Grandpa’s an internet star: Chinese carpenter’s traditional woodworking skills wow millions online, but he says ‘I’m just an ordinary farmer’
- Wang Dewen, known on the internet as Grandpa Amu, creates works of art without glue, screws or nails – all filmed by his son who uploads the process online
- Wang’s viral fame has brought improvements to his home village, and the local government has built a ‘Grandpa Amu’ attraction to bring in tourists
Chinese carpenter Wang Dewen is, by any measure, a true internet celebrity.
His woodworking videos – showing him building everything from furniture to bridges and lanterns using traditional methods – have become on online sensation, earning him more than 2.8 million fans on the Chinese short video app Xigua Video. His fame has translated internationally too, garnering over 1.2 million subscribers on YouTube.
The 63-year-old, though, insists he is no internet star – in various media interviews and over a phone call, he reiterates: “I’m just an ordinary farmer doing my job.”
Wang goes by the name Grandpa Amu online. The native of Shandong, a province in eastern China, has worked as a carpenter since picking up the skills at the age of nine. In 2017, he moved with his wife to Mengshan county in the autonomous region of Guangxi in southern China to take care of his grandson.
