Glamorous grannies return to Beijing street ‘catwalk’ to celebrate easing of coronavirus rules by taking off face masks

A video of the four stylish women walking through one of Beijing’s busiest shopping districts became an internet sensation in China last year

The quartet, who met during a modelling training course after retiring 20 years ago, were back in their qipaos and strutting their stuff last week

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Four famous amateur model grandmothers took off their masks and walked down a street in Beijing to celebrate life returning to normal as the Covid-19 pandemic eases. Photo: Reuters

Published: 8:15am, 16 Aug 2020Updated: 5:53pm, 21 Aug 2020

Four famous amateur model grandmothers took off their masks during a saunter down the streets of Beijing to demonstrate life returning to normal as the Covid-19 pandemic eases.

Glamma Beijing, as the four – who met during a modelling training course after retiring 20 years ago – are known, became an internet sensation in China last year.

A 15-second video of them walking in Sanlitun, one of Beijing’s busiest shopping districts, wearing traditional qipao dresses and oversized dangling fringe earrings, was viewed more than 50 million times in a day, according to local media.

Since then, Lin Wei, Wang Xinghuo, Sun Yang and Wang Nianwen, all aged over 60, have enjoyed dressing up and performing in videos on short-video platform Douyin (the Chinese version of TikTok) for likes.

Members of Glamma Beijing (from left), Lin Wei, 65, Sun Yang, 64, Wang Xinghuo, 70 and Wang Nianwen, 74, wearing traditional Chinese dresses, prepare to walk across a street during a video shoot in Beijing. Photo: Reuters

“Your life is grey if you are always afraid of ageing and death,” says Lin Wei, 64, explaining her philosophy on growing older and enthusiasm for donning stylish clothes and make-up.

“You are old, you have wrinkles, you don’t have too much energy, or your figure becomes baggy. But this is something you can’t go against, so you need to face it with positivity.”