He boils with passion that evening in the large stadium. His hip-pop music is becoming a kind of karaoke session repeated by the more than 4,000 students in the audience. Everybody's waving their hands rapping along rhythmically. It may sound crude and senseless, but his song is getting more applause than the stars who were invited to the concert.
He's Hao Yu, a fourth-year student from Harbin Engineering University, and the audience vote him "Most popular singer" via text massage.
The event was the "MTV-Samsung Anycall" national college singing contest at Beihang University in Beijing last Thursday. But, Hao was not a contestant. He got there because MTV recognized him on the Internet.
Instead of fighting his way through a crowd of competitors, Hao, or M.C.Good, as he is popularly known in cyber space, came to fame quickly thanks to someone who anonymously created a flash movie out of his song.
Earlier this year, a flash cartoon feature called "University Classroom" (Daxue Zixi Shi) appeared on the web. The flash describes a boy's difficulty in finding a quiet classroom during study hall, with hip-pop music in the background.
It's a simple problem, but the boy has endless troubles: a room occupied by a freshman, interruptions from cellphones, and an accident with a vandalized chair. Finally, the boy, who cannot continue reading, screams in outrage and helplessness with a strong northeastern accent: "Do you really come here to study?" (the flash sample is available at www.21stcentury.com.cn)
"I didn't expect it to become so popular. I have to thank the guy who made the flash but I don't know his name," says the hip-pop lover, who just closed himself up in his bedroom in March while mum and dad were out and recorded his tracks with the help of computer software.
A friend helped post the tracks on the Net. And, there they languished in obscurity until one day a buddy told him that there was something interesting — a flash animation based on his music. And, there it was.
However, the singer's appearance didn't match that of hip-pop man. "My voice tells the listeners that I should be a slim man, wearing long hair and baggy jeans — the dirty look that hip-pop singers usually adopt," says Hao. In fact, he's plump with short hair, glasses, and a clean look. He doesn't play CS (counter strike, the computer game) and doesn't have a girlfriend.
He's just ordinary. But it's that very ordinariness that wins over the audience. "The lyrics are just plain, everyday words. The frustrations the boy confronts happen to me every day. The singer is just reflecting our thoughts," says Zhou Wenbing, a third year automation controls major at Beihang.
"University Classroom" is just one of the collections of more than 30 tracks Hao has put together. Another one, "Moonlight Flower" (Yueguang Huaduo) was getting hotter on the web recently.
Not sealed off
Most of the songs talk about campus life, which according to Hao, is a microcosm of society.
"These days, the campus is no longer a vacuum sealed off from outside. Student life is hectic, it's all about money, love, social life — anything except study," says Hao.
It's natural for people to connect Hao with Xue Cun, a singer who got a flash animation boost after having his song ignored for six years. Thanks to the downloadable flash technology, more would-be musicians are getting a name among the world of netizens in this way.
"The Internet is the way to instant fame. But flash is just a tool. The most important part is the work itself," explained Lao Dao, in an editorial on Sina.com.
Maturing
Still, under siege by media reporters, Hao claims, "My music is far from mature. I need more input. Now, my only task is study."
He doesn't want this to be just a flash in the pan.
Hao says he was still studying advanced maths the night before MTV came through the university looking for him. He's now working hard on the next postgrad entrance exam.
"Surely, this is going to harm my exam ..." says Hao, as he's interrupted by yet another reporter.
(www.21stcentury.com.cn January 2, 2004)
