A former CCTV star was spotted eating plain rice porridge on the street, unrecognized by anyone. Aqiu, a former CCTV host who
has won the Golden Microphone Award and appeared on the Spring Festival Gala, was recently photographed by a passerby sitting alone at a street stall in Shantou, lost in thought over a bowl of thin porridge.Nearly half of his hair had turned white, and he had put on quite a bit of weight compared to before. With no entourage in sight and no passersby recognizing him, he looked no different from any ordinary middle-aged or elderly man commonly seen on the street.
A Qiu did not receive formal training early in his career; he started out as an ordinary political affairs officer at a cotton spinning mill. While working part-time as a voice actor at a local radio station, he was discovered thanks to his down-to-earth and relatable speaking style. He worked his way up through various local satellite TV stations,eventually making his way into the hosting industry at CCTV. With his down-to-earth, no-nonsense hosting style that resonates with ordinary viewers, he has built a massive following among the general public and has become a familiar face to audiences across the country.
The incident occurred during a critical phase of the 2020 pandemic response. A Qiu publicly made controversial remarks, sparking widespread online discussion. The Chinese Academy of History publicly refuted his statements, and CCTV removed him from its list of hosts that very day, erasing the public goodwill he had built up over several decades.
In fact, even before this incident, some of A Qiu’s remarks had sparked controversy; however, most people did not expect him to cross the line. After being removed from CCTV, he attempted to secure new hosting projects, manage short-video accounts, and test the waters of live-streamed e-commerce, among other ventures. Despite these repeated efforts, he has never managed to return to the mainstream public eye.
It wasn’t
until these photos taken by a passerby went viral online that many of his former fans realized the once-famous host, who used to speak eloquently in the studio, had indeed never returned to the spotlight.
The attention that public figures receive is, at its core, a trust bestowed by the public—it is never private property to be disposed of at will. When people are riding high, they are often showered with praise from all sides and can easily forget the foundations that brought them this far; it is only when they fall that they realize everything they once had was never a given.
