Young man's tragic death leads to movie
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Yang Suo, as far as we know, was a normal young man, but he died of starvation at home in Zhutang township, Luoshan county, and shockingly people are saying he was too lazy to eat.
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Yang Deyu, Yang Suo's cousin, points to the collapsed house where Yang Suo used to live. [Dahe.cn] |
"Old as he is, he would like you to feed him directly into his mouth," said one villager who once helped him.
Some have said it was his parents' indulgence that turned a smart boy into the world's laziest man.
"Guilty Love," a movie based on Yang's life is now being shot in the Luoshan county, Xinyang city.
The film crew is trying to "resurrect" Yang, reputed to be the laziest man in the world, and have his story serve as a warning not to be lazy.
In April actress Chen Shanshan visited relatives and heard Yang's story. She thought it would make an excellent movie that could educate parents and children nationwide.
"Too many parents are raising their children as pandas," Chen said, "Though Yang's story is kind of extreme it's also representative, and we want to tell this story to warn all the parents and future parents."
Kind of extreme
"I have never seen such a lazy man," said Yang Deyu, Yang's cousin, pointing to a collapsed house where Yang used to live. "He was most handsome and smart, yet by far the laziest among our 8 cousins."
In December 2009, after days of snow, Yang Deyu worried that his cousin hadn't eaten, so he brought food and a quilt to his home. But he found Yang dead. He was 23 years old.
After Yang's death, many villagers said that he was spoiled by his parents and couldn't function. Neighbors say even when he was 8 years old his parents would carry him to save him from walking.
Yang's former primary school teacher said he was smart but lacked motivation, and when the school attempted to discipline him his parents would come to the school and vehemently protest.
But the reputed "laziest man in the world" displayed some initiative early in life, but it was apparently squashed by his parents. According to relatives, Yang sometimes asked to assist with housework, yet his parents would tell him to go and play. Unorthodox parenting, indeed.
At thirteen, his father died of liver disease, but his mother continued to spoil him, encouraging him to do literally nothing. Later his mother became weak and was forced to change strategies and ask him to work. But it was too late. He ignored her pleas, and somehow the purported laziest boy found the motive and energy to beat his weak mother whenever he got the whim.
His mother had no choice but to do all the farm work and housework herself. She died when he was 18, apparently of illnesses related to her severe workload.
Yang then moved to live with his cousin, Yang Deyu, who worked as a construction worker. His cousin offered him a job, and the allegedly lazy Yang actually showed up, but soon he decided it was too hot to work and returned home.
Some members of the community arranged for him to work as an attendant at a hotel, but he did nothing at the hotel except ask others to serve him, so he was fired, according to 65-year-old Yang De'an.
Eventually, Yang sold anything of value he had and took the initiative to begin begging.
82-year-old Gao Zhengying remembers Yang never washing his clothes and, not surprisingly, he wasn't interested in cooking any food he acquired.
Yang settled into a schedule of sleeping for a couple days, and when he got hungry enough begging for food.
When it was cold, he refused to go outside to have a bowel movement but instead did business in the living room, where he dug a hole and buried the excrement. However, some asked, surely that required motivation and some work ethic. After all, wouldn't the laziest man in the world just wear diapers or simply relieve himself in his pants?
To keep warm, he burned whatever was available, supposedly even his bed. Another example that showed Yang could work when he had to, so perhaps it's more complicated than simply labeling him lazy.
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