Chinese man. Builds robots. In his backyard. Some walk. Some pour tea. The latest pulls a rickshaw.
His wife of course, prefers that her husband spend her time more productively and make money rather than fidgeting with robots in the middle of the night, and sometimes burning down the house (happened once -- didn't stop him).
Spotted by the BBC, surprisingly enough. If you don't want to sit through the entire clip, watch the last 30 seconds.
Unfortunately he doesn't seem to have a DIY/geek community backing him (as he might in the US), especially since he lives in a semi-rural area. This phenomenon is similar to Lyn's post about the homemade planes, which in the US is backed a small but intense community of "ultralight" enthusiasts. When will the proliferation of the internet in China link up like-minded DIY hobbyists? And what will be the nature of the Chinese DIY community?
Via Suicide Bots.
Awesome... I wanna buy one off him now! I could always use a mechanical slave. :D
Posted by: Kevin | June 10, 2007 at 08:28 PM
Wow -- Mr. Rickshaw and Jr. Rickshaw are amazing. I wonder how he makes a living, however, since they clearly seem to have enough money for a pretty large courtyard.
Posted by: Lyn | June 11, 2007 at 10:29 AM
forget the robot man. who is the lovely woman driving the white van??
Posted by: doug | June 12, 2007 at 12:36 AM
This kind of stuff should totally be endorsed and promoted! I can't help feeling shocked that this is happening in rural China.
Posted by: Karuna62 | July 15, 2007 at 10:31 AM
This is from the series 'Paul Merton in China', it's from the UK's Channel 5, not the BBC.
http://www.five.tv/paulmerton/
Posted by: Dave | July 19, 2007 at 06:19 AM