‘Hello Granny!’ Elderly video stars shake up social media in China
- Senior citizens are breaking stereotypes and winning millions of likes on Chinese internet platforms
- Their humour and energy is delighting the online generation which has largely dismissed older people as dull until now
In the first half of last year, Tan Zhouhai was a frustrated villager in the central Chinese province of Hunan, shooting short videos of his rural life and uploading them to the internet to attract potential customers for local agricultural products.
Tan was used to his videos receiving dozens, sometimes a few hundred, likes from his audience on Chinese social media. That changed when he uploaded a video of his 83-year-old grandfather dancing along to a popular song called Little Apple gained 10,000 likes.
Inspired by this unexpected success, Tan asked his grandfather to perform regularly for his account, called Countryside Plump Dahai, in videos featuring the 30-year-old cooking for the elderly man, who has lost all his teeth, wearing a pair of round sunglasses for added comic effect. The account now has 1.6 million fans and has accumulated at least 3 million likes.
“Before my grandfather joined me, my account was just an ordinary one about food and was unnoticed on the internet,” Tan told the South China Morning Post. “With my grandfather in my videos, my account expresses filial piety, family love and companionship. Many of my fans have said they were touched. They said they liked my grandfather and think he is so cute.”
Tan’s grandfather is just one of a number of elderly people, including some octogenarians, who have taken Chinese social media by storm by breaking the public stereotype of the typical senior citizen.