LUO FUXING, who is known as the originator of “Shamate culture” in China, became famous when he was 11 years old after a picture of him with eye-catching pink hair and black-purple lips went viral online.

Now the 22-year-old is the co-owner of a hairdressing salon in Shenzhen. Instead of being an online celebrity, he prefers to keep a low profile while working as a barber to support his family, according to a Daily Sunshine report.

Luo was born in Meizhou, a city in northeastern Guangdong, in 1995. When he was 11 years old, he joined a QQ chat group where most of the members were obsessed with the punk subculture in the United States as well as the Visual Rock culture in Japan.

Luo soon became one of them. He took a picture of himself with pink hair and black-purple lips and uploaded the picture to his QQ blog. The picture brought him a lot of attention and his look was regarded as “stylish” and “fashionable” by many netizens.

One day, Luo made an online search for the word “fashion” and found the word “smart,” so he named his look “Shamate” in Chinese, because it is pronounced similarly to “smart” in English.

He opened dozens of QQ chat groups with the keyword “Shamate” and each group gained over 1,000 members. Many of his followers copied his look by giving themselves colorful hairstyles and bold makeup. These people recognized themselves as members of the “Shamate Family” and regarded Luo as their leader.

Luo quit school when he was 14 years old and started working in a factory. His employers asked him to cut his hair, but he resigned a month later because the job was so exhausting. In 2011, he began working as a barber at a hair salon after learning haircutting skills at a school.

He returned home in 2016 when his father was diagnosed with liver cancer. Luo’s father didn’t spend much time with Luo when he was a child, because back then his father worked in Shenzhen and rarely returned to his hometown. Luo’s mother had to take care of the family by herself as Luo’s father never gave her any money.

After Luo’s father got sick, he said he thought about staging a road accident to rip off a driver so that he could get compensated and leave some money for Luo to open a hairdressing salon. Luo was shocked by his father’s idea and realized that his father still cared about him.

Luo’s father passed away in July 2016. Luo was aware that it was up to him to support the family and take care of his mother and two young sisters. He also wanted to build a new apartment in his hometown where his mother could spend the rest of her life.

After saving up money for two years, Luo partnered with a friend and opened a hair salon in Shenzhen before this year’s Spring Festival. Once again, he caught a lot of people’s attention online.

Some people suggested that Luo should do a live stream because his fame as the “originator of Shamate culture” would bring him lots of followers and help him earn money easily. However, Luo said he doesn’t want to be an online celebrity because he doesn’t have much to offer his fans.

Luo’s salon in Pingdi Subdistrict, Longgang District, was able to break even in its first month, even though Luo has to pay 2,000 yuan (US$316) for the rent and utilities each month.

According to Luo, he now identifies as a modern artist, fashionista and barber.

During the 2017 Bi-City Biennale of UrbanismArchitecture (UABB), he transformed a train carriage in an abandoned train station in the Qingshuihe area of Luohu District into a temporary barbershop where he gave haircuts to visitors to the train station.

“My performance art was part of the UABB exhibition. I guess I can call myself an ‘unprofessional artist,’” he said, adding that he enjoys being an artist and has never given up the exploration of art.

(Zhang Yang)