Humans of New York Goes Viral in China

Don’t be so quick to judge a book by its cover, indeed one New York City photographer has shown us how one book, and one very popular blog, can become the face of thousands of people.

In 2010 Brandon Stanton, the creator of Humans of New York, or HONY as the online world knows it, was stuck in New York City without a job, almost penniless, and quickly running out of options. But he did have one special item at hand, a camera. Fast-forward to 2014, more than 6,000 photographs plus a New York Times best-selling book later, Brandon has shown that the people we pass on the streets, the people we call "everyday" folk, all hold a precious insight into life on this planet.

HONY has become a modern-day acronym symbolising the physical, mental, and emotional depth humanity possesses, and now it seems this manifesto has spilled over into mainstream Chinese media. A recently created Weibo account shows a staggering 90,000-plus followers are already engaging with his images and dialogues, with more followers appearing daily. Brandon has said he is "pleasantly surprised" by the newfound interest, and hopes to use this experimental, bi-lingual platform as a model for other languages. He has said from now on all text translations will be available in Chinese to accomodate his new fan group.

The core principle of HONY is to show that we all walk these streets together, and watching a popular humanity-focussed blog cross the difficulty of a language barrier is inspiring, one wishes we could capture this achievement on camera.

Daily Mail interview with founder Brandon Stanton here.

Photos: Humans of New York