Posted on Apr. 24, 2010 by Lindsay Britney
Meet Shanghai’s ‘Susan Boyle,’ a mid-aged chicken woman seller in a wet market whose voice was cherished by tens of millions of Chinese.
Shanghai ‘Suan Boyle’, whose name is not revealed, is from a rural village in Anhui province and went to make livings in Shanghai by selling chicken. She did not receive any formal English education and musical training, yet commanded to sing English Christian gospel as well as Chinese folklore. Her voices entertained those who either come to the market to buy something or those who make sales at the market. For such, she was called Auntie Sweetie.
Auntie Sweetie who previously was only known to the local community was catapulted into the national stardom when a clip showing her rendition of Amazing Grace was uploaded into Chinese video portal Youku.com on March 31, 2010.
In the clip, Auntie Sweetie was seen with her hair tied into two pigtails and dressed in a red shirt with a Hello Kitty apron which had resulted in some netizens mistaking her for the late Hong Kong billionaire Nina Wang (Kung Yu Sum).
The video garnered many records –most popular, most people favored, most controversial and most recommended–at Youku, and also broke the record of the shortest time of a clip to become the most popular after being uploaded.
The Youtube video above only showing Auntie Sweetie singing Amazing Grace session was a cut-out from the original 9-minute footage which was apparently the mastermind of two young guys who intentionally went to the chicken stall to tease her sing so that they bought her chicken legs.
Immediately after the video appeared online, Auntie Sweetie was soon hailed as Shanghai Susan Boyle.
