Ding
Bingcai, who survived famine, civil war and revolution, perfects suit and
fedora look thanks to grandson
An elderly Chinese farmer who has lived through famine, civil
war, revolution and one of the greatest economic booms in history has spoken of
his delight at becoming an unlikely international fashion icon in his twilight
years.
Ding Bingcai, 85, was catapulted into the headlines last month
after his photographer grandson, Ding Guoliang, 30, made him the star of a
fashion shoot for which he donned green, blue and mulberry suits, tartan bow
ties, designer glasses and fedoras.
Photographs of the dapper grandfather-of-10 – who had never
before worn a suit – quickly went viral with internet users anointing him
“China’s coolest grandpa”.
“They are
beautiful,” the softly spoken grandfather said of his grandson’s viral
photographs
Even more remarkable than Ding’s
rise to fashion fame are the staggering social and political upheavals he has
witnessed during his life.
Ding was
born in 1931, six years after the death of China’s first president, Sun
Yat-sen, and almost two decades before Chairman Mao’s communists seized power
in 1949.
He grew
up in Songshuping, a rural village on the outskirts of Fujian province’s Shaowu
city and became a subsistence farmer, growing rice and cutting bamboo for a
living.
Ding was in his late twenties
when Mao’s Great Leap Forward push for industrialisation caused a calamitous famine that devastated rural China and is
thought to have claimed up to 45 million lives.
“It was
very hard in the past,” Ding recalled of those days. “Before, I didn’t have
enough food to eat. [We were] always starving. Back then, we had no money.
Things are much better now.”
In 1961, as the three-year Great
Famine came to an end, Ding married his childhood sweetheart, Zhang Jiyu. Over
the coming years the couple had five children; two daughters and three sons.
Today,
China’s most glamorous grandfather boasts 10 grandchildren spread between the
eastern cities of Xiamen, Shanghai and Fuzhou. His wife passed away in 2014.
Ding
Guoliang, a professional photographer who uses the name Jesse, said the
three-day photo session, which took place last September on the streets of
Xiamen, was intended to make his grandfather feel both useful and elegant.
“He looks amazing in the
pictures,” the photographer told the China Daily in
an earlier interview. “Not everybody looks good in suits. But he’s got class.”
On Monday, Jesse described his
grandfather as a kind and gentle man.
“I’ll
give you an example. Once we were in a lift with lots of other people. He
decided he wanted to take out his cigarettes and share them with everybody
else. He felt everybody was his friend. He is really honest and simple.”
Ding said
his elderly grandfather had struggled to fully comprehend the extent of his
fame.
“[But] he
is happy that people are being nice to him and to be welcomed by so many
people. In fact, noise and excitement is what elderly people need the most.
Having people pay attention to him and having a sense of existing are important
to him,” he added. “I want my grandpa to feel that he is useful.”
Asked how
he felt about becoming an internet celebrity, 85-year-old Ding was coy.
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