'Raising their elders' becomes a growing trend among young people

A woman takes a selfie with her mother at a tea garden in Dadugang township, Xishuangbanna Dai Autonomous Prefecture, southwest China's Yunnan Province. (Photo provided to Xinhua)

"I've caught up with the times!" That was Zhang Wen's 94-year-old grandpa's first remark to her after learning to use a smartphone.

Before that, Zhang had spent a great deal of time drawing him a 24-page handwritten guide. It walked him step by step through everything, including unlocking the phone, making video calls, booking hospital appointments online, and setting up anti-fraud protections. Every page came with clear illustrations and large, easy-to-read text.

She posted the guide online, where it quickly went viral, earning 102,000 likes.

Recently, the hashtag "I 'raised' my parents all over again" has repeatedly trended, amassing over 120 million views and more than 450,000 discussions.

By "raising" their elders, young people teach their older family members how to use smartphones, take them to concerts, help mothers experiment with makeup and rediscover their confidence, or accompany fathers back to hobbies they once loved.

A report jointly released by institutions including Fudan University listed "raising parents all over again" among the top 10 keywords reflecting shifts in youth culture and social attitudes. It captures a positive rebalancing of intergenerational relationships in the context of broader social and economic change.

By the end of 2025, China's population aged 60 and above had surpassed 300 million. According to the 57th Statistical Report on Internet Development in China, internet penetration among elderly people aged 60 and above reached 53.7 percent. However, many older adults remain only partially digitally included. They are able to answer calls, but struggle with everyday online tasks.

In Hangzhou, east China's Zhejiang Province, a man named Wang Hao, born after 1995, turns common fraud schemes into comic strips and runs a weekly family anti-scam class.

Liu Weibing, an associate professor from the Center for Social Security Studies of Wuhan University, noted in his study that digital re-empowerment significantly improves older adults' social participation and overall life satisfaction.

A 2025 report on digital literacy among Shanghai's elderly found that 68.3 percent of elderly people learned digital skills from their children or grandchildren.

On a social media platform, a seven-year series titled "I Spent Seven Years 'Re-raising' My Parents" has quietly struck a chord. The author's parents have spent most of their lives in a walk-up, her mother left with chronic knee pain from years of climbing stairs. She quietly saved up and moved them into a place with an elevator. They've always been frugal, so she set out to give them a taste of things they've never done, such as seeing autumn leaves, climbing snow-covered mountains, and even trying rafting.

An elderly woman learns how to shoot videos on her smartphone from a young instructor at an elderly college in Guiyang, southwest Chin's Guizhou Province. (Photo provided to Xinhua)

Her mother used to think she was too old to be beautiful and would shy away from the camera. So she stayed with her by working out together, trying skincare, and learning how to take photos.

The changes came slowly but steadily. The reserved father began buying flowers for his wife on Valentine's Day. The mother, once shy and insecure, started smiling naturally in front of the camera. She told her daughter, "In my 50s, this is the first time I've felt that I should live for myself."

Xiao Jinsong, honorary president of the Psychological Counseling Association of Hubei Province, said that "raising their parents" reflects that young people are actively redefining their relationships with their parents.

On one level, they begin to understand the limits and circumstances that shaped their parents' generation, and try to make up for what may have been missing emotionally. At the same time, this act of giving back often brings them closer, he explained.