Brother Coat, trapped behind the lenses, has become the "Truman" of Zhulou Village.

Zhu Zhiwen's experience is more like a crack in this live streaming era. It conveys an obvious message to us:

How live streaming turns an ordinary person into an ever-updating reality show material library.

In July this year, a video circulated online: "Coat Brother" Zhu Zhiwen snatched the mobile phone of his wife Li Yuhua in their yard and smashed it hard on the ground, shattering the device. Before long, Li Yuhua was persuaded to buy a new mobile phone and started live streaming again. When Zhu Zhiwen caught her doing that, he repeated the previous action.

Many people's first reaction was that he got carried away and became grumpy. But after the truth came out, public opinion reversed. Later, in an interview, Zhu Zhiwen said in a calm tone: "She can't read. Haters scold her, but she still says thank you to them. I told her 'You don't lack that little money, why do you do that'."

An illiterate woman, facing the full screen of negative bullet comments, thought those words were praising her, and replied "Thank you everyone" one by one. This scene looks a little absurd, but it accurately sums up Zhu Zhiwen's situation over the past 10 years: he and his family have been live streamed, watched and consumed, and most of the time, they don't even quite understand what the words sliding across the screen mean.

Zhu Zhiwen's experience is more like a crack in this live streaming era. It conveys an obvious message to us: how live streaming turns an ordinary person into an ever-updating reality show material library. In a sense, he is the most typical sample of traffic victim in this era. He is certainly not the first person whose normal life has been invaded by the internet, nor will he be the last.

01

Grassroots star, turned into "Truman"

In February 2011, 42-year-old Zhu Zhiwen stood on the audition stage of I Am a Big Star in a borrowed army coat. He held the microphone, and after singing the song The Endless Yangtze River Rolls East, he won full applause. The gear of fate turned from then on, and a farmer from Shandong turned into the "Coat Brother" known by people all over the country overnight.

15 years ago, Zhu Zhiwen became popular in a singing competition. (Photo/ video screenshot)

At that time, Zhu Zhiwen left a very positive impression on people, simple and honest. He was unkempt, spoke with a local accent, and was a little nervous on stage, but once he opened his mouth, his singing voice could amaze everyone. His posture when singing satisfied all people's imagination of grassroots counterattack. The audience had a good impression of him, mainly because he was real enough.

But this kind of reality has become a resource that can be exploited infinitely in the live streaming era. After the rise of short videos in 2016, the problems Zhu Zhiwen and his family faced were far more than just "annoyance". At the craziest time, hundreds of people blocked the door of his house every day, and cameras were everywhere.

Some people filmed him when he got up to brush his teeth. All his behaviors, including working in the fields, feeding chickens and chopping firewood, were "rich materials" in the live broadcast room. In Zhulou Village, dozens of live account holders squatted at Zhu Zhiwen's door, holding their mobile phones to shoot right at his face, so that he could not even have a peaceful time when eating or going to the toilet. According to statistics, in 2019, there were nearly 100 accounts with the keyword "Coat Brother" on one short video platform alone.

In November 2025, Zhu Zhiwen visited a lantern factory, with friends around him doing live streaming. (Photo/ Xuan Zengxing, reporter of China Youth Daily)

Zhu Zhiwen's image has also undergone subtle changes in this process. He is no longer a farmer who can sing, but a star in the live broadcast room. It no longer matters what he does, what matters is whether the camera is aimed at him. Last February, a reporter visited and planned to follow Zhu Zhiwen to his child's home. When they were about to go out, someone knocked on the door. Zhu Zhiwen certainly knew the visitor's intention, so he had no choice but to climb over the wall and pass through the neighbor's house.

This scene was filmed and spread online, and most of the comments received were "absurd". But for Zhu Zhiwen, this incredible scene has long been his daily life. What is more ironic is that after the traffic faded, Zhu Zhiwen's image was reshaped again. This spring, a dialect meme "You are Zhu Zhiwen" became popular. Young people made it into emojis, and the title "General of the Southern Heavenly Gate" began to go viral.

Zhu Zhiwen put on armor weighing more than ten kilograms and appeared in major scenic spots with a new identity. What those scenic spots want may not be the simplicity and talent of the farmer singer, but they expect the "Coat Brother" IP to change other shapes in front of the camera and create new hot spots.

In this way, a grassroots singer has become today's traffic prey. Behind the camera, the change of his image has never been decided by himself. This is exactly the logic of the traffic era: make you famous first, then squeeze you dry, and finally turn you into a vague meme. As for the person himself, sorry, he is just a material library from beginning to end, a "Truman" in the new era.

02

Daily life invaded by live streaming

The transformation of his image is passive. In addition, Zhu Zhiwen's life has also been eroded little by little.

Zhu Zhiwen's home is no longer an ordinary house and yard. After becoming famous, he replaced the wooden door of his house with an iron door, and installed a monitor at the door. The reason was that someone kicked his door after drinking and shouted at the camera. Not only that, some people flew drones to the top of his house, aiming the camera at the window; some people even climbed over the wall and smashed the glass just to attract attention. Zhu Zhiwen may never have thought that after his life track was changed by singing, he would end up with such a fate.

To avoid onlookers, Zhu Zhiwen can only climb the ladder to his son's house. (Photo/ Post News)

The most intuitive impact of the internet's invasion on him is of course the loss of privacy. His door is surrounded by photographers all year round, and there is no privacy in his daily life. Those who want to gain traffic have no sense of boundary, and arbitrarily invade Zhu Zhiwen's life, and all he can do is bow his head and remain silent.

This is the superficial level. For this family, live streaming is more like labeling all members, and they want to return to ordinary life but cannot. Zhu Zhiwen's son Zhu Danwei dropped out of school early. His first marriage was with internet celebrity Chen Yanan, who gained a large number of fans and sold goods crazily by relying on the identity of "Coat Brother's daughter-in-law", and finally left him because she disliked Zhu Danwei for not making progress.

Zhu Zhiwen's daughter also can't escape the siege of the camera. She was ridiculed by netizens for being fat and uneducated. When people mention her, they will only say "this is Zhu Zhiwen's daughter". It seems that it is difficult for her to exist as an independent individual on the internet. Zhu Zhiwen's two children dare not go out in the village, let alone find jobs. Zhu Zhiwen said that no matter which company his children go to, the boss doesn't want them to work hard, but just wants to aim the camera at them and start a live stream.

The deeper harm comes from online violence. A woman surnamed Sun, who had never met Zhu Zhiwen, posted insulting and defamatory content targeting Zhu Zhiwen on the internet for four consecutive years, and even maliciously made remarks about his deceased relatives. She was finally sentenced to six months in prison by the court. She posted nearly a thousand videos on her account, 80% of which were abusive. At first, Zhu Zhiwen chose to endure. When he could no longer bear it, he finally took up legal weapons to defend his rights.

However, the online violence stopped, but the offline siege still continued. Zhulou Village, where he lives, has changed from an extremely ordinary village in southwest Shandong to an "internet celebrity incubation base". The village itself also lives on this business, building "Zhiwen Picking Garden" and "Zhiwen Restaurant". Villagers put down their farm work because there is a way to make money faster than growing crops. At the busiest time, almost the whole village went out to do live streaming except the elderly and children.

They may never have thought that traffic will eventually disappear. When the heat fades, the income of one day's shooting used to be equal to half a month's income, but now after shooting for three or four days, you may not get the expected profit. If you can't make money, people will leave soon, and those who used to make a living by live streaming Zhu Zhiwen will try to find the next "Truman" besides going back to farming.

(Photo/ still from The Truman Show)

Only Zhu Zhiwen is still there. Although there are far fewer cameras, he is clear that life can never go back, and Zhulou Village where he lives is no longer the hometown it used to be.

03

After eating the "Coat Brother" meal, what's next?

Zhu Zhiwen has been tracked by live streaming for more than 10 years. In the final analysis, people follow the logic that "traffic is everything".

This logic is simple and rude. Zhu Zhiwen's life is content, and his troubles and even pain are the biggest hot spots. No one cares whether he is willing or not, and no one wants to care. As a result, people intensified their efforts and even took the initiative to participate, becoming new actors in the live broadcast ——

Some villagers cut off contact with Zhu Zhiwen when their request for borrowing money was rejected, and even said "His money can't be spent, what's wrong with borrowing some?"; some people blocked in front of Zhu Zhiwen's house, asking for 500,000 yuan, and lay on the ground making a scene if they didn't get the money; some people climbed over the wall and broke into the yard, kicking the door forcibly just to force Zhu Zhiwen to come out, so that their live broadcast room could get more attention, likes and rewards.

However, what makes people feel deeply powerless is Zhu Zhiwen's attitude towards live streaming. Someone asked him why he didn't register a personal account for so many years. He responded that his original idea was to "leave a way to make a living" for ordinary people who have been filming his life all year round and making a living from this traffic, and he didn't want to take away their livelihood. He is the one being consumed, but he is still thinking about giving others a way out.

For many years, Zhu Zhiwen has always maintained an attitude in all this: no live streaming, no goods selling, no messy endorsements. A merchant invited him to endorse herbicide, he tested it in his own corn field, but the weeds grew wildly and the crops reduced production, so he refused. A health product company offered a high price to invite him to be a spokesperson, and he also turned it down.

On August 13, Zhu Zhiwen attended a commercial performance. (Photo/ Jimu News)

His commercial performance quotation has not increased until now, and the performance fee has always been the same as when he debuted. He said that he is just an ordinary person. If ordinary people invite him, it means he is worth the price. This year's Grain in Ear, he went back to his hometown specially to harvest wheat, and a truck of wheat sold for thousands of yuan, which is much less than the income from singing. But in his opinion, farming is still his main job, and singing is his side job.

This grassroots star who has been hunted by live streaming for more than ten years has become one of the sober people in the live streaming era. He knows what money he should earn, and he also knows that traffic is virtual, and the land under his feet is real. Today's Zhu Zhiwen is still singing and still farming. What he wants to keep is very simple, but he knows that the cameras aimed at him are very complicated.

This article was originally published in the 715th issue of New Weekly "Live Streaming Is Busy"

Original title: "Trapped in the Camera, 'Coat Brother' Has Become the 'Truman' of Zhulou Village"

This article is from the WeChat official account "New Weekly" (ID: new-weekly), author: L, editor: Song Shuang, 36Kr is authorized to release it.