82-Year-Old Chinese Gran Ditches Walking Stick for Drone Pilot Stick

An 82-year-old Chinese grandmother named Dai Shuying has become a national sensation by swapping her bookkeeper’s ledger for a drone controller and a live-streaming microphone. Known as the “hardcore grandma,” she now pilots agricultural drones to spray fertilizer over fields and sells locally grown rice directly to customers through online live-streams from her home in Laomei Village, Anhui province [51523].

Dai’s shift from traditional village life to high-tech farming is challenging deep‑rooted stereotypes about age and technology in rural China. In her youth, she was considered highly educated because she could read, write, and calculate. Now, she uses modern tools to run her entire farm business herself [51523].

Her story is part of a broader trend where older farmers are adopting new technologies to improve their livelihoods. By combining drone piloting with e‑commerce, Dai has not only boosted her own income but has also become a local role model, showing that age is no barrier to mastering cutting‑edge equipment [51523].