[Mr. Wang has not escaped being called grandpa
— he has two children and a 2-year-old granddaughter — but the honorific is
accompanied by accolades for his vigor and his embrace of the new.]
By Didi Kirsten Tatlow
 |
|
Wang
Deshun, who turned 80 this fall, at the China Fashion Week in
Beijing
last year. Credit Quan Yajun
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BEIJING
— Before cranking up the
techno music at his 80th birthday party, the man known as “China’s hottest
grandpa” paused from his D.J. duties to poke fun at the country’s staid
traditional celebrations for the elderly.
“I should wear a long robe, with the word ‘longevity’
embroidered on the front,” the birthday boy, Wang Deshun, said at his party in
September.
Far from looking frail, the silver-haired
actor, model and artist wore a crisp white shirt and black jeans, his back
straight and his eyes glittering with humor.
“Two young maidens should help me into an
old-style wooden chair,” he added, pretending to hobble.
Determined to avoid mental and physical
stagnation, Mr. Wang has explored new skills and ideas while devoting ample
time to daily exercise. Last year, he walked the runway for the first time, his
physique causing a national sensation. He takes obvious joy in subverting
China’s image of what it means to be old.
“I liked acting, singing, dancing, playing
musical instruments so much that I joined my work unit’s band,” he said. At the
Workers’ Cultural Palace in Shenyang, he took free lessons in singing, acting
and dancing. He later took a job at a military factory and joined its art
troupe. Sometimes they entertained soldiers.
“Even if there was just one sentry, say, at
the top of a hill, like once in Dalian, we’d surround him and perform,” Mr.
Wang said.
Later he worked in radio, film and theater.
In the early 1980s, Mr. Wang, who would teach runway modeling at a Beijing
fashion school, staged what he believes was the first modeling show in the
northeastern city of Changchun.
“In 1982, the clothes Chinese wore were so
out of date,” he said. “I went to the city’s biggest department store and told
the sales clerks, ‘Give me your nicest clothes, and I’ll organize a show.’ They
agreed. The best clothes they had were fur coats, and for men, woolen Sun
Yat-sen suits” — also known as Mao suits.
Back then, he said, “Chinese had no sense of
color or style. People wore black, white, gray or blue. Some people wore army
uniforms. I wanted to start a sense for fashion among ordinary people. We did a
swimming-suit show. The girls refused at first, thinking it was indecent. But I
insisted.”
By 49, Mr. Wang was eager to move to Beijing,
China’s cultural capital. He wanted to be a “living sculpture.” He also needed
money.
He began working out, determined to have a
lithe body that would allow him to interact, almost naked and covered in
metallic paint, with copies of Auguste Rodin’s and Camille Claudel’s sculptures
of women. The idea, he said, came from his wife of 48 years, Zhao Aijuan.
After the first show in Beijing, in 1993, the
authorities, disturbed by its sensuality, barred Mr. Wang from performing in
public. He continued to perform privately.
“I really admire him very much,” said Xiao
Lu, 54, a performance artist. “I do body art, and you know, after a certain
age. a person’s abilities decline. But he has this amazing sculpted body and
spirit. Such power for life really comes from the inside. He makes the feeling
that’s in the Rodin sculptures come alive.”
Last year, he appeared bare-chested in a
fashion show in Beijing’s 798 arts district, featuring designs by Hu Sheguang.
His appearance on the runway earned him a
cultlike following. Some fans call him laoxianrou, or “old fresh meat,” or they
make a play on the word for teen idol: xiaoxianrou, or “young fresh meat.’’
So has old fresh meat replaced young fresh
meat?
And old age in China begins relatively early.
The legal retirement age for women is 50 for workers and 55 for civil servants,
and 60 for most men.
Being older in China typically means being
respected, but also, often, sentimentalized. Someone as young as 50 may be
addressed as “yeye” or “nainai” — grandpa or grandma — regardless of whether
they have offspring.
Mr. Wang is having none of that.
“One way to tell if you’re old or not is to
ask yourself, ‘Do you dare try something you’ve never done before?’ ” he said
in a recent interview at a hotel in Beijing.
“Nature determines age, but you determine
your state of mind,” he said.
Mr. Wang has not escaped being called grandpa
— he has two children and a 2-year-old granddaughter — but the honorific is
accompanied by accolades for his vigor and his embrace of the new.
“Grandpa, you’re my idol!” one admirer wrote
on Mr. Wang’s Weibo social media account, one of thousands of similar comments.
Sex appeal is part of the mix.
“Grandpa, your stomach is so gorgeous!
Incredibly handsome!” another person wrote next to a photo of Mr. Wang, topless
in a gym, his skin smooth and pectorals buff.
Mr. Wang said he was always athletic. An avid
swimmer as a child, he still swims more than half a mile each day. “Morning is
my learning time,” he said. “I read books and news. From 3 to 6 p.m. is my
exercise time, in a gym near my home.”
He also drinks less alcohol now, he said, but
that is about as far as his dietary restrictions go. “I am not picky at all
about what I eat. I eat whatever I want.”
Mr. Wang was born in the northeastern city of
Shenyang in 1936, one of nine children of a cook and a stay-at-home mother. At
14, a year after the Communist Party came to power in 1949, he began working as
a streetcar conductor.
Perhaps not. But Mr. Wang’s physicality,
notable in a society where men rarely highlight their attractiveness, also sets
an example in a nation that is growing older fast.
“People can change their life as many times
as they wish,” he said. Having a goal is important, he said.
“Being
mentally healthy means you know what you’re going to do,” he said. “For
example, a vegetable vendor, when he wakes up, he has a goal, he works hard.
And when he finishes, he feels fulfilled.”
For Mr. Wang, fulfillment comes in many
forms: acting, modeling, exercising and creating art.
And one day soon, he said, parachuting. That
is the plan.
Follow Didi Kirsten Tatlow on Twitter
@dktatlow.
