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updated 10 Nov 2011, 15:25
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Mon, May 03, 2010
The New Paper
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Beggar Prince dons wonderful streetwear

THE man whom netizens have nicknamed Beggar Prince has gone from vagrant to model.

The 35-year-old man, whose picture became the most-searched one on the Internet in early March, has been offered a job as a fashion show manager at an eco holiday resort in Shunde near Guangzhou, said reports.

China News Net also showed pictures of the man, originally from Ningbao, Zhejiang province, waving to the audience while performing a catwalk fashion show on stage.

This was a far cry from his days as a vagrant where he was seen walking aimlessly in tattered but well-coordinated clothes with a cigarette in hand.

He shot to fame after someone snapped a photo of him while testing a camera in a shop and uploaded it on a site, said Mingpao.com

Though he looked scruffy, his hair was carefully disarrayed and he was seen in a well- coordinated overcoat on top of a leather jacket.

Soon, netizens began nicknaming him XiLi Ge (or Brother Sharp).

As his fan club spread – to as far as Japan – he was given more endearing nicknames such as the Handsome Beggar, Beggar Prince and Handsome Vagabond.

Xi Li Ge, whose real name is Cheng Guorong, will be paid 3,000 yuan (S$600) a month if he proves his capability during the one-month probation period starting this month.

According to China News Net, Cheng arrived at the resort last Friday night. He was accompanied by his family and his professor uncle.

His uncle said many people have shown their concern for Cheng and suspected that the employment was a publicity stunt by the resort.

The uncle said: “To us, it is most important that Guorong be independent and able to integrate into society again.”

Wandering life

But Cheng is happy that he can settle down and put an end to his wandering life on the streets.

“I am just a normal pathetic person. It was the Internet that rescued me from the streets and I am grateful to the netizens who had lent their helping hand.

“I do not know anything about fashion and don’t understand why people said I am fashionable,” he said.

Cheng, who has minor mental problems, had lost contact with his family after he left home for work in 1997.

He then began roaming the streets.

After his story was widely reported in China, he finally reunited with his family and returned to his home in Tuo Ling, Jiangxi.

This article was first published in The New Paper.

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