Want to get famous in China? Do something zany on the Internet.

In the past five years China has adopted the Internet with a passion. It is now second only to the US in the absolute number of users, although by proportion of population it still ranks fairly low in adoption.

Although bulletin boards are the Chinese Internet medium of choice, blogs are popular also. And the Chinese are world champs at instantaneously elevating someone to either stardom or infamy based upon fleeting blog or BBS performances.

A few months ago ago it was the Backdorm Boys (后舍男生), two college lads who vaulted to insta-fame after posting a video clip of themselves in basketball jerseys lip-synching to the Backstreet Boys tune I Want it That Way. Today the two of them are Motorola pitchmen and buddng celebrities with a Sina.com Web site devoted to themselves. Blogger Tian has some links to their videos in a post he wrote last October.

How long will the the Backdorm Boys fame last? The Internet public is fickle and I'd advise the boys to make as much money and date as many supermodels as they can before something else comes along.

Backdorm boys. Ah, sweet fame.

Of course, it may already be too late.

This week's instant Internet celebrity is the Bus Uncle. He's actually from Hong Kong, not mainland China, but his fame has spread across the country. Hong Kong-based blogger Roland Soong, who writes the well-known East South West North blog, summarizes:

What is the most popular movie in Hong Kong? It is not M:i:3 (which is likely not to be shown in mainland China) and it is not Da Vinci Code (which is severely criticized by the Catholic Church). No, it is a stealth video clip entitled "巴士阿叔, Bus Uncle" on YouTube.

The incident occurred on the top deck of a Number 68X Kowloon bus on April 29. A young man observed that the middle-aged person in front of him was talking too loudly on the mobile telephone. So he tapped the man's shoulder and asked him to keep the volume down. This led to a vigorous response, including a string of obscenities. The entire proceedings were recorded by another passenger named John using a camera-phone. The film was uploaded on YouTube and then seen by the whole wide world. As of May 19, 1.2 million people have watched the video clip! (Update: 1.9 million as of May 26; ETTV cited a 5.9 million figure on May 27, which probably combines all the editions).

Roland also included photographs of the many items of Bus Uncle paraphernalia that have been produced as well as links to many of the sites dedicated to the Bus Uncle. There are dozens. A Chinese- and English-subtitled version of the Bus Uncle's diatribe is on YouTube here. Beware: Due to harsh language it's not safe for work if you have Cantonese-speaking colleagues.

Bus Uncle lays it on the line.

Will the Bus Uncle's fame be as enduring as the Backdorm Boys? Probably not. He doesn't have their good looks or, it seems, their showbiz nous. Nevertheless, he's had quite an impact already, thanks to the star-making combination of cell phone video and the Internet.

For more reading, Sam Flemming's Word of Mouth blog has a great roundup on how Chinese bloggers are promoting themselves to celebrity.