This article is reproduced from: Media-Fox
The author | Luo Xiaolan
Edited | Mao Yijun
In Xuchang, Henan, 25-year-old Fan Jinlin manages four nursing homes and has millions of followers by making short videos. His grandmother also lives in it and is the protagonist of the video. In the past two years, young netizens have gradually fanned this old man, thinking that she is interesting and can embrace the world of young people.
She often plays the role of a teacher in the video, waving and calculating mathematical problems such as "16-9" and "2+2", with lengthy and complicated formulas. Sometimes she called the old man who lived with her as "Jimei" and asked to drink milk tea. The contrasting nursing home story becomes a series of fans who take out names with harmonic stems such as "Pomegranate Fried Wine".
Fan Jinlin felt that this could bring happiness and value to the elderly, but Grandma wanted to go home and live here just to help her grandson. Walking into this nursing home, you will see the young dean and the grandmother who adheres to traditional concepts, the entanglement between family affection and reality, which may be a more interesting part under the shell of "Internet celebrity".
Falling in love, bungee jumping, drinking milk tea
On the day of the opening of the Fu Ruiyuan Nursing Home, the yard was crowded with people, I heard that you can get eggs for free, and you lined up at 5 o'clock in the morning, and there were two old people with their children. 8,000 eggs were delivered throughout the day, and a conservative estimate of 600 people visited, but none of them stayed.
This is October 1, 2020, and Dean Fan Jinlin is 23 years old at the time. Now, it looks more like a small township hotel, with a veranda-style building, ventilation and lighting. The room is 20 or 30 square meters, with two single beds, equipped with a single bathroom. The decoration is the minimalist style preferred by young people, with decorative paintings hanging on the walls and light blue furniture. The roommates who share the house are matched by personality, including girlfriends who have known each other for nearly 60 years.
Inside, there are old people talking about twilight love, hiding behind the door to "hug". The old man pulled the "string (erhu)" for the old woman, and the family just sent chicken cake to the old woman. There are also elderly people who take leave to go out and ride tricycles to send diapers to another nursing home. An old man put on makeup every day, "smearing incense", she often went on blind dates, once took a leave of absence to go to Pingdingshan, and lived in the nursing home where the blind date was for several days.
"The promise is coming." The old people called the boss's nickname. Fan Jinlin is more like their grandson, white sweatshirt with black suit, yellow hair is very fluffy, mobile phone case has a small duck cartoon pattern.
Fan Jinlin at work
Image source: Luo Xiaolan photo
"Nursing homes can't be 'opened.'" Fan Jinlin carries the meaning of emphasis, meaning that he opens a nursing home, not to make money in business. His father Fan Hongling opened a nursing home a few years ago, and after he graduated from college in 2019, he took the one or two million funds and political and business resources given by his family and also took this road.
But 12 days before the opening of the hospital, only one elderly person was admitted to the nursing home. After two days, Fan Jinlin learned that a nearby home for the elderly had closed down, and quickly spent more than 100,000 yuan to "buy" these 46 elderly people. He said the old people had not taken a bath for half a year, and the smell was so great that the nurses cleaned it every day until the day before the opening of the hospital.
Speaking of the entrepreneurial story, the young boss only mentioned this "change", and everything else was understated. Less than 3 years after graduating from university, Fan Jinlin is already the manager of 4 nursing homes. In addition to The Garden and the nursing home founded by his father, he also took over two nursing homes that the government packaged and sold.
Previously, Fan Hongling saw that everyone around him was brushing short videos, and the businessman's intuition told him that "this thing is very good" and should participate in it. Fan Jinlin was not very interested in this proposal, and it took several months to start filming, but he did not expect that by August 2020, the fifth video would be on fire.
That night, Fan Hongling had been refreshing the page and saw that the number of likes had risen by tens of thousands, reaching 300,000 at 12:00 a.m. In less than 10 seconds, the video is filmed in a late-night nursing home, a group of gray-haired elderly people are "bungee", an old lady wearing sunglasses is "DJING", the rest of the people are sitting on the sofa shaking a paper fan to beat beats, BGM is dynamic DJ music.
Since then, the 80-year-old has become the protagonist of the video, they sometimes sit around playing mahjong, sometimes call each other to drink milk tea, sometimes go to the elderly class to do math problems, and their mouths are full of Internet popular words such as "princess on the run", "emo", "absolute son" and so on. Some old people feel that they are filming TV dramas, and their children come to visit and boast that "you will actually do this."
After the shooting, some elderly people have also been using props in their lives.
Fan Jinlin's grandmother An Fengying is the absolute female number one. She has been a primary school Chinese teacher all her life, the most imposing, when she starred, she poked the table with her fingers, and when she expressed her dissatisfaction, her eyes were slanted and the corners of her mouth were down. She prides herself on her grandson for not abandoning her old age, teaching her to speak buzzwords, a novelty that seems to take her back to her youth, "I'm satisfied."
The old man has become an Internet celebrity, and some fans think An Fengying is interesting and open the drama chasing mode every day. Fan Jinlin once took her out to eat hot pot, and the clerk quickly recognized her. That time, Grandma only ate egg soup, and the waiter was also pulled in, and grandma took a video of doing math problems.
"Pomegranate decoction" and advanced cancer
An Fengying is 84 years old, wearing dark cotton pants and flat shoes, short silver hair combed back, and no jewelry. Two fashionably dressed boys stood aside, copying mathematical formulas three times on a whiteboard. An Fengying sat on a chair with her back to her back, surrounded by letters, numbers, curves and coordinates.
On the afternoon of March 4 this year, Fan Jinlin's theme for his grandmother was the elderly class, and An Fengying played the math teacher. The formulas are all from the Network, no one can understand it, nor can it be read, An Fengying only needs to add a random stroke at the end.
The scene was very quiet, only Fan Jinlin sat directly opposite the whiteboard, occasionally directing his grandmother to "stand sideways", "I shout 321 and write again", "write too small". After nearly an hour of filming, An Fengying had only one line —at the end of the video, she knocked on the blackboard, held an oily pen in her right hand, swung it downwards, and said in Xuchang dialect: "This math is not difficult at all." Didn't look at the camera, the tone wasn't intense enough—Fan Jinlin always felt no. After repeating it five or six times, Grandma asked softly, "Do you still shoot?"
Fan Jinlin is editing a video.
At the end of the shooting, An Fengying helped the cart back to her cabin. Closing the door, she said she couldn't understand this, "What are you doing shooting this for?" What's the use?" But she didn't want to upset the kids.
The 150-bed Forrey Park Nursing Home currently houses 70 people with an average age of 85 years. The proportion of elderly people who appear on the camera is about 1/10, and the vast majority of them are semi-self-care. Fan Jinlin's selection criteria are mainly two: cheerful personality and old age. He believes that the older he is, the more it is in line with the imagination of the outside world for the elderly.
At the beginning, Fan Jinlin looked for other old people to shoot, and An Fengying saw the hunger in his eyes, saying that he also wanted to shoot, and sometimes he would give advice. Once, An Fengying said that what Sun Tzu photographed was useless, Fan Jinlin did not argue, and completely according to her wishes, he filmed a content that "talks about the great truth of life". Seeing that the playback volume was dismal, Grandma did not say a word.
Fan Jinlin understands her grandmother's temper, saying that her grandmother was educated, and after retirement, she ran a kindergarten in the community for 10 years, which is the best expression among all the elderly, and the shooting setting is also intentional to cater to her domineering personality.
Later, the "Pomegranate Decoction" that was fired depended on An Fengying's accurate interpretation. After finding that the mathematical problem was popular, Fan Jinlin constantly thought about how to develop new problems, and one day the inspiration suddenly appeared, thinking that he had already filmed multiplication and division and addition, and could do subtraction, and suddenly came up in his mind "16-9, 6 is not enough, borrow 1, equal to 16-9".
Unexpectedly, when shooting, Grandma suddenly understood this point, and found that "16-9" can be looped indefinitely. Since then, this has become the main stem of the account.
An old man who often appears in the camera has silver hair, burned into small wavy curls, and speaks in a loud voice, laughing from time to time, and patting his thigh with his hand. In fact, she is terminally ill with cancer, and the doctor said that she can only live for two years at most. Aging has washed away the memories of the elderly, and most of them can't remember what was taken a few months ago, and they are not interested. Most of them are used to using the elderly machine, do not know what vibrato is, and will not take the initiative to watch after filming.
"Let me say whatever I want, and let you say whatever you want." An Fengying said. Facing the camera, the old people felt not nervous, but they didn't know what those online words meant. Asked a great uncle how he understood what he said about "releasing pigeons", he said with great interest, "My family used to raise a lot of pigeons..."
In this way, on the short video account, Fan Jinlin accumulated nearly 2 million fans. From zero to here, it took less than two years. He now has a short video team of 10 people, with an average age of 24, including former fitness consultants, former models, and recent graduates. Fan Jinlin does not value experience, but cares more about the cost of communication, and feels that young people can talk, which will not affect his emotions, and then affect his creation.
Today, 25-year-old Fan Jinlin frequently uses two mobile phones and an iPad. The phone rings from time to time, and on both WeChat pages, there is a long list of red dots of unread messages. At most, fifty or sixty people added his friends a day, with different purposes, wanting to cooperate, acquiring accounts, inviting visits to nursing homes, asking how to make money, and college students who admired him.
Moved into your own nursing home
At first, Grandma An Fengying did not want to come to the nursing home.
She remembers vividly that after dinner on January 21, 2018, she was taken to the nursing home opened by her son without any preparation. The grandson originally said to take her out for a walk, and An Fengying saw that it was a nursing home when she got out of the car and did not speak. She said that at that time, the staff pestered her, led her around, took her up to the second floor and into the bedroom, and almost followed her, asking her where she was from and who she knew. An Fengying listened, knew the meaning of the younger generation, and stayed on the same day.
After the death of his wife, An Fengying fell at home 3 times, once knocked down something, broke his forehead and bled, fortunately someone was at home. Later, she suffered from a slight cerebral infarction, her health deteriorated, and she would not cook. Children feel that the elderly are not cared for at home, and living in a nursing home is more reassuring.
Her son, Fan Hongling, was a former community secretary and later resigned to open a community nursing home. When his grandson Fan Jinlin was a junior in college, he also interned there for half a year. Even so, An Fengying has always been reluctant.
Early in the morning of the second day of admission, she saw old people sleeping on their stomachs on the tables in the hall. She immediately recalled the bustle of being surrounded by her juniors at home, and her heart was uncomfortable, "When I was old, I came here and sat coldly."
After half a year, An Fengying did not go downstairs, nor did she take the initiative to tell her friends where she went, she said that public opinion generally believes that sending children to the nursing home is not a manifestation of filial piety. The old man cried several times, and Fan Jinlin and his mother came to the nursing home every day to see her and comfort her. An Fengying was also distressed about the idle house at home, wanted to go home to live, and felt that she could hire two caregivers.
In order to dissuade her, Fan Jinlin calculated an account for her, and when she looked at it, she felt that it was more cost-effective to live in a nursing home. She also heard the Yu opera singing "I am willing to pay for my son's old life", thinking that her daughter had to take care of her in-laws and in-laws, and her son and daughter-in-law were busy at work, so she stayed.
An Fengying is filming a short video.
Fan Jinlin was brought up by his grandmother, and when he was a child, he ate dinner and watched TV with the old couple every night, and An Fengying remembered that his grandson slept on her bed when he was dozing off, holding her arms and holding hands with her. Fan Jinlin said that his grandmother used to teach him to play various chess pieces, and when he was in college, his grandmother also stuffed 1,000 yuan of pocket money.
Now, Fan Jinlin coaxed his grandmother in the nursing home, "What do you want to eat and tell me, my parents are busy, I will buy it for you." An Fengying listened and was very happy in his heart, but he did not ask for anything. At the New Year this year, Fan Jinlin wrapped a 200 yuan red envelope for his grandmother, saying that he was afraid that other elderly people would have opinions. An Fengying kept it on the bedside table and didn't want to use it. She laughed and said that children have this heart, it doesn't matter how much.
But the old man suddenly cried again, "I want to go home." After living in a nursing home for 4 years, An Fengying only returned home once and stayed for 10 days. When it was time for dinner, her daughter-in-law was at work, no one was cooking for her, and she offered to leave. Fan Jinlin felt that her grandmother was happier in a nursing home, "if we let her go home, we would break off relations with her."
In this nursing home, the frequency of families coming is uncertain, some for a week, some for a month or two. There is an old man's daughter in France, the road is far plus the epidemic, 3 years have not returned, the old man suffered from Alzheimer's disease, do not know her. An Fengying once cried in a nursing home, and her daughter came to visit, and her mood was better again.
Slowly, she repeatedly lamented the goodness of her daughter-in-law, and did not let her cook very early, and when she was hospitalized last year, her daughter-in-law took leave to stay at the bedside for five days and five nights. She sometimes wants to go home, but she can't bear to think that her children have given too much for themselves. Before the video began filming on this day, her daughter-in-law helped her over, skillfully helped her sort out the up collar, and gently patted her back.
The diary of the "Internet celebrity" grandmother
When not filming, An Fengying was playing cards in the morning and still playing cards in the afternoon. On March 3, the recreation room on the second floor was not opened, the specially designed oxygen room was not opened, and only the last pair of new poker in the entire nursing home was left. Several old men gathered around the stone table and tried to play poker, but the cards were out of place.
An Fengying (top right) plays cards with the old people.
An Fengying has changed bedrooms and roommates several times, and last year transferred from the nursing home founded by her son to Fu Rui Garden. Fan Hongling and Fan Jinlin explained that she was too strong in personality and had a conflict with her roommate. An Fengying said that he was good at talking, but some old people were too unreasonable.
The old man wrote a diary intermittently, and on December 15, 2021, she said that an old man came to her newly moved house, "reasonable" and "my good friend" - this sentence was written twice. Two days later, she wrote that someone had come to her house and ate the apple "clean."
An Fengying has been a teacher all her life, sometimes used to discipline others, seeing an old man bite a steamed bun, can't finish eating it and throwing it away, she couldn't help but persuade them to teach them the nursery rhyme of primary school students, "A small grain of rice, it is not easy to come..." Some people looked displeased and went directly.
The Father and Son of the Fan family know that the old man is distressed about food and also wants to save some money for his nursing home. They can only persuade An Fengying that the elderly are here to provide for the elderly, and they provide services and cannot manage too much.
An Fengying's diary.
She also hummed angrily and said that some "waiters" in Fu RuiYuan did not take the initiative to wash her feet, did not help her undress at night, did not chat with her usually, did not help her cut her toenails for three months, and slammed the door. In her diary, she criticized the caregiver for coping with things, and also wrote down crookedly who served her on the day, thinking about using it as proof in the event of a dispute in the future.
But she will soon say that it is better to be in a nursing home: here clothes to reach out, food to open her mouth, "if you are alone at home, you can't get it."
The problem here is like the nursing home, the Fan family father and son are clear, the old people are like children. They have a total of 14 nursing staff, who have to serve 70 elderly people, mediate their quarrels, hunger strikes, unconscious hands-on beatings, and pretend to be sick in order to let their children visit. An Fengying is a relatively carefree old man.
She could think of many things about her grandson, praising him for being smart since he was a child, learning the fastest and speaking in kindergarten the most accurately; middle school won many awards in the city; the college entrance examination was good, it was her own school; he was now studying for the second degree, and he was ready to go abroad for graduate school. An Fengying felt that Fan Jinlin had won glory for the family.
Fan Jinlin said that in fact, his grandmother remembered some things wrong, his study was not good later, the college entrance examination score was still a few points away from the score line of the second book, and later went to Kaifeng to read a broadcast host in a three-book college. Seeing that the basic salary of the city TV host was less than two thousand yuan and had not yet been compiled, he decided to find an unpopular industry, so he thought of his father's pension resources, and his grandmother wanted him to be a teacher.
In Fu RuiYuan, the bed fee and nursing fee for the elderly add up to about 2500 yuan per month, because the local monthly retirement salary is about 3000 yuan. The shortage of nursing staff and the low degree of specialization are common problems in the industry. There is a 65-year-old nurse who cares for more than 10 elderly people, starts busy at 5 o'clock in the morning every day, and has to get up at any time at night, with a monthly salary of more than 3,000 yuan.
In the past two years, Fan Jinlin went to the southeast coast to explore the store and found that some high-end nursing homes alone cost more than one million in membership fees. He and his father now put their business expectations on the pension "intermediary": to match the financiers and entrepreneurs, and also to find plots for other nursing homes, train deans, etc.
He currently has 3 short video accounts, plans to open 10 new ones, but also to open a free nursing home for Internet celebrities, to create an e-sports team for the elderly, let them participate in and explain the game, attract big brands to settle in, enhance popularity, and then feed his industry consulting and intermediary business.
Initially, Fan Jinlin asked An Fengying to shoot a short video, the old man did not understand, felt like a child playing, the grandson said that it can increase the popularity of our nursing home, grandma said, Oh, I know.
Author: Luo Xiaolan
Editor: Mao Yijun
First image source: Luo Xiaolan photo