Wei Sihao was an ordinary man with an extraordinary desire for knowledge. The garbage collector Hanzghou, east China's Zhejiang Province, was such a great inspiration that a brozen will be erected in his memory inside the city's library.
Wei, who passed away in a car accident in 2015 at the age of 77, came to online fame thanks to his commitment to reading at the public library, where he spent his weekends.
Pictures of him washing his hands before touching books and newspapers made rounds online and his pursuit of culture despite life's hardships touched the Chinese blogosphere.
The man who roamed the streets looking for rubbish was also a philanthropist, donating his monthly pension of around 5,000 yuan (722 US dollars) and the money he received from waste collection to financially-struggling students.
A bronze bust will now be unveiled inside the library to commemorate the frequent patron. The half-length figure will stand at 1.6 meters high and include a bamboo stick and plastic bottles Wei used to carry with him.
Wei passed away after being hit by a cab in 2015, and was later found to have been a retired high school teacher.
He reportedly graduated from Zhejiang University where he majored in Chinese.
Netizens were quick to reiterate their positive opinions about Wei, and praised those who help finance the bust.
"I hope the statue will motivate more people to enrich the spiritual wealth deep inside," said user @hmyrwjg55 on China's Twitter-like Weibo.
"Ordinary people with extraordinary minds will never pass away but always exist and inspire many more," commented another user @zhiyuanzhexingkong.
