‘Never considered becoming popular with my muscles’: Chinese celebrity street food vendor Yi Yang forced to close stall after unruly fans cause revenue to fall by almost half
- Fans of food vendor Yi Yang are enthralled by his ‘strong’ muscles, ‘handsome’ appearance and shy personality
- Crowds now gather at his stall for photos and some grab his body, preventing him from serving customers and almost halving his income
A street food vendor in China who shot to fame for his physique has been forced to close his stall due to large crowds of fans disrupting his business and causing revenue to drop by almost half.
Yi Yang, known among online fans as “duck head brother”, owns a food stall selling cooked duck heads in Zibo. This city in eastern China’s Shandong province has become a popular tourist destination on the mainland in recent months and is often referred to as the country’s barbecue capital.
After some tourists took pictures of Yi and shared them on social media in April this year, he started attracting fans online. Many are women enthralled by his “strong” muscles, “handsome” appearance and “shy” personality.
Yi said the large number of unruly visitors had not improved his business as they often do not buy anything and prevent legitimate customers from getting near the stall.
“I can’t run my business like before. I am jobless now,” said Yi in tears during an online live-stream last week.
He said people flocking to his stall had disturbed his operation and destroyed public order in the area, so he had to close down, but he hoped it would only be temporary.
“My store has high popularity among visitors, but many people just come to see me or take pictures without buying anything. My store’s revenue is now the lowest for shops on the same street,” Yi said.
The prosperous Badaju market, where his food stall is located, receives 180,000 visitors daily. While many stalls’ daily sales had reached tens of thousands of yuan, Yi could only make 6,000 yuan (US$870), compared to the 10,000 yuan he received before the fans arrived.
“I just want to do my job selling duck heads. I’ve never considered becoming popular with my muscles,” he said. “I had never expected to be touched by strangers. For those women trying to touch me, I guess they were joking, but I don’t want to think too much about that.”
Yi is not the first ordinary person in mainland China to suddenly become a mini online celebrity by accident and end up having their life affected by harassment from fans.
Two years ago, a man, also in Shandong province, impressed millions online in China after someone posted a video of him insisting on selling noodles cheaply for 15 years.
After that, many people, mostly vloggers, came to the remote village where the man lived to take pictures, and some even tried to enter his home. He was forced to shut his noodle stall while he and his family became virtual prisoners as they dared not leave home for several weeks.
