Remove masks, celebrate freedom: fashion grannies return to Beijing
street 'catwalk'
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[August 14, 2020]
BEIJING (Reuters) - Four famous
amateur model grandmothers took off their masks during a saunter down
the streets of Beijing on Thursday to demonstrate life returning to
normal as the COVID-19 pandemic eases.
Glamma Beijing, a group of four women who met during a modelling
training course after retiring 20 years ago, became an internet
sensation in China last year.
A 15-second video of them walking in Sanlitun, one of Beijing's busiest
shopping districts, wearing traditional qipao dresses and over-sized
dangling fringe earrings, was viewed more than 50 million times in a
day, according to local media.
Since then, Lin Wei, Wang Xinghuo, Sun Yang and Wang Nianwen, all aged
over 60, have enjoyed dressing up and performing in videos on
short-video platform Douyin for likes.
"Your life is grey if you are always afraid of ageing and death," said
Lin Wei, 64, explaining her philosophy on growing older and enthusiasm
for donning stylish clothes and makeup.
"You are old, you have wrinkles, you don't have too much energy, or your
figure becomes baggy. But this is something you can't go against, so you
need to face it with positivity."
During the COVID-19 pandemic, when the group had to stay indoors, they
reverted to creating videos about their lifestyle. They now have more
than a million followers on Douyin.
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Members of an internet celebrity model group "Glamma Beijing" (L-R),
Lin Wei, 65, Sun Yang, 64, Wang Nianwen, 74, and Wang Xinghuo, 70,
wearing traditional Chinese dresses walk across a street during a
video shooting, following the coronavirus disease (COVID-19)
outbreak, in Beijing's Central Business District (CBD) area, China
August 13, 2020. REUTERS/Tingshu Wang
On Thursday, the stylish grannies, as they call themselves in
Mandarin, turned heads as they walked in figure-hugging qipaos down
a street like a catwalk, in Beijing's central business district of
Guomao.
"Beauty is in all ages," said Liu Jing, a passer-by. "You can be
young and stylish, or feminine. And you can also be elegant just
like these grannies."
(Reporting by Fang Nanlin and Martin Quin Pollard; Writing by
Karishma Singh; Editing by Philippa Fletcher)
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