Busking in luck's glory

08:41, November 17, 2010      
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Migrant workers Wang Xu (left) from Henan province and Liu Gang from Heilongjiang province sing In the spring in a 6-square-meter rented room in the suburbs of Beijing on Oct 28. (Zhang Xiaodong/For China Daily)
Until about a month ago, 44-year-old Wang Xu and 29-year-old Liu Gang were just two common migrant workers, who played music in the national capital's subways at night to make some extra cash.
It was only on Saturday, when they sang their heart-rending version of In the Spring alongside the song's star composer Wang Feng in front of some 80,000 screaming fans at the Shanghai Stadium, that they realized they had turned into national celebrities.
Wang, who hails from the central Henan province, and Liu, a native of Northeast China's Heilongjiang province, started their journey to fame in late August.
The two were then singing the tearjerker song during an evening drinking session in a 6-square-meter rented room in Beijing's southwest suburb.
A friend recorded the performance on a mobile phone and posted it on the Internet.
In the video, the duo are shirtless and sweating. Liu sits playing the guitar, and Wang stands singing.
"If someday I am dead, please bury me in the spring," they sing. Wang's penetrating chorus, delivered with his eyes closed, moved thousands of netizens to tears.
"The friend who recorded the video told us that he had posted the clip online," Wang said.
"To be honest, I was very worried - we didn't even have our shirts on while jamming. It felt awkward."
Celebrities such as musician Xiao Ke and Hong Kong singer Charlene Choi recommended the video on Sina Weibo, the Chinese version of Twitter.
And netizens termed the video the "cleanest post" ever, for all the comments that followed were positive.
Neither Wang nor Liu had a clue that their journey toward fame had commenced until they started receiving an unprecedented number of phone calls and text messages in October.
"Now, sometimes we barely get two hours of sleep because there are so many television recording sessions," Liu said.
Liu came to Beijing in 2002, two years after he ended his military service.
He had worked as a guard, roadside peddler, and porter.
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