Moonwalking in Beijing

Zhang Guanhui participates in a dance competition portraying Michael Jackson. [Photo/China Daily]

In order to learn Jackson's iconic dance moves, he purchased every CD he could find and practiced up to four hours after work every day. Within six months, he had mastered primary skills like the moonwalk and popping.

Zhang learned to do his own makeup and tried to dress like Jackson to offer audiences a physical sense of the late pop star. Such costumes weren't easy to find, however, and even tailors shrugged at his quest for the right jackets, shoes and sunglasses. "It was like hunting for treasure," he says with a smile.

Now, as the instantly recognizable beat of Billie Jean blares into the night, he has the complete package: clothes, skillful dancing and heavy makeup.

He attracted more than 120 people on his first night in 2010, and today he can count on a mixed audience that ranges from well-earning foreigners to migrant laborers who live in basements nearby. They do not understand one another's languages but they move their bodies together, tracking the rhythm of Zhang's dance.

Neighboring vendors also watch. One drops a 10-yuan note into the dancer's money box. "The boy's dancing is energetic," says another vendor, packing his cart. "He is a person with a dream."

Not everybody has applauded him, though. When he first began performing, Zhang once found a note in the box that read: "Do not insult MJ anymore." He has also been chased by chengguan, or urban management officials, who wanted to confiscate his cart.

Most of Zhang's performance invitations come from birthday or wedding parties of friends. That means donning his makeup in spaces ranging from public restrooms to table-tennis rooms and hotel corners with a mirror on the wall.

On one such occasion, he remembers the astonishment of a young cleaning woman. "She stared at me for two full minutes without blinking," he says.

He is not so fond of makeup, because cheap chemicals hurt his skin. "Sometimes I get allergies. But don't worry, I am already used to that. When more people accept my performance I'll try some better brands."