Farmer-cum-inventor - one of China's 'peasant Da Vincis' - enjoys life in his orange submarine
A Chinese chicken breeder-turned-inventor has joined the ranks of the mainland's 'peasant Da Vincis' by spending 30,000 yuan (about HK$37,500) to build his own orange submarine
A Chinese chicken breeder-turned-inventor has emerged from a lake of green to talk about life in his homemade orange submarine.
It took Tan Yong only nine months to bolt together his 30,000 yuan (about HK$37,500) two-tonne craft – christened the “Happy Lamb” after a popular Chinese television cartoon character – which he steered down to a depth of eight metres in the lake.
“I never studied this in school, I’ve based everything on my imagination,” Tan said. “I can stay underwater for 45 minutes.”
Tan, 44, who grew up in rural poverty in a village in Danjiangkou city, in Hubei province, is one of the growing ranks of rural Chinese do-it-yourself inventors – dubbed “peasant Da Vincis” – whose individualism contrasts with the collective farming of past decades.
He’s had a habit of making things since he was small. Toys, boats, model guns and things like that.
In recent years the amateur innovators have created home-made planes, helicopters – even tanks – but apparently with little consideration of practical value.
Tan was born only two years after the Beatles released their 1968 hit, Yellow Submarine, but said he had never heard of any songs about coloured underwater vessels.