Chinese senior rocks short-video platform, explores more in internet world

In China, as internet keeps connecting more people, it continues to surprise us by making phenomenon changes to the society.

For example, Farm products from remote areas receive warm welcome as they are sold online, Families in small towns enjoy same standard shopping experience through ‘E-commerce for rural areas’.

Kids receive high-quality education during the pandemic control period through ‘Classroom in the Air’ and traditional culture becomes new fashion as they promote themselves through social media.

What will internet achieve when interacting with the seniors?

Yang Su is a professional micro vlogger in his sixties. He has over 2.3 million followers on Douyin, also known as Tik Tok overseas, and his videos have been watched by over 100 million times. One of the clips of himself playing piano he shared on the platform received over 10,000 likes within just one minute.

“Two years ago, my son uploaded a clip of me playing piano for fun and merely several hours later, it was played by over a million times,” Yang said.

Yang studied in the Shanghai Conservatory of Music and was a pianist of the Shenzhen Symphony Orchestra after graduation. According to him, he had an audience of around a thousand back then when he was performing on the stage each time. However, the internet has opened a door to a whole new world for him. In two years, he filmed over 600 short video clips.

Before the filming, Yang set up a phone holder and adjust it to a proper angle with proper lighting. It won’t even be easy for the youngsters, but Yang is quite adept at it.

However, such adeptness didn’t come easy. “The lighting, angle and composition were always not right at the beginning, my child helped me a lot later,” Yang said.

Making short videos has really introduced Yang to a new world on the internet. He established an official account on social platform WeChat to share his articles, and even started to offer piano courses online.

“Internet has opened the door to a new world,” he said, adding that he has busied himself with various activities and never finds his senior life boring.

Yang, in his sixties, never considers himself an old man. He believes the senior years only come when a person, no matter at what ages, fails to master modern technologies and tools and distances from the society.

Yang said that he hopes to bring piano, something normlly considered classy, closer to the public through the internet.