Team of 60-something models called "Glam-mas" pose for a group photo in Beijing. (Xinhua/Wang Xuetao)
Lin Wei never dreamed about becoming a "celebrity" at the age of 64, nor did she expect that what made her famous was a 15-second video of her street catwalk.
A retired nurse in Beijing, Lin started modeling part-time at 45. She has considered herself just one of the many modeling enthusiasts until a video went viral showing her and three other senior models, with an average age of 67, staging a catwalk on a Beijing street in traditional batik dresses.
Posted in June, the video has received 55 million views and 2.7 million likes on TikTok, a short-video sharing app known as Douyin in China.
"The 15-second video has won us more fans than our entire modeling career. It's so powerful," said Lin, adding that they had been recognized several times in the street by their fans.
Their team, which now goes under the name "Glam-mas" (glamorous grandmas) has gathered over 37,000 followers and replying to fans' comments and questions has become a daily routine for Lin.
While short-video platforms such as TikTok and Kuaishou have long been considered a bastion of China's youth sub-culture, Lin represents a growing legion of seniors who are entering this fashion territory with great zest.
There are 320 million daily active users on TikTok, among whom 40 million are estimated to be above 50 years old, said an employee from the company who preferred not to be identified.
Their videos, from mocking youngsters' rap to imparting cooking knacks accrued from decades of practices, have raised eyebrows and won applause from users of both their own age group and their grandchildren's generation.
China has a vast online population, coming in at 829 million at the end of last year, of whom 12.5 percent are above 50 years old, up 2 percentage points from the previous year, according to a report on China's Internet development released in February.
The increasing online presence of the gray-haired took place as China's population quickly ages. By the end of 2018, China had about 249 million people aged 60 and above, accounting for 17.9 percent of the total population, and the number is expected to exceed 300 million in 2025.
"We cannot ignore the fact that the seniors are now an active part of the cyberspace as China ages," said Gao Jie, vice president of the University for the Aged of Jilin Province.
Many pensioners go online to enrich their retirement life as "Chinese elders today boast better education and they accept and learn new things faster," Gao said.
Short-video platforms, in particular, offer a stage for the elderly to display themselves, to get closer to the young and promote mutual understanding, said the expert, who also warned of online addiction among the elderly.
This TikTok fever is even reaching elders living in rural, mountainous parts of China, thanks to the country's fast-growing telecom infrastructure and the popularization of smartphones. Yu Yanxia, a 58-year-old villager in northeast China's Jilin Province, is one of them.
Living in the mountains the whole life, Yu got her first smartphone three months ago, but her account of "Glorious Sunset" has gained almost 5,000 followers in one month's time.
"We have many interesting things in the village too, such as the 'kang,' a heatable brick bed in north China, paper cutting and so on. So I want to have a try and show them online," said Yu, who also called on other seniors in the village to perform for her videos.
Yu and her peers have no idea what being an Internet celebrity means but believe they are catching up with the times through their creative short videos.
"It really makes my day when I see compliments from my followers. I feel full of vitality in front of the camera," said Yu.
