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Yang Xiuyu never believed the story of the Canadian blogger who bartered his way from a paper clip to a house. But as soon as he heard the tale, he began dreaming of quick profits.

Mr. Yang, one of China's growing legion of Internet marketing promoters, took the Canadian story and turned it into a pile of money – and made himself a much-hated figure in China along the way.

The result was a classic saga of the new Chinese media. The promoter discovered how an earnest Canadian idea could be transformed into a Chinese business phenomenon, even if it meant discarding the truth and sparking controversy over his ethics. It demonstrated the power of show business and the celebrity machinery in a country where both are growing at a frantic pace.

The story began in 2005 when Kyle MacDonald, a Canadian blogger who was 25 at the time, decided to see whether he could use bartering techniques to trade up from an ordinary paper clip to an entire house. A year later, after a series of bartering deals, he found himself with a $50,000 house in the town of Kipling, Sask.

It made headlines around the world. And when the story hit the Chinese media, Mr. Yang decided to try his own version.

To this day, he insists that Mr. MacDonald's story must have been a fake. Maybe that's why he was willing to fake his own version.

At a party, Mr. Yang met an attractive young Chinese woman who aspired to become a pop star. Her real name was Wang Xiaoguang, but the promoter gave her a catchier name: Ai Qingqing. She was perfect for his plan.

Keeping his role secret, Mr. Yang helped the 23-year-old singer set up a blog. She announced her plan to seek “a miracle” in the emerging barter industry. She had no money, but she wanted to turn a paper clip into a house within 100 days.

Ms. Ai soon became a sensation in the Chinese media. She was praised for using “the magic of the Internet” to create wealth from nothing. Hundreds of media outlets gave publicity to her quest. More than 1,000 people offered to swap products with her. More than 7,000 sent her e-mail messages. Millions of people followed her story on the Internet.

After exactly 100 days, it all came to an abrupt end. Ms. Ai signed a contract with a record company and quit the bartering scheme. A few weeks later, Mr. Yang revealed that he had masterminded every move of her Internet career – and the Chinese media erupted into fury and outrage.

He was denounced as a “fraud” and a “shameless liar.” His young starlet, Ms. Ai, was attacked as a “gold digger” and a puppet in a scripted drama. Her former supporters felt betrayed. A Chinese sociologist said it was the dawn of a new culture of cheating and fakery.

But when it was all over, Mr. Yang was happy. He says he earned the equivalent of about $37,000 in profits from the scheme – mostly from advertising fees paid by businesses that gained publicity for their phony “bartering” deals with Ms. Ai.

“Now many businesses and individuals are contacting me every day to ask for my help to make them famous,” Mr. Yang said in an interview. “I'm satisfied with my first attempt at promotion. All the results have been positive.”

Mr. Yang, a 34-year-old former salesman at a software firm, says the Canadian connection was crucial to his “bartering girl” scheme. “People in China still tend to worship foreign things,” he said. “Most people in China believed the Canadian story was true, because they believe foreigners are purer and more honest. For my project, the Canadian story added an element that people could talk about. But compared to this Canadian guy, I have a deeper understanding of how to exploit the Internet. He's not as good a promoter as I am.”

Mr. MacDonald, however, isn't doing too badly. His book about his bartering experience launches this summer, and he's about to embark on an international promotional tour.

Mr. Yang's marketing scheme relied on a canny understanding of Chinese psychology. “In this boom time in China, people lack any strong beliefs, and they admire celebrities,” he said.

“When the story of the bartering girl became hot, many people wanted to participate, and entrepreneurs realized it created a financial opportunity. And I touched the most fragile nerve of China's ordinary people – the dream of a house. Nobody could imagine that a young girl could turn a paper clip into a house.”

He says his scheme exposed the “immaturity” of the Chinese media. “They need news. I just took advantage of their need. And the traditional media are relying more and more on the Internet. There is a chain of news in China: A topic becomes hot on an Internet chat group, then the major websites copy it, and then the print media follow, and then the television channels, and finally it becomes a phenomenon.”

His former protégé, Ms. Ai, is equally happy with how everything turned out. She lost her first recording contract, but then got another deal with a Beijing production company and will soon release her first CD of her songs. “I'm a very lucky girl,” she said in an interview. “I'm realizing my childhood dreams.”

She is reluctant to discuss her shattered partnership with Mr. Yang. “I trusted him too much,” she said. “I never expected such trouble and criticism. But I don't want to explain any more. It's just like I sing in one of my songs: ‘I can't go backward. I have to face the future.'”