November 15, 2006
Little Fatty’s photo spawns China Internet icon
BEIJING (AFP) – A chubby-faced Shanghai gas station intern known as “Little Fatty” has vaulted to the top of Internet fame in China thanks to cheeky Photoshop artists who are turning the plump youth into a pop icon.
It all started three years ago when Qian Zhijun, then a 16-year-old high school student, was attending a traffic safety class and someone snapped a picture of his rotund, rosy-cheeked face.
His suspicious-looking sideways glance at the camera soon made its way on to the Internet.