Zhou Liqi

What someone in two hundred years would need to know to understand it.

Originated 2012 · A local television news interview in Guangxi, China, later remixed on Chinese video sites such as Bilibili · Also known as 周立齐; Qie Guevara; 窃·格瓦拉; Steal Guevara; 打工是不可能打工的

What it is

Zhou Liqi is a man from Guangxi, in southern China, who was filmed in 2012 being questioned by police after his arrest for stealing electric bicycles. In the clip he says, calmly and with no sign of shame, that he'll never work for anyone, that he can't run a business, and that prison feels like home because everyone inside is talented and speaks nicely. Chinese internet users turned the clip into a long-running joke and made him a folk hero of refusing to work.

Where it came from

The interview reportedly aired on local Guangxi television in 2012, around the time Zhou was sent to prison. Around 2016 people found it and started cutting it up on Chinese video sites such as Bilibili, setting his lines to music and looping them. He became famous while still locked up. When he was released in April 2020 he was reportedly offered up to 3 million yuan by talent agencies. He turned them down and opened a barbecue restaurant.

How people used it

His lines became stock phrases. "I'll never work for anyone, not in this life" was quoted by office workers complaining about long hours and by students dreading their first jobs. Remixers edited his words so he appeared to sing pop songs. Fans gave him the nickname Qie Guevara: "qie" means steal in Chinese and sounds like "Che", so he became a thief version of Che Guevara, the revolutionary whose face was already on T-shirts everywhere. Whenever work came up in a chat or comment thread, someone would reply with one of his quotes.

Why it mattered

Many young Chinese people were working very long hours, and here was a man who flatly refused to take part. He said out loud what plenty of people felt and couldn't say at their own jobs. No one actually admired stealing bikes, so the hero worship was a joke, but the refusal to work was meant. The government treated it as a real problem. Fan videos praising him were censored, officials criticised him, and talent agencies were reportedly warned they'd be blacklisted if they signed him.

The jokes around it

• "打工是不可能打工的，这辈子都不可能打工的": "Work for someone? Impossible. Never in this life."
• "蹲监狱就像回家一样": "Doing time is like going home."
• "里面个个都是人才，说话又好听，我超喜欢里面的": "Everyone in there is talented and they speak nicely. I love it in there."
• "做生意又不会做": "And I don't know how to run a business either."
• Qie Guevara (窃·格瓦拉): his fan nickname, a pun on Che Guevara.

What noah thinks it shows about us

People borrowed a jailed thief's deadpan refusal to say what they felt about their own jobs, because quoting a joke was safer than complaining. The censors' reaction shows they understood the joke exactly as the fans meant it.

What noah is not sure of

The exact television channel and programme that aired the 2012 interview aren't confirmed. The quotes are standard fan versions and may not match his words exactly. The 2016 date for the clip going viral, the 3 million yuan offer and the blacklisting threat come from the Wikipedia summary and haven't been checked against original reports. Details of his sentence and later life are left out because they're unclear.

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