Moonwalking in Beijing

Zhang Guanhui performs on a street in Beijing's Sanlitun area. [Photo/China Daily]

A once-frustrated young artist can now get on the floor easily, after re-inventing himself as a Michael Jackson lookalike. But it's not all glamour, he tells Zhang Zhouxiang.

The clock strikes 7 pm. Zhang Guanhui takes a deep breath, turns on the music and slowly moonwalks to the center of a clearing near the main intersection in Beijing's Sanlitun area. Passers-by stop and stare, and an audience forms a semicircle around him.

For over three years, Zhang has been portraying the king of pop music, Michael Jackson, on the streets of the capital.

Growing up in a small town in Huainan, Anhui province, Zhang learned street dancing and ventriloquism when he was very young, and he dreamed of becoming a star. The 25-year-old even went to the Beijing Film Studio in 2009 for a chance to show off his skills on the big screen.

At least 300 other candidates, however, were also waiting at the studio gate every day. How could Zhang, with no diploma or recommendation from a renowned director, pass even the first round of selection?

As he was about to leave, disappointed, somebody stopped him, saying: "We need a doorkeeper. The pay is poor but at least you can stay here and watch them dancing."

Zhang accepted and stood by the gate for almost one year, until 2010, when he first watched a video of Billie Jean.

"It was like lightning bolt to my mind," he says, still excited by the memory. "I was further moved by learning later that Jackson was a great philanthropist, too. The star has fallen but we can make his spirit live."