posture.

Luo's story is rather an inspirational one. For decades, hundreds of millions of boys and girls from underclass have wished they could live a different life through various means, though they have to pay a high price for their wonderful future conceived in a kaleidoscope. Luo's experience has given them hope.

She might have been playing the role of a clown in the public opinion that pours nothing other than sarcasm and contempt on her, but Luo rejected abasing and abandoning herself. Instead, she grasped the transient opportunity offered by the modern Internet era and turned her persistence and stubbornness into wisdom. To a majority of grass-roots young people, Luo's unswerving effort in which laughter is mingled with tears means the most.

While onlookers jeer at her and the blundering society seeks violent entertainment from her, she has staged a counterattack with a highly inspirational profile. Her performance in the future is well worth expecting.

The author is a Beijing-based freelance writer. opinion@globaltimes.com.cn

Marriage pressures familiar to Chinese



By Wendy Wang

I couldn't wait to click on big sister Feng's maiden article, in which the author sighed over her whirlwind Big Apple romance: she tried so hard to snag one eligible bachelor into her boat, yet all of her metrosexual Caucasian dates wanted booty calls, no strings attached. Getting married? Perish the thought!

I felt a quirky comedy on stage, that Feng Jie, a maverick made of sterner stuff, after all these years sinking and swimming in the planet's hopefully freest, most inclusive melting pot, still preys upon potential husbands like a ravenous coyote, yet ends up more of a headless chicken herself.

Luo is as a doppelganger of her sisters back in China, who, no matter in a bustling bazaar or a ghost valley, run on a high-octane manhunt for a Y chromosome to get hitched.

In China, going to the grave spouseless and childless is the ultimate nightmare, and a grim phantom that keeps both mothers and daughters awake at night. Wedlock is erected as an idol, shielding its disciples from purgatory. A saying goes that "a relationship not destined for marriage is an act of hooliganism."

Therefore, a spinster over the age of 30 is an unfilial black sheep in the eyes of the family, and an unworthy underdog in the tongues of workplace tale-tellers.

A woman I know tied the knot not long ago, with a self-admitted gay man, just to muzzle her jittering parents.

Life for this generation is surreal. Brought up by the most insecure parents tormented by kaleidoscopic political struggles, growing up watching Sex and the City and thus molding their inner nuptial rituals, they have a five-star lust for a soul mate and a one-star ability to nail one.

That is why relationship gurus fill the nation. How to turn a wild fling into a wedding ring? Don't worry, big sister Feng, agony aunts have the Midas touch.

 "Leftover" women are presented with two ways out by the love gurus. Either they lift a face that could stop traffic, go on diets to be wafer-thin, or more pragmatically, they could just lower the bar for a better half.

He may have a saggy butt, receding hairline, and a McJob, but he is the only one that wants you to be the mother of his child, so please make goo-goo eyes at this savior alone. So Feng Jie had better station herself in the US, waiting for her Mr. Macdreamy. 

The author is a Shanghai-based freelance writer. opinion@globaltimes.com.cn

Smart commercial move targets youth



By David Wang

"Feng Jie has become a writer for the ifeng news app!"  My first reaction when I saw this was skepticism. After confirmation, I wondered whether it was a commercial speculation, but on my way home, I still opened the ifeng news app and read the article by big sister Feng with curiosity.

I have to admit this is a very successful case of Internet marketing, the combination of the serious ifeng news and China's most-disliked reality star, in itself is enough to set off people's curiosity and discussion on the Internet. I'm afraid that the only commonality between them is the character "Feng" in their names.

More ordinary people may download the ifeng news app because of her. They may not know about or care about serious news or political commentary, but they have a kind of shared identity with Feng Jie or at least are aware of her name. So they will be at least curious to read her articles at first.

Clearly, Ifeng wants to move beyond the current situation of homogenized news where all portals, such as themselves and Sohu and Sina, end up drawing from a narrow bucket of stories. By introducing Feng Jie, they can develop their audience among the large population of young people, especially rural migrants. They are more interested in Feng's attitude toward the news, rather than "serious" news commentators, because they share similar backgrounds and experience. As this group matures and also, at least in part, gets richer, they offer a valuable target demographic with obvious commercial value, of which the news portal is well aware.

As Feng Jie wrote in her first article, "In China, stars are voluntary public figures. They become a star relying on their own efforts or other's help, then there is a possibility for people to talk and they become the target of gossip."

Feng made her own fame through her famous show, becoming the target of gossip, and was transformed, almost accidentally, into an Internet star by the sheer audacity of her original performance. With no Internet, she could never have been more than a target of gossip in her own village.

The author works in an IT company in Beijing. opinion@globaltimes.com.cn