In April 2026, 63-year-old Chen Meihua strolled through Caozhou Peony Garden in Heze wearing a Ming-style hanfu, her silver hair blending seamlessly with the blooming peonies around her. Visitors could not stop photographing her — phones and cameras followed her every step, strangers asked for group photos, and the resulting video clips accumulated tens of millions of views. Netizens dubbed her “Peony Grandma,” and the phrase “time never defeats beauty” became the refrain of every comment section.
What most viewers did not see was the story behind the frame. Chen Meihua was actually sick with a cold that day. She had not planned to become a social media star — her daughter Sang Ying had simply prepared hanfu outfits for her parents to mark their 40th wedding anniversary at the peony garden. Yet once Chen Meihua stepped into the flower sea, something shifted. She walked for an entire morning, smiling through fatigue, because what moved her was not personal fame but the chance to promote her hometown: “It is not that I became popular — it is that Heze peonies became popular.”
The Peony Grandpa: 44 Years and 420,000 Photos
Behind every viral moment stands a deeper backstory. Chen Meihua’s husband, Sang Qiuhua, has spent 44 years photographing peonies in Heze. A former laid-off worker with no professional equipment, he bought a camera and devoted his life to documenting the flower of his hometown. Over those decades, he accumulated more than 420,000 peony images and vast quantities of video material.
To capture peonies from seed to full bloom, he kept time-lapse cameras running across autumn, winter, and spring without interruption. Before drones existed, he climbed four television towers in Heze to frame the city and flower sea in a single shot. When his vehicle sank into wetland mud, Chen Meihua and he dragged branches by hand to build a path. When reeds slashed his palm bloody while filming a oriole, he bandaged it briefly and kept shooting.
His 2015 peony video “National Flower Spirit” exceeded 500 million views on Tencent alone. A five-year follow-up production, “National Flower Peony,” has already surpassed 90 million views. In 2020, he won the inaugural Heze Peony Capital Excellence Award; the CNY 240,000 prize (after tax) went entirely toward upgrading his camera equipment.
100 Public Service Films, Zero Pay, Full Dedication
Sang Qiuhua’s overarching mission: produce 100 public service promotional films for Heze. Chen Meihua joined him in 2000, initially learning photography alongside him, then becoming a full partner after retirement. Both are members of the China Photography Association. The couple originally planned 10 years for the project but accelerated — in just over five years, they completed the work without pay, self-funding every trip, every early morning, every stormy-day shoot.
Chen Meihua, who suffers from allergic asthma, has been repeatedly advised by doctors to avoid exertion and cold exposure. Yet whenever the cause is promoting Heze, she never refuses. Their films cover local food, landscapes, folk customs, and history — and they have moved expatriate Heze residents to tears, some reaching out from abroad to donate, others returning specifically to see the land the couple has documented so devotedly.
Three Generations, One Mission
Daughter Sang Ying grew up watching her father chase peonies and her mother hold the foundation together. She has now stepped into the front line ofpeony promotion, bringing younger perspectives and innovative planning to push Heze peonies toward wider audiences. “Father shot peonies his whole life, Mother supported every step — I have no reason not to stand up,” she said.
The family’s story gained additional traction because Caozhou Peony Garden itself upgraded its visitor experience in 2026. Flower goddess parades,Huazhao (Flower Dawn) markets, the live-action performance “Caozhou Ballad — Yellow River Chronicle,” and a nighttime “Dreaming Peonies” light show transformed the park from a viewing-only destination into an immersive cultural stage — exactly the kind of participatory space where stories like the Peony Grandma’s can naturally emerge and spread.