BuzzFeed Editor Meets Brother Orange, the Chinese Man Who Received His Stolen iPhone

Updated, 1:44 a.m. ET| He lost a phone, but gained a friend in China. The BuzzFeed editor Matt Stopera, who chronicled the theft of his iPhone in a New York bar and the bizarre series of images that began appearing in his photo stream, has finally met the Chinese man who received his stolen device.

Mr. Stopera landed in the southern Chinese province of Guangdong on Tuesday evening and was greeted at the airport by “Brother Orange,” as Li Hongjun became known to millions for the selfies in front of a kumquat bush that helped Mr. Stopera trace his phone. Mr. Li was standing with bouquet in hand amid a sea of reporters.

Later that night, Mr. Stopera and Mr. Li went off for a bowl of local noodles, images of which Mr. Li had posted on Sina Weibo earlier as one of the treats that awaited his American guest.

After a night of rest, the men proceeded to Mr. Li’s village in Meizhou, Mr. Li said in a telephone interview on Wednesday.

Mr. Li said that he was taking several days off from work to show Mr. Stopera around tourist sites and introduce him to local culture. He owns a restaurant called Jade Tea Farm, and culinary delicacies have been a big theme of his communications with Mr. Stopera.

“I’m very happy and very excited,” Mr. Li said. “I plan to take him to some scenic areas.”

In the days leading up to Mr. Stopera’s arrival, Brother Orange disclosed that he had been trying to learn English and posted video clips of himself studying. Mr. Stopera, responding to Weibo users who had asked him to teach them English, had begun this month to post English lesson videos online, some of which feature him saying “bread” and “honey” in an American grocery store and “cactus” while standing on a rooftop. He has said he has been studying Mandarin.

The two men’s planned encounter attracted extraordinary attention.

Mr. Stopera, who acquired his own Sina Weibo account and attracted more than 160,000 followers in just under a month, wrote on Twitter on Wednesday morning: “Basically, now I know what it feels like to be Kim K at LAX with Kanye and Northwest.” He also wrote that he’s been riding around in “a fleet of cars with Bro Orange’s face on it.”

For Mr. Li, it led to many interviews with Chinese news outlets and, last week, a guest appearance on a television cooking show, where he promoted Hakka dishes.

The link between the two strangers from opposite sides of the world was the iPhone that Mr. Stopera lost in an East Village bar in February 2014. In January, unexpected images began appearing in his photo stream, and Mr. Stopera posted queries about the identity of the man shown standing in front of a kumquat bush. After Mr. Stopera’s story was translated into Chinese, readers helped track down the man who was dubbed Brother Orange. Mr. Li’s nephew, who is accompanying Mr. Li this week, has said his uncle received the phone as a gift from a distant relative.

Although the two men have not publicly mentioned the iPhone since Mr. Stopera’s arrival — Mr. Stopera had indicated before his trip that he had come to terms with the loss of his phone — Mr. Li expressed concern in recent days as to whether Mr. Stopera would have a mobile device he could use in China, and he offered to set up a temporary one for him.

“Yesterday I was adding minutes, and I suddenly thought of a problem,” Mr. Li wrote on Weibo this week. “Can Matt’s cellphone be used in China? Do I need to prepare a local cellphone for him to use?”

Austin Ramzy contributed reporting.