China’s budding inventor culture finds an improbable online hero
- Geng Shuai, the ‘useless Edison’, is the social media star of a new generation of quirky tinkerers
- Among his inventions are a meat cleaver smartphone case
His fans call him “The Useless Edison”. But inventor Geng Shuai does not mind. In fact, he kind of likes it.
“People say my inventions are useless, but I think there are two dimensions to usefulness: practicality and amusement,” said the 30-year-old former welder, who left his job last year to focus full time on making his questionable contraptions, such as a motorbike with its own toilet. “I like doing this. So it’s useful.”
Every country has its toolshed inventors. But China – which gave the world movable type printing, gunpowder and the compass – has spawned a population of tinkerers who display the kind of outsize ambition that has helped the country become a global economic giant.
There’s a surprisingly large subset of farmers and other DIY devotees who have built submarines and light aircraft, various kinds of robotic ploughs and monster truck-style tractors.
Geng may now be the best-known among them – a new kind of social media star whose calling card is his quirkiness.
Standing in his workshop in this tiny village outside Beijing, Geng shows off his inventions. There’s the meat cleaver turned hair comb. And there’s a tennis racket-size watermelon-slicer.