How a ham and tomato sandwich turned British pensioner into phenomenon

Keith Brown never thought a ham and tomato sandwich would become his bread and butter.

But the simple act of preparing his daily snack turned the retired British engineer into the world’s most unlikely internet phenomenon.

Although it may not be considered the most appetising of foods by other countries, its popularity rocketed in China thanks to the work of a British pensioner known as 'Old Dry Keith', who has sadly passed away. 

Mr Brown, a retired petroleum engineer, found fame two years ago after his wife uploaded a video online of his attempt at building the British classic snack of a ham and tomato sandwich. 

While a plain sandwich might seem like the last thing to make someone famous, 'Old Dry Keith' became a hit with millions of Chinese fans - who sympathised with his plight at having to prepare the snack with sub-par ingredients. 

As a result, users on Douyin, China's version of TikTok, were inconsolable after Keith's wife, 'Jane' Zhang Jian, announced that he had passed away after being diagnosed with bone cancer this summer. 

She began posting the videos when the couple, who met in Malaysia in 2007, moved back to Britain following Brown's retirement. 

Zhang, 49, who was originally from north-east China, was new to Britain and garnered an audience who identified with her struggle to adapt to life in the UK. 

Due to its vast size, there are strong regional differences across China, particularly in relation to the availability of western food produce. 

While internationally-renowned sandwich shops such as Subway are commonly found in Beijing and Shanghai, western food can be hard to come by in other regions of the country.

However, after Keith's videos began to take off, some supermarkets in middle-class urban areas began selling 'Old Drys'.

Chinese writer Zhou Zhiruo, who analysed the issue with accompanying pictures of Paddington Bear, Harry Potter characters and Dame Maggie Smith all eating sandwiches, observed: 'Aren't we all like Old Dry Keith?'

After Brown was unable to find avocados to go with his smoked salmon, Zhou wrote: 'We watch him struggling to saw apart two slices of dry bread, as hard as weapons-grade steel, slicing off a few thin streaks of yellow from a block of hardened butter that has not yet completely thawed, and then placing two slices of pre-smoked salmon on top.

'This vision is enough to make ordinary people think of the lunch they just hurriedly swallowed, and feel empathy and sadness. 

'He is just like all those of us who have to pay our credit card bill but our salary hasn't arrived, or have to go to a meeting but find that their mobile phone battery is at 10 per cent. He bravely faces all of life's blows.'

Keith had two adult children from his first marriage, and a teenage son with Zhang. 

Following her husband's death, Zhang told The Times that she would stay in the UK for the time being, while her son was still at school, before deciding on whether thy will make a return to China.

'I was quite surprised by how popular Keith became in China,' she said.

'It's not that I didn't expect people to like him, but I wasn't prepared for how it would turn out.'