‘Useless Edison’ draws following
Viewers in China love how he shows off quirky inventions
YANG VILLAGE, China — His fans call him “The Useless Edison.”
But inventor Geng Shuai doesn’t mind. He kind of likes it.
“People say my inventions are useless, but I think there are two dimensions to usefulness: practicality and amusement,” said the 30-year-old former welder, who left his job last year to focus full time on making his contraptions, such as a motorbike with its own toilet. “I like doing this. So it’s useful.”
There’s a surprisingly large subset of farmers and other DIY devotees in China who have built submarines and light aircraft, various kinds of robotic plows and monster truckstyle tractors.
Geng may now be the best-known among them — a new kind of social media star whose calling card is his quirkiness.
Standing in his workshop in this tiny village outside Beijing, Geng shows off his inventions.
There’s the meat cleaver turned hair comb. And there’s a tennis racket-size watermelon-slicer. There’s the earthquake-proof noodle bowl that swings in its stand to allow the eater to continue slurping through seismic waves. There are the slippers made from metal nuts.
But Geng is most proud of his hammer bag. It’s a hollow steel mallet with a compartment that slides out of the head. Perfect, he says, for storing your phone, keys and wallet. It has a strap so it can hang over the wearer’s shoulder.
“It’s very fashionable,” he said, with apparent seriousness, modeling his creation. “And if someone tries to steal your bag, you can just throw it at them.”
But Geng, who grew up making things in his family’s pump factory, is a special kind of Chinese entrepreneur. He does not make money from his inventions. Well, not directly. He makes a living through hilarious videos — filmed with the Chinese beauty filters that make everyone look like an airbrushed star — in which he shows how he makes his inventions and then hams it up for the camera as he demonstrates how to use them.
He has almost 2 million followers on the video site Kwai, and they give him mobile phone “tips” for his performances — the internet equivalent of a busker getting cash dropped in a hat. His biggest tippers get their names on plaques on the wall in his workshop, which is often the set for his videos. The bigger the tip, the bigger the plaque.
Geng tries to come up with a new invention every week and to make videos two or three times a week. He makes about $150 every time he does a live-streamed broadcast — decent money in a town where five people can have a lavish lunch for $25. He makes enough to support his family — he and his wife have two children — and his brother, who shoots the videos.
“Most people think I’m an entertainer, but I think of myself as an inventor,” he said.
When he first quit “boring” construction work to follow his passion, he started making slingshots out of metal nuts soldered together. He offered them for sale on WeChat, the Chinese social media app, for about $10. He sold two or three.
No one wanted his water pipe that supposedly filtered toxins out of cigarettes. But the metal nut cannon, which shoots rubber bands, has been one of his bestsellers. He’s sold four.
Geng’s most popular product is the meat cleaver smartphone case, which he makes to order depending on the customer’s phone. He walks around with a meat cleaver handle sticking out of his own pocket, which he grabs to whip out his phone as needed. So practical. He’s sold 10.
“People might not want to buy my inventions, but they like watching my videos, so they support me by tipping,” he said.
Now, his fans are encouraging him to push the boundaries.
“I realized that my small inventions can’t satisfy you anymore, so I spent a lot of money to buy this motorcycle,” Geng said into the camera in one of his recent videos. “This time, I’m going to make something really useful.”
Cut to the next shot and there’s Geng with a wheelbarrow with half a motorbike on the back. A motorbarrow. He proceeds to tear around a warehouse with it, barely able to control the contraption.
For Geng, the lack of sales is neither here nor there. It’s the online celebrity that is motivating him. After all, before it was only his family and friends who laughed at his inventions. Now he’s got almost 2 million people laughing at him.