"Being it human or immortal, whoever stands beyond me shall be conquered by my cuteness!" (Photo/Official Weibo account of Baicha)
There simply are too many reasons for his fans to kneel before His Majesty's virtual image.
Since his debut in China's microblog platform Weibo in 2015, his popularity has been surging at a hurricane-like wild speed. Two books have been published to illustrate his daily life with his human "The Youngster" and the dog "Bazhahei"; his fansite, microblog, social network profile, and later an online souvenir store have gained more than 480 million hits in just one year.
In 2015, the first book of the comic series sold more than 400,000 copies, and the author Baicha won the top prize "The Golden Dragon Award" of China's cartoon and animation realm.
Baicha is a quiet young man in his early 30s, Gemini and native of the northwestern Xi'an, an introvert of very few words but with an active mind of wild imagination and a very unique sense of humor.
Though young by the looks, being one of the pioneers of China's modern cartoonists, he had been an illustrator for more than a decade.
In 2009 and 2010, for two years in a row, Baicha's illustrations won China's maximum glory in science-fiction "The Milky Way Award" -- same honor that he shared with Liu Cixin and his "Three-Body Problem", later a Hugo Award winner.
The glory did not satisfy the young man's thirst for improvement, and his pursuit of something emblematically his own, his artistic signature continued.
And he was not alone in the search: As the social network developed, the interaction between the artist and his admirers online has been more and more frequent and constructive. Baicha would publish his latest works on the microblog platform where enthusiasts, friends and an increasingly wider range of followers would comment, make suggestions and advice for him to feel inspired, encouraged and motivated to get better.
