Down memory lane

His original inspiration was from a visit to a family, when he spotted an old TV aerial. "It suddenly summoned up my childhood memories. I visualized these scenes in my mind, but I had to search online to learn how to edit the video," he says.

In early 2018, he started to post different kinds of short videos, like funny jokes, on Kuaishou, but it's not until the sudden success of the TV tuning video that he decided to make nostalgic content reliving common scenes from the 1980s and '90s.

To create a perfect shooting environment, he rents a house with a yard in a less populated area of the city. He also collects daily use items from the 1980s and '90s from secondhand markets and recycling stations, as well as some pieces from his friends, neighbors and fans.

"Audiences empathize easily with old stuff, such as a cassette recorder," he says.

He, his wife and their 12-year-old son are the lead "actors" in the short videos, with common family scenes from the old days. Wang and his son are always dressed in traditional Chinese tunic suits.

Attire is important and used imaginatively. With a cone-shaped bamboo-woven hat, the father is transformed into a peddler riding on a bicycle and hawking on the streets in the local dialect. He pretends to sell popsicles stored in an insulated foam thermo-box perched precariously on the back of an old bike.

"Most of my videos are based on my own childhood experience. I also talk with the elderly and read internet users' comments about my videos to get inspiration," he says.