'Brother Sharp' (L), dubbed the "most handsome" vagabond for his astute sense of style, is reunited with his mother and brother.

 

A mentally unstable homeless man who turned into an Internet sensation overnight after his photographs were posted online has returned to his family.

Known as "Brother Sharp" because of his good looks and fashionable dress sense, the homeless man was still reeling from his unwanted fame and afraid of his "new environment", his younger brother , Cheng Guosheng, said.

Cheng Guorong, 34, from Poyang county of Jiangxi province, left home for work 11 years ago. His father and wife died in a car accident a year ago, and he has two sons, aged 10 and 11.

Cheng Guorong's brother and mother received him at home last weekend.

According to his relatives, Cheng Guorong headed for Zhejiang's Ningbo city in 2000 and lost contact with his family three years later.

Relatives said Cheng Guorong is a proud man and his mental illness may be linked with the pressures he faced in life.

Local residents and authorities showed their support for Cheng's homecoming by sending his family food and other supplies.

"We will help them apply for subsistence allowances," said Yu Sheng, the head of a local government.

Similarly, an entrepreneur of a local logistics company offered to help the family with 2,000 yuan.

But many others have also highlighted the pressures that Cheng Guorong faced from crazed netizens and admirers who hunted him down after his photos were discovered online.

"I don't think it's money that he needs," the Xinwenhua newspaper quoted Ge Jianxiong, a member of the Standing Committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference (CPPCC), the country's top political advisory body, as saying.

Cheng Guorong lived unknown on the streets of Ningbo about half a month ago. He then suddenly became famous after an amateur photographer testing his camera lenses posted a set of photos taken of the homeless man online.