At that time, Tan Zhouhai was used to being liked by dozens and sometimes hundreds of viewers on social media in China. When he uploaded a video of an 83-year-old grandfather dancing to the pop song "Little Apple" and got 10,000 likes, the situation changed.
Encouraged by this unexpected success, he asked his grandfather Tan to perform the program "Boat-fruited Sterculia in the Countryside" for him regularly. In the video, this young man in his thirties cooks for an old man who has no teeth. He wears a pair of round sunglasses to add comedy effect. This account now has 1.6 million fans and accumulated more than 2 million likes. Tan said: "Before my grandfather joined, my account was just an ordinary food account that was unknown on the Internet. After grandpa appeared, my video showed filial piety, affection and companionship. Many of my fans said they were very moved. They said they liked my grandfather and thought he was cute. "
China's two largest short video applications, Tik Tok and Kuai, have more than 400 million active users. Yu Siyao, an analyst at Toubao Research Institute, said that more than 70% of users are under the age of 35, and about one third of them are between the ages of 24 and 30. "Videos with young people's parents or grandparents often get a lot of praise and comments. This kind of online celebrity brings freshness and surprise to the audience because of the contrast-they are old, but their mentality is not old at all. " She also said that there is a deep-rooted impression that the elderly are slow to move, wandering in hospital beds, living a boring life and being left behind by fashion and new technologies.
There is a 99-year-old internet celebrity in Chengdu, Sichuan Province, southwest of China. She has 6.6 million fans. In the video, she eats all kinds of food, from hot pot and candy to hamburgers, accompanied by wine. She will also choose exotic foods, including cola and durian.
There is also 79-year-old "Grandma Wang who only wears high heels"-80-year-old "Yao Yang's grandfather" who is famous for her good figure and elegant and fashionable dress, sharing interesting things in daily life in Northeast dialect. They have160,000 fans and nearly130,000 fans respectively.
In the southern city of Guangzhou, Jiang Minci, an 89-year-old retired railway engineer, quickly became popular in the past four months after posting a short video on major social media websites. These videos tell about her early life and show the local food she cooked. The barrage often says "Hello Grandma!" Greeting sound.
"I am very happy to interact with young people. I feel their vitality and feel younger than before, as if I have more grandchildren. " She said that she became interested in short videos only when she saw 16-year-old grandson watching them laugh online. She decided to share her life experience with young people. With the help of her grandson, she spent about 3 hours preparing each video. However, Jiang Minci, who communicates with friends through WeChat and pays for shopping through online applications, said that she is learning video editing skills and hopes that she will not need her grandson's help soon.
Chen Duan, an expert on digital economy at the Central University of Finance and Economics, said that technological development has made it easier for the elderly to use digital tools and made more elderly people become fans and bloggers of short videos. "Not every old man can become popular on the Internet. It depends on their media awareness, feelings in front of the camera and performance skills. "