Zhong Juanjuan, a 60-year-old grandmother from Guangdong province, has amassed 527,000 followers and logs daily livestreams after starting to play video games six years ago to connect with her son. Her unexpected second career includes eliminating a Counter-Strike world champion in an online exhibition match.
Two decades ago, Zhong Juanjuan would regularly visit local internet cafes in a suburban area of Meizhou to track down her teenage son and pull him away from his computer. Today, the 60-year-old grandmother has completely reversed that dynamic. Known to her online audience as Auntie Juan, she hosts two live-streaming sessions every day, typically drawing around 10,000 viewers to each broadcast.
Before building her online presence, Zhong completed only primary school and worked various part-time jobs in sales and childcare before retiring about a decade ago. Her journey into competitive gaming began in 2020 during the COVID-19 pandemic. After leaving his job, her younger son, known online as Suode, spent long hours playing video games at home. Rather than reviving their past arguments over his grades, Zhong became curious about what made the titles so appealing and asked him to teach her.
Overcoming the Learning Curve and Reaching 8,000 Hours of Gameplay
The initial lessons presented significant physical obstacles. Zhong struggled with declining eyesight and slower reaction times, grappling with basic navigation like walking in a straight line, turning around after hitting walls, and climbing virtual stairs. Through relentless practice, she pushed past those early hurdles, logging more than 8,000 hours of gameplay primarily focused on shooting games.
She began live-streaming her sessions in 2022, quickly captivating audiences who were charmed by an ordinary grandmother using basic streaming equipment while casually dropping youth gaming slang. Her breakout moment arrived in December 2024, when she participated in an online exhibition match for Counter-Strike: Global Offensive. During the match, she stunned viewers by eliminating 17-year-old Russian gaming prodigy “donk”, who had recently become a world champion. Reports also note she participated in another friendly exhibition match where she managed to eliminate both donk and sh1ro.
Managing Skepticism and Reversing Family Roles with Suode
As her viewership expanded, some online users questioned whether Zhong was actually operating the controls herself or if a younger individual was playing on her behalf. To dispel those doubts, Suode installed multiple cameras around his mother to record her gameplay from various angles. She has also faced external criticism regarding whether gaming is an appropriate pastime for her age group.
“As a mother, should I only be relegated to household chores?”
Zhong Juanjuan, via Hindustan Times
Zhong maintains that gaming sharpens the brain and improves hand-eye coordination, rejecting the expectation that older women should limit themselves to childcare or square dancing.
The mother-son dynamic has undergone a complete inversion. Suode now serves as his mother’s full-time agent, managing her online career. In a poetic reversal of her past actions, he now ensures that the home Wi-Fi switches off at midnight so his mother does not stay up playing too late.
Recognition Beyond the Screen in Guangdong Province
Zhong’s fame occasionally extends beyond digital platforms into daily life in Meizhou. She has recounted instances of being recognized in public, such as when a middle-aged man approached her at a local wet market to tell her he had watched her gaming content online.
Reflecting on her unexpected pivot from critic to competitor, Zhong emphasizes a philosophy that transcends age brackets. It is never too late to start learning something new,
she noted.