English opens a wider world

As you walk through the narrow lanes of Yantan Small Commodities Wholesale Market in Lanzhou, Gansu province, you pass stacks of plastic basins, stainless steel buckets and cooking pots. The air is heavy with the smell of rubber and dust.

Inside one of the market's small shops, Wang Cheng, wearing a plaid shirt with faded cuffs, is busy rearranging the merchandise. Then he picks up a stockpot, turns toward his phone and begins speaking in fluent English with a striking American accent.

"Welcome to my shop," he said. "This is a stainless steel stockpot. It's durable and resistant to rust."

Wang is not speaking to a foreign customer. He is filming a product video for Douyin, the Chinese version of TikTok. The unexpected contrast between his fluent English and the ordinary kitchenware shop has attracted widespread attention online.

His command of English is the result of an unusual learning journey.

Born in 1993, Wang grew up in Shaanxi province. He left school before completing junior high school, trained as a cook and later moved to Lanzhou to help his parents run their kitchenware business. He has now worked in the shop for six years.

Wang's interest in English began with Michael Jackson.

When he was in middle school, Wang came across the singer's Earth Song and its music video.

"The lyrics and the rhythm blew me away," he recalled. "I couldn't get it out of my mind. From then on, I wanted to learn more about Michael."

Years later, that fascination developed into a serious commitment to self-study. Wang has never had a formal English teacher. Instead, he taught himself by reading books and watching films and interviews.

He also developed what he calls the "echo method": listening to a sentence and repeating it again and again, trying to reproduce not only the words but also the speaker's rhythm, stress and intonation.

"I don't know anyone else in this market who speaks English," Wang said. "I suppose I'm the only one."