An 83-year-old fashion blogger known as Grandpa Kang in Wuhan, Hubei province, inspires millions of people online. [Photo provided to chinadaily]
In the first half of last year, Tan Zhouhai was a villager in the central Chinese province of Hunan, shooting short videos of his rural life and uploading them to the inter to attract potential customers for local agricultural products.
去年上半年，譚周海還是華中地區湖南省壹名普通村民。他將自己的農村生活拍成短視頻傳到網上，為當地農產品吸引潛在客戶。
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.
當時，譚周海習慣了自己的視頻在中國社交媒體上獲得觀眾的數十個、有時是數百個贊。當他把他83歲的爺爺隨著流行歌曲《小蘋果》跳舞的視頻傳到社交媒體並得到壹萬個贊後，情況變了。
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 ic effect. The account now has 1.6 million fans and has accumulated at least 3 million likes.
受此意外成功啟發，譚周海請他爺爺定期為其賬號“農村胖大海”表演節目。視頻中，這個30歲的年輕人為牙齒全掉光的爺爺做飯。爺爺戴著壹副圓形太陽鏡，以增加喜劇效果。這個賬號現在有160萬粉絲，累計點贊數達至少300萬個。
譚周海爺爺的日常：
“Before my grandfather joined me, my account was just an ordinary one about food and was unnoticed on the inter,” Tan told the South China Morning Post. “With my grandfather in my videos, my account expresses filial piety, family love and panionship. Many of my fans have said they were touched. They said they liked my grandfather and think he is so cute.”
譚周海對《南華早報》記者說：“在我爺爺加入之前，我的賬號只是壹個在網上默默無聞的普通美食賬號。爺爺出現後，我的視頻表現出孝心、親情和陪伴。我的許多粉絲都說他們很感動。他們說喜歡我爺爺，覺得他很可愛。”
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.
包括壹些八旬老人在內的眾多老人打破了公眾對老年人的刻板印象，征服了中國社交媒體。譚周海的爺爺只是其中之壹。
octogenarian [?kt?dne?ri?n]：n.八十歲到八十九歲的人
The country’s top two short video apps Douyin and Kuaishou each have more than 400 million monthly active users. More than 70 percent are younger than 35 and, among those, around a third are aged between 24-30, according to Yu Siyao, an *** yst from LeadLeo Research Institute.
中國最大的兩個短視頻應用程序抖音和快手都有4億多月活躍用戶。頭豹研究院分析師於思瑤(音)說，超過70%用戶年齡在35歲以下，其中約三分之壹在24歲至30歲之間。
“Videos with characters of young people’s parents or grandparents’ generation tend to receive multiple likes and ments,” Yu said.
於思瑤說：“有年輕人的父輩或祖輩出鏡的視頻往往會獲得很多贊和評論。”
“This group of online celebrities gives the audiences freshness and surprise because of the contrast – they are old aged, but their mentality is not old at all,” she said, adding that there is a deep-rooted impression that elderly people are slow, bedridden by illness, lead boring lives and have been left behind by fashion and new technology.
她說：“這壹類網紅給觀眾帶來新鮮感和驚喜是因為其中的反差。他們年齡大了，但心態壹點也不老。”她還說，人們有壹種根深蒂固的印象，認為老年人行動遲緩、纏綿病榻，過著無聊生活，被時尚和新技術甩在身後。
bedridden [?bedr?dn]：adj.臥床不起的
One well-known online celebrity is a 98-year-old resident of Chengdu in the southwestern province of Sichuan. Nicknamed Food Aficionado Granny, she has 6.6 million fans of her videos in which she eats all kinds of dishes, from hotpot to sweet treats and hamburgers, acpanied with bottles of alcohol. Her exotic choices have included cola and durian.
中國西南部四川省成都市有壹位98歲的網紅，綽號“吃貨奶奶”的她有660萬粉絲。在視頻中，她吃各種食物，火鍋、甜食到漢堡，還佐以美酒。她還會選擇具有異國情調的食物，包括可樂和榴蓮。
aficionado [?fnɑ?d?]：n.迷;狂熱愛好者
壹起來看看無辣不歡愛火鍋的“吃貨奶奶”：
Other online favourites include a 79-year-old woman known as Granny Wang Who Only Wears High-heeled Shoes – renowned for her good figure and elegant and stylish clothes – and Yaoyang’s Grandfather, an 80-year-old man who shares humorous stories of his everyday life in the dialect of northeastern China. They have 16 million and 13 million subscribers, respectively.
網絡紅人還有79歲的“只穿高跟鞋的汪奶奶”，她以身材好、穿著優雅時髦著稱，以及80歲、用東北方言分享日常生活趣事的“耀楊他姥爺”。他們分別有1600萬和1300萬粉絲。
An 83-year-old fashion blogger known as Grandpa Kang in Wuhan, Hubei province, inspires millions of people online. [Photo provided to chinadaily]
Jiang Minci, an 89-year-old retired railway engineer in the southern city of Guangzhou, shot to fame in the past four months after releasing short videos on leading social media website bilibili. The videos, which chronicle her early days and show her cooking local cuisine, are regularly flooded by greetings of “Hello Granny!” from her audience.
在知名社交媒體網站嗶哩嗶哩上發布短視頻後，廣州89歲的退休鐵路工程師江敏慈在過去4個月中迅速走紅。這些視頻講述她的早年生活，展示她烹飪的當地美食，彈幕上常常是鋪天蓋地的“妳好，奶奶!”的問候聲。
來看看闖B站的89歲奶奶：
“I am happy to interact with young people. I feel their vitality and I feel I am younger than before. It seems to me that I have many more grandchildren,” Jiang told the Post.
江敏慈對《南華早報》說：“我很高興與年輕人互動。我感受到他們的活力，感到自己比以前年輕了。我好像有了更多孫子孫女。”
Jiang said she became interested in short videos after seeing her 16-year grandson watching them on the inter and laughing a lot. She decided to share her own life experience with the younger generation.
她說，在看到16歲的孫子在網上觀看短視頻並哈哈大笑後，她對短視頻產生了興趣。她決定與年輕人分享自己的人生經歷。
With her grandson’s help, each video takes about three hours to prepare but Jiang – who municates with friends on WeChat and pays for her shopping via online apps – said she was learning video editing skills and hoped she would soon no longer need his assistance.
在孫子幫助下，她花大約3個小時時間準備每段視頻。但是，通過微信與朋友交流、通過網絡應用程序支付購物費用的江敏慈說，她正在學習視頻編輯技巧，希望很快不再需要孫子幫助。
Chen Duan, a data economy expert from Central University of Finance and Economics in Beijing, said developments in technology had made it easier for elderly people to use digital tools, leading to more of them being fans and bloggers of short videos.
中央財經大學數字經濟專家陳端說，技術發展使老年人使用數字工具容易了壹些，使更多老年人成了短視頻的粉絲和博主。
“Not every old person can be popular on the inter. It depends on their media sense, their feel in front of the camera and their acting skills,” Chen said.
她說：“不是每個老人都能在網上走紅。這取決於他們的媒體意識、鏡頭感和表演技巧。”
來源：南華早報、參考消息網