The live broadcast of the dance outside the funeral of the Internet celebrity
"Red-haired" Gu Donglin once became popular on the Internet due to Awl Dance and recently passed away due to illness; in the last moments of his life, his fellow Awl Dance Circle never forgot to "fuck fans" at his doorstep.
On April 13, the old house of Gu Donglin's family was very dilapidated.
On April 17, the first sister of the Yellow River danced in front of Gu Donglin's house.
On April 10, the anchor broadcast live in front of Gu Donglin's hospital bed.
Gu Donglin in his youth.
On April 17, villagers gathered around Gu Donglin's house to watch the excitement.
A06-A07 edition photography/Beijing News reporter Wang Chongpengcheng
The hot sun shone from overhead, in the colorful wreaths, among the sorrows played by the ringer class, beside the hearse, and in front of the new grave. On April 17, the anchor danced at the funeral of "Emperor Gu Donglin". His face flushed and his voice hoarse.
On the 44th day when he returned to his hometown of Shangshui County, Henan Province, the 59-year-old "Kuwu Emperor" passed away.
At the last moment of his life, the tumor sucked his spirit away, and he was so thin that there was only a skeleton left, and his face was sallow.
Back then, he was like a strong horse, dancing his own "catch the horse dance" in Zhengzhou People's Park.
These videos are still circulating online.
Gu Donglin's dyed red hair, stepping on a strong beat, swaying and twisting like a plant under a strong wind.
Because the dance is awkward, it is called "Awkward Dance".
"Awkward Dance" went viral for a while, but was soon overwhelmed by voices of doubt.
As a representative figure, Gu Donglin was labeled "vulgar" and "ridiculous" along with Gu Wu.
In order to flow, in the last moments of his life, his comrades in the awkward dance circle also added to his absurd life.
The anchors who used to dance together came to his door carrying the stereo and live broadcast stand. With the accompaniment of "Su He Su He", the anchors in short skirts and leather pants shake their heads and twist their hips.
After Gu Donglin passed away, the anchor came again.
This is also the last time the "Kuwu Emperor" contributed traffic to their live broadcast.
The death of "Emperor Kuwu"
After entering April, Gu Donglin's condition was deteriorating at a speed visible to the naked eye.
I was bedridden first, and then forgot how to use WeChat to transfer money. After another night, I couldn't even speak.
In the following days, his condition got worse and worse.
The huge tumor on his neck squeezed his head. He was lying on a bed made of planks and bricks, his thin body curled into a strange posture under the quilt.
When I saw Gu Donglin on April 8, he hadn't eaten for a few days, and his face was so thin that only a layer of skin remained.
The cheekbones on both sides are high and convex, and the shape of the face becomes an inverted triangle.
Gu Donglin's friend and female fan "Gao Dashang" poured water on him with a spoon. As soon as he fell down, his face twisted together in pain.
The water whirled around in the mouth, and finally flowed out along the corners of the mouth.
The shroud and spiritual bed are ready.
Except for the youngest daughter who is preparing for the college entrance examination this year and the youngest son who is working in other places, the relatives have already arrived.
They squatted on the village road outside the gate, looking at the wheat fields and the gray sky not far away, chatting without a hitch.
There is nothing they can do.
Gu Donglin had a malignant tumor, and he was in an advanced stage when he wanted to treat it.
Gu Donglin's sister recalled that when the symptoms first appeared, they were just a few small lumps on the legs, which were not painful or itchy, and no one cared.
When the pain started, his calf was already swollen like a thick radish, and he went to the hospital for an examination, only to know that it was a fibrous histiocytoma.
"Actually, it was okay to go to the hospital to have it cut off." In the past few days, she cried when she saw her brother, with red blood in her eyes.
On April 12, he didn't even have the strength to shout.
The son and daughter came back to see him for the last time. The family helped him put on the shroud and carried him to the main room.
Gu Donglin persisted for another 4 days. At about 6:30 in the morning on April 16, when Gu's mother got up, he was still breathing.
"Child, don't care about mom, let's go." His mother wiped his face and tucked the quilt.
After going out for a round and coming back, the 59-year-old Gu Donglin lost his breath.
The brilliance of the "Emperor"
According to local tradition, people stay at home for three days after passing away.
However, the day of Gu Donglin's death was the fifth day of the lunar calendar. There was a local saying that "do not go out on the seventh day and do not go home on the eighth day". The family decided to have funerals on the sixth day.
In the afternoon, the thick wooden coffin customized for Hongmao was transported into the main room of the old house.
Shelves with holy banners, tables with holy seats, and kitchen counters for water tables filled Gu's yard.
Gu Donglin was cremated on the afternoon of his death, and his ashes were wrapped in a red cloth and placed in a coffin.
Gu Donglin has no possessions.
Apart from clothes, shoes, a few photos, sunglasses for dancing, and a dilapidated small stereo, when he died, the most valuable thing on him was two short video accounts, one with more than 20,000 fans and the other with more than 7,000. .
Gu Donglin also had a good time.
He started dancing around 2009.
At first, I just danced ballroom dance to relieve the pressure. Later, I felt that I was not strong enough, so I started to dance in the dance hall.
Then the price of the song and dance hall increased, and he moved to the park to jump on other people's stereos.
The disco that swayed freely in the dim ballroom moved to the park and evolved into an "awkward dance".
Awkward dance brought many things to Gu Donglin.
In 2017, at the Lotus Pond in the People’s Park of Zhengzhou City, he created a miracle with more than 60 dancing partners. “Hundreds of live audiences and millions of online audiences.”
His video was broadcast from the People's Park in Zhengzhou to all parts of the country through a live webcast. There were hundreds of videos in the search for "Zhengzhou Awkward Dance" on the Internet.
The onlookers in the video have three floors inside and three floors outside.
Many media in Zhengzhou have jointly broadcast live on them, attracting more than 2 million netizens to click and interact.
The red hair that was dyed to attract customers in the barber shop became his symbol on the dance floor. No one called him Gu Donglin anymore. They called him "red hair".
The documentary "Red Hair Emperor" with him as the protagonist was shortlisted for many film festivals at home and abroad. He participated in the film "Awkward Dance Jumping Cha" and entered the film and television industry. The name of the live studio was also changed to "Actor Red Hair".
"This is probably the most proud thing in his life." "Gao Dashang" recalled that Gu Donglin once said proudly that I am a grassroots and can walk the red carpet at the film festival.
In the hottest years, Gu Donglin made a living from live broadcasting.
"You can make tens of thousands of yuan a night, and almost a few thousand yuan." An anchor recalled.
Fans came from all over the country to worship him as a teacher.
In 2017, three Yi brothers from Daliang Mountain, Sichuan were introduced to work in a duck factory in the county seat, doing heavy and boring physical tasks.
After more than 20 days, they ran to Zhengzhou. After losing their wallets, they wandered in the square for a week, and met a man dancing in the square.
Gu Donglin readily took them in, let them live in his rental house, and took them live.
These three teenagers with an average age of 17 were once the main force of the Hongmao live broadcast team.
Gu Donglin also gained love as a result.
At that time, the 31-year-old Gansu woman Jiajia went to Zhengzhou to find Hongmao and became his girlfriend.
Unintelligible "art"
But in the village of Shangshui County, a few hundred kilometers away, in Gu Donglin's hometown, his achievements have never been recognized.
"What is that! It's like crazy." The villager in his hometown described his dance like this.
His self-created and most proud catching horse dance is also a joke in their eyes, "It's almost the same to catch a donkey."
Gu Donglin's sister couldn't understand his art either.
In 2017, red hair went viral on the Internet. Someone swiped the video and told her that your brother was on fire, and she pretended not to hear him.
"Shame."
Mother gets angry every time she thinks of this son.
The men who went out to work all renovated their houses, and every family built two-story concrete buildings.
Only Gu's family still lives in a dilapidated bungalow, which was built by Gu Donglin's father when he was alive.
The gray square bricks have been polished away by wind, sand and rain, and turned into an irregular oval shape.
There is no decent piece of furniture in the house, and the walls are covered with mold and scars, and the original color is no longer visible.
The 81-year-old Gu's mother was sleeping on the kang, and the worn-out quilt smelled of musty.
The two sons married a wife and had children, and Gu Donglin never paid for it.
"A total of 1,400 yuan has been given to me over the years." The eldest son said, 1,000 yuan was given as a gift at the time of marriage, and the other 400 yuan was given by the grandchildren when they were born.
A few years ago, Gu Donglin transferred a barbershop in his hand to his elder son's name, and also charged the child with a transfer fee of nearly RMB 10,000.
When Gu Donglin was dead, his mother stood by the bed and pointed at him and cursed, "You owe this family!"
The brilliance of Kuwu and Hongmao didn't last long.
Around 2017, due to disputes over interests, Gu Donglin's "Wuwutian Group" split into two factions.
In order to grab fans and attract traffic, Gu Donglin declared war on his former dance partner.
He moved the sound system to the Jinshui River, and the loudspeakers were directed at the opponent, making the apprentices dance by the muddy water, attracting the flow of people in the opponent's live broadcast room.
In order to regain fans, the other party simply picked up the live broadcast stand and jumped into the river for live broadcast.
Hongmao and team members also jumped into the water.
Although Hong Mao later explained to the media that it was the team members' shoes that fell into the mud. They were dancing while brushing their shoes by the river. Some people also jumped into the water when they saw it. They won't do it like this in the future.
But this sensational "Golden Water River Dance" still stimulated the bottom line of ordinary people and became the last straw that overwhelmed the dance.
At the end of 2017, many parks in Zhengzhou ordered banning dances.
After being expelled from Zhengzhou People’s Park, these smashing dancers moved to Zijingshan Park, around Zijingshan Overpass, Jinshui River Bank Park, Renmin Road and Taikang Road Triangle Park, and were persuaded by relevant departments every time they went there. from.
Their live accounts on short video websites have also been restricted and banned many times.
"The movie that Gu Donglin participated in also failed to be released." Gao Dashang said.
The circle around Hongmao quickly dispersed.
The three Yi brothers left without saying goodbye.
Gu Donglin got up in the morning thinking that they were sleeping late, but only when he received a call from the family of the three brothers did he find that the three apprentices had disappeared.
Then the remaining two young apprentices left without saying goodbye.
Incomprehensible field
For the Gu family, "Red Hair" and "Awkward Dance" are areas they cannot understand.
They don't understand why this group of people always fight back and forth.
Gu Donglin went back to his hometown to recover from the illness, and "Tao Dashang" followed home to take care of him.
On the evening of April 8th, she guarded Gu Donglin to open the live broadcast and clashed with a bald man in the dance circle in the live broadcast room.
The man threatened to beat her and drove from Zhengzhou to Gu Donglin's home overnight, and broke the door of Gu's home at two o'clock in the middle of the night.
Gu Donglin's eldest sister was frightened and was hospitalized. Two days later, her hands were still shaking.
But in fact, these are the most common things in the awkward dance circle.
"They often go to war if they don't agree with each other, and they often scold in special sessions during live broadcasts," said the anchor Gao Dashang.
Gu Donglin did such a thing before.
His cursing skills are well-known in the awkward dance circle.
"It's hard to hear and unimaginable." said the short video anchor "Yellow Sister".
Some fans questioned him in the live broadcast, so he opened a special show to scold his ancestors; or printed out the photos of the fans and threw them on the park floor.
On April 16, several familiar anchors recalled Gu Donglin that he was not bad in nature, but was not smart enough to be used as a gun by others.
"For example, when someone clashed with a fan, he ran to his live broadcast room and even sweared at others. He also scolded along with him, and the fans put the account on Hongmao's head."
In the last moments of his life, Gu Donglin also paid for these behaviors.
At the end of March, a friend helped Gu Donglin to contact the fundraiser. The staff of Dizhuan quickly met with him. After reviewing his medical information, he helped him launch the fundraising page. The target amount is 300,000, which is enough for Gu Donglin's treatment for one year. cost.
But the fundraising was cancelled after only a few hours of going online.
"The staff called Hongmao and said that he had received a lot of complaints about him backstage, saying that he was vulgar and suspected of fraud." Gao Dashang recalled that Gu Donglin's face became ugly after hearing this, and he didn't eat any food that night.
What Gu's family missed the most was why these anchors danced in the patient's house.
In mid-March, not long after Gu Donglin returned to his hometown, the anchors also came.
Carrying stereos, posters, and wearing short skirts and leather pants, they began to dance live in the village.
At that time, Gu Donglin could barely stand up. He was wearing sunglasses, sitting in a wheelchair, shaking his head to the rhythm, and posing in various poses in line with the anchors.
Gu Donglin knew they were here to get fans, he didn't mind.
"My fans are everyone's fans." He said against the wall.
But Gu's family can't stand it.
The fast-paced music and intensive drum beats disturbed their hearts, and Gu Donglin's eldest sister could not eat well and sleep well in those few days.
The anchors walked and waved, Gu Donglin lay on the bed, panting, and the awkward dance continued on the village road separated by a wall.
The Gu family no longer allowed the anchors to broadcast live, and the crowd dispersed on the afternoon of the suspension.
Until Gu Donglin passed away, no one came back.
funeral
"Would you like to give away red hair?" As Gu Donglin died, the people in the dance circle had discussed it for several rounds.
Most people hold a wait-and-see attitude, but they prefer not to go. "Our friendship with Hongmao is not enough to send him off." An anchor said on the live broadcast.
There are also anchors who claim that they have no travel expenses and take the opportunity to ask fans for gifts.
On the day of Gu Donglin's funeral, the short video anchor Sister Huang He came.
She got up at four o'clock and started the first live broadcast of the day.
The message bar scrolled at the bottom of the screen, and the audience wanted to watch her live broadcast of Hong Mao's funeral.
The ringer class has already begun to play music.
She took off her coat and ran over and asked the ringer class to play "Su He Su He" to her.
The musicians played a funeral song.
The first sister of the Yellow River immediately seemed to be energized, shaking her head and twisting her hips to the beat, like a plant in the wind, swaying and twisting herself.
The first sister of the Yellow River jumped for more than ten minutes and gained more than 100 fans.
The live broadcast was quickly reported and her account was blocked.
She blushed with anger. "Look at me. Why do you report me?" She picked up the clothes thrown aside while dancing. "At least one thousand yuan was lost."
As she talked, she switched to the trumpet, and moved to the lawn ten meters away from Gu's house. First, she rolled over on the ground for a period of "donkey roll", then rolled up her shirt and shook her belly, giving the people in the village a belly dance.
Another man who claimed to be a fan of Hongmao came to see him off. He is also the anchor of a short video website. He claims to work in Shanghai and started paying attention to Hongmao more than a year ago.
At 2:30 in the afternoon, the hearse stopped at the door of Gu's house.
The sound of firecrackers sounded, and it was time for funeral.
The first sister of the Yellow River was wrapped in a white cloth on her head, grabbed the soil on the ground and wiped it on her face, wiping and screaming loudly: "Brother Mao, you don't count, and the stereo is not for me." The villagers onlookers laughed.
One hour before, the first sister of the Yellow River had just finished a performance.
She recorded a lot of stories near the hearse: molesting the uncle in the wheelchair, dancing with the child, and rolling on the lawn with the male villager.
The villagers were afraid of missing her new tricks, they surrounded her and blocked the way out of the hearse.
The Gu family had to carry out the ceremony while driving the crowd.
The ringer squad led the way, and the hearse set off from Gu's house and moved forward slowly.
The first sister of the Yellow River chased the hearse, and the villagers chased the first sister. When they set off, the line was 20 to 30 meters long.
Gu Donglin's cemetery is surrounded by green wheat fields.
The brown coffin slowly sank into the soil, and the Gu family's relatives looked sad.
Only the crowd of onlookers are still waiting for the first sister of the Yellow River to perform a new joke.
They urged her: "Buy it soon, don't you cry?" At 3:30 in the afternoon, the funeral ended.
After the Gu family left, the performance of the first sister of the Yellow River officially began.
She turned on the music, shook her head, twisted her waist, and danced in front of Gu Donglin's grave.
Seeing the villagers filming her with their mobile phones, the first sister of the Yellow River jumped harder, "Applause!" she shouted excitedly.
The scorching sun shone from the top of her head, and the sister of the Yellow River blushed and her voice was hoarse.
At the end of the period, the villagers onlookers were still booing: "If you jump again, your brother Mao is happy." The first sister of Huang He panted and waved her hands: "Don't jump anymore, it's exhausting."
Beijing News reporter Wang Chongpengcheng