While many senior citizens are troubled by the fast-growing digital lifestyle, Jiang Minci, 89, has become an Internet celebrity. Even though she is the oldest uploader of Bilibili, a Chinese online video sharing platform, as of August 3 Jiang's account under the monicker "Minci Bulao," which means "forever young," had 297,000 followers, and the most-watched video had received more than 4.56 million views.

Jiang was first introduced to Bilibili by her grandson Doudou, a senior high school student and also a salted uploader of the website. Jiang became curious about the site in April when she happened to see Doudou recording a video he planned to upload. She was greatly attracted by its rich content and asked Doudou to help her create an account. From then on, the door to a new world opened for her.

Jiang posted her first video on Bilibili on April 30. "Hi everyone, young people now choose to be uploaders here and I want to have a try too. How do you like it?" she said, extending greetings to viewers in the video, "but I am no longer young. Can I compete with you? I will keep up with you as much as I can."

The users of the website gave Jiang a warm welcome by leaving encouraging bullet screen comments, and she soon became popular on the platform.

"I always pay close attention to the cyber world," she noted, adding that it can help the elderly people keep up with the times and improve the quality of their lives.

Jiang's videos are all about her life stories, introducing the social environment of the last century to today's young people. She provides a vivid and special "history lecture" to her viewers and has drawn more attention.

She started with the idea of writing an autobiography, accompanied by old photos, to make a memo of her life experiences. But the idea was put aside due to the high requirements of publishing. After becoming an uploader, she found that telling stories directly through video is the best way for her to satisfy both her desire and followers' interests.

In one video, Jiang recounts her story of pursuing her studies, which was flooded with positive responses. "I don't agree that women should be housewives after they get married. Women should have their own career and life; that's also what I want to convey to my female followers," she said.

Before each video, Jiang will communicate with her grandson about the selected topic and the details of her oral account. She also needs him to help with shooting and editing videos. Previously, Jiang had studied simple video editing at the University for the Elderly. "I hope one day I can produce the whole video by myself, just like young people."

After Jiang's account became a favorite on the Internet, many companies tried to cooperate with her to reap a profit, but she refused. Jiang and her grandson take it as an enjoyment and they don't want to turn it into a money-making tool.

Jiang said that she will continue to make more videos. "It's delighted to do something for the younger generation in my old age. And it is interesting to communicate with netizens and learn from each other," she added.

(Source: CNR-1/Translated and edited by Women of China)