Why did the founder of "Shamate" stop being an internet celebrity and open a barber shop?

The founder of “Shamate” went to open a barber shop: he no longer wants to be an Internet celebrity.

Luo Fuxing is cutting hair for a customer.

According to news on January 27, last weekend, accompanied by the crackling of firecrackers, the Huangfei Hairdressing Shop in Baishitang Village, Pingdi Town, Longgang District, Shenzhen officially welcomed customers. Luo Fuxing realized the first half of his life wish of "opening a shop to support a family". This influential figure who once "commanded the world" on the Internet with his unconventional hairstyle has now cut off his long hair and makes a living by cutting people's hair.

Luo Fuxing was one of the first people in China to initiate hair-cutting and blow-drying, and was labeled as the founder of "Shamate". But as he grew older and his father passed away, Luo Fuxing's rebellion gradually faded away. He began to return to the mainstream, hoping to take on the important task of supporting his family through his skills.

Luo Fuxing’s current hair style is no longer “shameful”.

Want to rectify the name of Shamate

The Shenzhen Industrial Station located in Qingshuihe District, Luohu District, Shenzhen is an abandoned train station. The 2017 Shenzhen-Hong Kong Bi-City Biennale of Urbanism/Architecture The implementation of the project has made this abandoned train station lively. Looking from the overpass in the distance, it is easy to see the four characters "temporary haircut" written in chalk on an old carriage. Luo Fuxing transformed the carriage into a temporary barber shop, where he cut the hair of passers-by. This performance art by Luo Fuxing is part of the entire exhibition. Professor Li Yifan from Sichuan Fine Arts Institute is his curator, and he is also planning to make a documentary around Luo Fuxing.

Frequent contacts with artists and interviews are what Luo Fuxing does most now besides opening a store. He has more than 30 journalist contacts in his WeChat account. After no longer wanting to be an Internet celebrity, Luo Fuxing was more willing to accept serious humanistic documentary interviews. In one interview, he even said that he wanted to be a sociologist.

"I want to clear up the name of the Shamat family. We are not the idiots in the eyes of others." In many interviews, he will repeat his point of view. Luo Fuxing believes that the existence of any group has complex social reasons. Even if he didn’t find the word smart and didn’t become the founder of Shamate, this group would still appear. A large number of people born in the 1980s and 1990s live in remote and poor areas. Some of them have been left-behind children, and some come from single-parent families. Most of them drop out of school to work after finishing junior high school. The boring life makes them try to achieve success through their unconventional appearance. social concern.

"Why can I bring all these people together online? Because they speak the same language and want to stay together for warmth." Luo Fuxing believes that it is the same value orientation that makes the Shamate family Members gather together. Only when people of the same class are together can they find someone to talk to and feel at home.

In August last year, Luo Fuxing participated in the recording of a TV show. When chatting with the host about killing Matt, the host used the word childish many times. This made him very uncomfortable and felt that he was being besieged. , was judged. He was so embarrassed that the program team had to re-record the scene. Luo Fuxing believes that his past non-mainstream behavior was caused by a specific life background. "Even if I am naive, I am right." He said, not wanting the elite to look down on the Shamat family with a sense of superiority.

Nowadays, those born in the 80s and 90s who once wore afro hair have all grown up and gotten married. There are very few people born in the 2000s who have Shamat hairstyles. Shamat seems to have completed its historical mission. As the former founder, Luo Fuxing has no obvious traces of killing him. Only the vague tattoos, the skull pendant on his chest, and the diamond rivet bag on his shoulder can be regarded as recalling his "glory" years.

Luo Fuxing's "Shamate" look

Creating the Shamate family

Luo Fuxing was born in the countryside of Wuhua County, Meizhou, Guangdong in 1990. When he was in the fifth grade of primary school , he started surfing the Internet and became addicted to Internet cafes. While exploring the world of online games, Luo Fuxing was attracted by the "visual style" looks of the characters in the games. When he was bored, Luo Fuxing began to imitate the characters in "visual kei". He went to the village barber shop to get an afro, and bought hair dye from the dollar store to dye his hair pink. He also put lipstick on his lips, pierced his ears and put on white earrings, put on black clothes and tattoos, and cut the knees of his jeans to walk on the streets in a non-mainstream style that was different from ordinary people. He originally thought of having fun by himself, but what Luo Fuxing didn't expect was that this look actually allowed him to enjoy supreme glory.

Luo Fuxing's style was spread online through the Internet cafe's camera, and everyone said he was "cool and fashionable." Luo Fuxing discovered the word "smart" when he searched for "fashion" on his computer. He had memorized the pronunciation of English words by writing in white characters since he was a child, and he pronounced "smart" as "smart". Later, he felt that it was not domineering enough, so he changed "Smart" to "Sha Matt".

Subsequently, Luo Fuxing established a QQ group under the name of "Shamate Family" and attracted those who liked his style into the group. In the group, Luo Fuxing promoted his style and encouraged members to imitate him, attracting the followers of many adolescents. The number of people in QQ groups continues to grow, from dozens to hundreds, thousands, or tens of thousands, from one QQ group to dozens of QQ groups.

As the number of admirers increased, Luo Fuxing transformed from a QQ group leader into a leader-like figure. His various hairstyles became a model for the Shamate family, and the title of the founder of Shamate spread like wildfire. In the QQ group, Luo Fuxing has absolute say.

Luo Fuxing not only "commands the world" in the virtual online world, directing members of the Shamate family to invade other QQ groups, occupy Baidu Tieba, capture Tianya Forum, advocate their hairstyles, and also organize offline killings of horses Gathering of special family members. At its peak, Luo Fuxing classified the members of the Shamate family according to the hierarchy of "founder-deputy founder-elder-member" based on a set of modern business management methods he found online. He also developed the "Shamate Economy" and used his online influence to help people advertise and promote.

Ten years ago, there were no big Vs and Internet celebrities. However, with the rise of the trend of killing Matt, for a long time, Luo Fuxing, who had not finished junior high school, was the most famous person in the online world. A big V-level figure. "I liked to call myself the godfather at that time." Now when he recalls his idol years, Luo Fuxing feels a little incredible.

When his father passed away suddenly, he shouldered the burden of life

Just like many things that follow the universal law of prosperity and decline, as time went by, Luo Fuxing also slowly walked down the clouds. .

In 2011, Luo Fuxing went to Shenzhen to work. There are clear regulations in the factory that the appearance must be correct, so Luo Fuxing had to cut off his long hair. Later, he also found a reason to quit the Shamat family. However, the boring work on the assembly line made Luo Fuxing, who yearned for freedom and pursuit of individuality, uncomfortable, and he resigned after not working for long. Luo Fuxing began to walk on the streets, grew an afro, and tattooed a spider web on his arm. In his eyes, workers on the assembly line are like insects trapped in spider webs, and he doesn't like it.

Later, his mother sent him to a beauty and hairdressing school to let him learn some skills. When he came out of school to work in a barber shop, his afro caused him to be discriminated against again. The customers thought he was an apprentice and were unwilling to let him cut it. Helpless, Luo Fuxing could only reluctantly cut off his hair again.

After several work experiences, Luo Fuxing found that in the face of mainstream values, the hair style he was once proud of became an obstacle to his progress. He had to choose between the hair style and short hair. It was not until his father's death that he completely ushered in his transformation.

Luo Fuxing originally hated his father very much because his father rarely accompanied him since he was a child, and he rarely even called him back. In July of the year before last, his father was diagnosed with liver cancer, and Luo Fuxing returned home. The skinny father lay on the bed to express his guilt, and proposed to crash a car and earn some compensation for his inheritance. This made Luo Fuxing discover that his father cared about him in his heart. He borrowed money from everywhere to treat his father's illness and prayed that his father could spend the Mid-Autumn Festival with him. However, his father died not long after.

After his father passed away, Luo Fuxing truly became the backbone of the family. Facing his mother and two younger sisters, he suddenly felt the heavy pressure on his shoulders. "My father left me nothing, but he left me responsibility." Luo Fuxing realized that a man cannot live just for himself. "My own happiness is just a skin. To live a meaningful life, you should be diligent." Luo Fuxing's His outlook on life changed completely. He wanted to make money to support his family and fixed his hairstyle in a short-cut style.

The disappearing sense of presence

What disappeared together with Luo Fuxing's killer hair style was the sense of presence that he had always liked.

Since childhood, Luo Fuxing has received almost zero care and lacks a sense of presence in front of others. Before entering elementary school, his parents took him to Shenzhen. In Shenzhen, his parents were busy running small shops and basically ignored him.

After attending elementary school, Luo Fuxing returned to his hometown in Meizhou and became a left-behind child. During school, his grades were not good and he was placed in the last row of the classroom. The teacher basically regarded him as nothing and only hoped that he would not cause trouble.

The various neglects he encountered in childhood became the reason why Luo Fuxing later became obsessed with the non-mainstream hair style. When he presented himself as an exaggerated disruptor, he immediately attracted attention. When he became a QQ group leader who could command tens of thousands of people, his sense of presence gradually increased.

“I used to like to be noticed when I was walking on the street.” When the slaying trend was popular, Luo Fuxing and his companions were often labeled as “brainless”. He didn’t care because he felt that he was being ignored. Scolding shows that he has value, and he enjoys the feeling of being the focus of the crowd.

Nowadays, Luo Fuxing no longer likes or demands the feeling of being superior to others. He knew an artist who was willing to spend all his money to do what he loved. Luo Fuxing particularly admires it, but he feels that he cannot "do whatever he wants" like this. He must return to the mainstream, integrate into the secular world, and survive and live like most people.

Online live broadcasts have been particularly popular in the past two years. Some people suggested that Luo Fuxing should become a host. Just being labeled as the founder of Shamate would attract him countless fans and help him make money easily. Luo Fuxing was very repulsive. He felt that he had no talent, no skills, and no ideas, and could only provide fans with some illusory things. "I no longer want to be famous, nor do I want to be an Internet celebrity." Whether it is valuable or not is now Luo Fuxing's main basis for weighing whether something is worth doing.

Hair cutting is a skill that Luo Fuxing can rely on to make a living. After his father passed away, he worked in a hair salon for a long time, and it has always been his dream to open his own barber shop. Luo Fuxing's mother works as a nanny in Shunde, and her two younger sisters also work in factories in Shunde. He felt that if he could open his own hair salon in Shenzhen and have a career and a place to stay, he could bring his mother over to live with him. In the past six months, "opening a store and supporting a home" has always been on his mind.

Last month, Luo Fuxing found a storefront in Bainitang Village, Pingdi Town, Longgang District. The location of the storefront was not good, but he was eager to open a store and impulsively rented it. In order to cope with the high rent, he also found a partner and the two of them shared the rent equally. Even so, Luo Fuxing spent 25,000 yuan, almost all his savings. His worst-case scenario is that the store can only last for one year, "just practice, I'm still young anyway."