Chinese woman raising two disabled sons turns story of domestic violence and poverty into triumph with online food videos
- ‘Mama’ is a term of extraordinary respect in China and demonstrates the loyal following Lu Aimei has built online
- She started two years ago with food videos on Douyin and today boasts 230,000 followers
“Hi everybody, I’m Lu Mama. I’m making … for the kids today” is how Lu Aimei usually starts her cooking videos on Douyin, the Chinese TikTok.
By kids, she was referring to her eldest son, 39-year-old Zhu Xiaoqiang, and second son, 29-year-old Zhu Xiaomeng, who both suffer from a progressive nervous system disease known as Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) that has paralysed them both since adolescence.
As for how she introduces herself, Lu, 59, is nicknamed by her online followers as “mama”, a term that Chinese people would only use for an extraordinary, respected woman when it comes to someone else’s mother.
Having a deaf and allegedly abusive husband, Lu has been the sole carer of their children over the decades and used to earn a living by begging in the streets. A former farmer who never attended school from central China’s Henan province, she has become a food influencer with over 230,000 followers on Douyin.
More than 500 videos about her daily cooking have been shared on the platform since she started two years ago, attracting about 750,000 likes in total.