A Retailer Discovers China's New 'It' Girl: Grandpa - Retired Farmer Becomes Fashion Sensation

Wall Street Journal ^ | January 9, 2013 | LAURIE BURKITT And JOSH CHIN

[a fool in paradise]

BEIJING—While other 72-year-old Chinese men spend their days practicing tai chi and playing mah-jongg, Liu Qianping is enjoying a twilight career modeling clothes. Women's clothes.

At a fall fashion shoot, the 5-foot-8 former rice farmer from central Hunan vamped for the camera in lacy green tights and white fur-lined pink dresses. Online and on TV, he has become a meme, with his image circulated by millions on Chinese social media sites and talk shows.

He owes his star turn to his granddaughter, Lu Ting, a clothier who struggled for months to find a model who could boost her online store without breaking the bank. "He's just so slender," Ms. Lu says of her 110-pound grandfather. She notes that he looks great in crimson dresses and credits him for more than quadrupling her sales in recent weeks.

...The waif of a man, who goes about in a three-piece suit and a bow-tie when he isn't clad in pink satin, is among a cadre of Chinese seniors who are all too familiar with cultural upheaval. Their lives have been marked by unimaginable change—from surviving famine to the advent of fast food. Along the way, many have adopted a devil-may-care approach that flies in the face of stereotypes about conservative Asian elders...

[a fool in paradise]

"This is NOT A PING!"

- Call me 'Lola'

[mike_9958]

you got to be kidding me... a 72 year man modelling women’s clothes....

I hate the internet.

[a fool in paradise]

This is today’s Wall Street Journal. Encouraging older Americans to give up memories of how things were and embrace a devil may care attitude.

Or maybe the Devil doesn’t care. Obama sure doesn’t care about outcomes.

Run guns to Mexico? Crack down on American legal gun sales and shield the federal officials from international prosecution.

[mike_9958]

“This is today’s Wall Street Journal. Encouraging older Americans to give up memories of how things were”

Good luck with that - I don’t know of alot older Americans who aren’t wishing for things they way they were.

[GraceG]

You gotta admit...

He has got a LOT more curves than some of those alien things that madison avenue calls “models” that look like they just walked off of the mothership....

[Dr. Pritchett]

I got two words for you:

THANK GOD IT’S NOT JUST AMERICA!!!

[Slyfox]

[Valpal1]

He survived Mao’s cultural revolution. Pretty sure this is nothing compared to that.

He’s just happy to help his grandaughter make a few bucks with her online store.

[vbmoneyspender]

[llevrok]

L..O....L..A.....Lola.....

[Slings and Arrows]

He does have his limits. He refuses to have his neck exposed in pictures and insists that he alone does all the styling. "I have to pick out the combinations," he says insistently. "I have the best sense of what blouse should be paired with what skirt."

Oh good. Wouldn't want you to compromise your dignity.

---

[Slings and Arrows]

He does have his limits. He refuses to have his neck exposed in pictures and insists that he alone does all the styling. "I have to pick out the combinations," he says insistently. "I have the best sense of what blouse should be paired with what skirt."

Oh good. Wouldn't want you to compromise your dignity.

---

[Secret Agent Man]

no kidding. everything is devolving into chaos. the other side likes it becaus they think they’l be able to make order out of it. they will just make the ultimate FAIL in the history of mankind.

[ApplegateRanch]

Would you hurry up, already, and blow that thing Gabe?

[Daffynition]

This is what you look like, after spending 40 years in a rice paddy.

[Daffynition]

I'm not sure exactly what their demographic is.

[JoeProBono]

[Disambiguator]

I'm not sure exactly what their demographic is.

My guess would be retired.

*ducking*

[dayglored]

What the hell is THAT????!?!

Looking for the brain bleach....