Gettin' Jiggy with Matt

Matt Harding of "Where the Hell is Matt?" fame showed up in Sanlitun SOHO as planned on Saturday afternoon, armed with choreography that borrowed heavily from The Macarena. (True to his word, the jigmeister did not disappoint in the bad dancing category.)

Though the event changed locations mid-week, about a hundred people still gathered in a tight little crowd to get their mugs in front of his camera. Stragglers continued to roll in, and latecomers obscured in the back of the crowd got their big break when one affable gentlemen yelled out that shorter people should move to the front, behind the row of disgruntled kids and giddy parents.

Turnout was higher than Matt expected, with a good blend of Chinese and expats. Beijing resident Marissa Kennedy, 26, loves moments like these and the Olympics, "when I can call my friends and tell them to be on the lookout for me on the internet or TV. And in true Beijing style, the crowd of people pushed me until I was standing directly behind him! My leg or handbag showing up in the video might be the most famous I ever get, but it makes for a good story."

Maybe if she'd grabbed his butt like she'd felt tempted to, the fame would have been less fleeting...

The mood, coupled with the fairest weekend weather of the year, was fun, relaxed, and buoyant, as you can see in the Youku videos of Matt with his fans:

The footage from his shoot in Sanlitun is to be incorporated in a new video he's making (this time for himself and not sponsors Visa or Stride gum), and should be making the rounds in late 2011.

Comments

New comments are displayed first.

he was pretty chill seems like the shanghai event has many people as beijing.
Check out my site for more pics from this event Smile http://gokatayama.com/

Go Katayama - Freelance Photographer in Beijing
www.gokatayama.com

i thought his whole "schtick" was to appear in all sorts of exotic locales ... that pic up there doesn't exactly scream "beijing" ...

i'll have to take a peek at the video, just saw the pic ... which looks an awful lot like about twice as many foreign faces than chinese (as opposed to the citywide ratio of about 1:100) ... then again matt's primarily a foreign phenom i guess, and judging by this comment that was delivered to the beijinger's sina microblog by a chinese poster, perhaps he's not exactly revered:

Quote:
He's the reason why I try to avoid using my Visa card. I don't want to be know as a typical Visa card user as the add projects. ALL CAPS for the word STUPID!

Books by current and former Beijinger staffers

http://astore.amazon.com/truerunmedia-20

Quote: i'm sure he was overjoyed to come to all the way to beijing to be mobbed by a bunch of caucasian laowai

??

Looks like there are quite a few Chinese faces in that top pic to me, and nearly all the people featured in the video look Chinese.

Register and post your own events on the beijinger website.

i'm sure he was overjoyed to come to all the way to beijing to be mobbed by a bunch of caucasian laowai

Books by current and former Beijinger staffers

http://astore.amazon.com/truerunmedia-20