Creator Economy
Creators Jiang Xiuping and Pan Huqian, a viral Douyin duo, act as fictional parents, providing solace to young adults and adolescents amid economic inequalities and a scarcity of mental health support in China.
In a video on Douyin, China’s TikTok, a middle-aged couple travel to visit their adult daughter who goes to school in a different city. They surprise her by showing up in a shopping mall, and gifting her with a winter jacket and a pink ukulele.
“We have missed you a lot,” the father says in the video, filmed from the daughter’s point of view. “If someone harms you, you must tell dad and mom,” the mother says. “No matter how far, we will come for you.”
This scene is entirely fictional. While their real-life daughter lives in the same city, Jiang Xiuping, 48, and her husband, 50-year-old Pan Huqian, have been creating these sentimental moments to comfort legions of adolescents and young adults who are searching for familial love online. Their account, named “Sharing everyday moments with our daughter,” has attracted more than a million followers on Douyin.
Fans call them their “digital parents.” The videos, which depict an idealized image of middle-class families, appeal to the unhappy children who have grown up without the same parental support. In rural China, tens of millions of “left-behind” children are typically raised by their grandparents, as their parents migrate to the cities for work. A preference for sons has led to daughters growing up under discrimination. The tradition of parents exercising absolute authority over their offspring also contributes to strained relationships.
“It’s very difficult for people to get the emotional support they need, so people turn to digital platforms,” Kailing Xie, an assistant professor in international development at the University of Birmingham, told Rest of World. “It is part of the human longing for intimacy within a hyper-individualized, hyper-competitive society.”
Pan and Jiang, who work as wedding planners in Hanzhong, in the northwestern province of Shaanxi, did not plan to become creators. Their daughter, an influencer who sells women’s clothes on Douyin, once invited Pan to appear in her livestream as a guest in late 2023. As more followers commented on how much they envied the close-knit family, Pan had the idea to act as though he and Jiang were their fictional parents. The couple speaks directly into the camera, addressing the viewers as if they were their children. “We don’t write any scripts,” Pan told Rest of World. “We are simply recreating how we brought up our own daughter.”
Pan and Jiang comfort viewers during vulnerable moments, whether that is a breakup or a failed exam. In an October 2023 video, they went shopping in a supermarket — it was filmed from the perspective of a toddler in the shopping cart. In a November video, they acted like they were teaching a child how to ride a bike — their real-life daughter filmed it, shaking the camera to make it seem like she was losing her balance.
In some videos, the couple promote food, skincare products, and homeware. Pan said they’ve earned a few thousand yuan from the product placement deals, the equivalent of several hundred U.S. dollars.
“It’s very difficult for people to get the emotional support they need, so people turn to digital platforms.”
In the comment section, some followers say they are experiencing familial love for the first time.“I felt like a stray cat that got picked up and kissed,” reads a comment that was liked some 26,000 times. “Thank you for letting me know what it’s like to have a mom,” another comment says. Some address Pan and Jiang as “dad and mom,” while calling their own parents “father- and mother-in-law.” Children as young as 12 have reached out to the couple directly, many saying that they suffer from depression, according to Jiang.
Mandy Zhu, a 24-year-old college graduate in Zhejiang, came across the couple’s account on Douyin last year. She told Rest of World her own parents are always pushing her to study hard, find a stable job, and look for a wealthy husband. “I felt heartwarmed when I watched those videos,” she said. “But afterwards, they reminded me of what I don’t have.”
Internet users globally have resorted to social media for affection from virtual parental figures. In the subreddits r/MomForAMinute and r/DadForAMinute, users ask each other for parental advice. On TikTok, former Blue’s Clues host Steve Burns’ POV-style videos have gone viral — he simply says, “Tell me, what’s going on” and nods in silence as if listening to viewers’ stories. In China, other creators on Douyin and social network Xiaohongshu have also played virtual parent roles by cooking for viewers, taking them to supermarkets, and picking them up from school, with follower numbers ranging from a few thousand to hundreds of thousands.
Xie said in China, the contrast between urban middle-class and rural families makes many children feel as if they missed out, as their underprivileged parents did not have the time or financial resources to meet their needs. The country’s lack of mental health resources and family-centered culture, which places pressure on children to make their parents proud and support them financially in their old age, have added to the high expectations children and parents have for each other, she said.
“[Viewers] write to me about being sad and having no one caring for them.”
Pan and Jiang’s own childhoods reflect how China’s wealth inequality leads to disparate experiences. While Jiang had a happy upbringing in a more affluent part of Shaanxi, Pan grew up in an impoverished household without enough food, clothes, and parental care. He left home for work at the age of 16, and never celebrated a birthday before he turned 27. Pan said he developed suicidal thoughts as a child, after his mother scolded him. “[Viewers] write to me about being sad and having no one caring for them. I went through the same things,” Pan said.
Though they act like happy parents on camera, the couple said their lives were difficult in reality. Their wedding planning business suffered from China’s zero-Covid lockdowns and a drop in marriage rates. They recently closed their physical shop because they couldn’t afford rent. “People are under great pressure in this society,” Pan said. “We should show more empathy to all the parents.”
Outside of work, they try to live up to their reputation as everyone’s digital parents. Followers turn to Pan and Jiang to make up for specific things that their own parents failed in doing with them, such as visiting them in hospital or flying a kite together, according to the couple.
One follower, whose parents had passed away, asked for a video of Pan and Jiang appearing in their dream as the deceased parents. Pan and Jiang filmed themselves speaking from a bamboo grove. With a sad song playing in the background, Jiang’s eyes welled up when she said she was sorry to miss her child’s wedding.
“These children call us ‘dad and mom.’ I feel we have more responsibility now,” Jiang told Rest of World. “Their love has warmed our hearts, and we need to do our best to comfort them as well.”
