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Abstract

This study examines how Chinese older seasonal migrants (Houniao, 候鸟) employ vlogging on Douyin (Chinese TikTok) to create hybrid digital–physical spaces reshaping their mobility experiences. Through qualitative thematic analysis of purposively sampled vlogs (N = 121) collected over two migration periods, we identify three interconnected themes of digital place-making: identity construction countering decline narratives of aging; community-building through linguistic strategies; and wellness engagement through therapeutic documentation. Findings reveal how older adults strategically appropriate a youth-dominated platform to document seasonal journeys between northern cities and southern destinations. These vlogging practices exemplify “digital place-making” where physical travel and digital representation mutually constitute meaningful therapeutic landscapes. The study demonstrates how older adults subvert ageist assumptions about digital capabilities while creating alternative representations of aging that emphasize agency and vitality rather than decline.

Keywords

Chinese Houniao Douyin narratives place-making mobility vlogs

Introduction

In feminist narrative gerontologist Ruth Ray's words, to tell one's life story is to engage in the construction of identity (Ray, 1998, 2000). This act of self-narration takes on new dimensions in contemporary China through the seasonal migration of older adults known as Houniao (候鸟, “migratory birds”) (Chen & Bao, 2020). Like the “snowbirds” of North America and the gray nomads of Europe and Australia (Hillman, 2013; Onyx & Leonard, 2005, 2007), Houniao travel between northern industrial cities and southern tropical hubs like Sanya. This seasonal mobility is driven by intersecting desires: warmer climate, health considerations, and community connection (Chen & Bao, 2021; Chen & Wang, 2022; Cheng et al., 2019).

What distinguishes Houniao mobility is how these older adults employ vlogging to engage in digital place-making through their seasonal journey: using digital tools to interact with places and create hybrid spaces of wellness and community (Halegoua & Polson, 2021). Facilitated by China's policy reforms and digital infrastructure developments (Chen & Bao, 2020; Kou et al., 2018), this mobility provides new possibilities for older adults to combine physical movement with digital engagement. Rather than simply documenting their travels, vlogging becomes the mechanism through which Houniao construct meaningful places, perform identities, and maintain community across geographical distances (Li, 2025; Li & Alencar, 2023).

Existing scholarship on seasonal migration (and Houniao mobility) has emphasized physical-space paradigms, focusing on therapeutic climates and environment (Alaazi et al., 2015; Bell et al., 2015; Doughty et al., 2023; Wang et al., 2024), social ties (Chen & Bao, 2021; Chen & Wang, 2022; Cheng et al., 2019), and migrant agency in place-making (Krause, 2008; Sampson & Gifford, 2010). Yet, the digital dimensions of Houniao place-making remain unexamined, despite their increasing adoption of platforms like Douyin (China's TikTok).

Douyin has emerged as China's dominant short-video platform, with hundreds of millions of daily active users spending significant time on the application (CNNIC, 2024). The platform provides comprehensive content creation features, including short-form video production and live-streaming capabilities, making it particularly suitable for diverse user demographics (Kaye et al., 2021). With users aged 50 and above representing over 30% of Douyin's user base of 1.053 billion in 2023 (CNNIC, 2024), these technical affordances and widespread adoption make Douyin an ideal platform for examining digital engagement practices among older Chinese users, particularly those involved in seasonal migration patterns.

Despite Douyin's algorithmic preference for youth-oriented content featuring viral challenges and rapid editing techniques (Zeng & Abidin, 2021; Zeng & Kaye, 2022), older adults have developed distinct engagement patterns on the platform. Rather than conforming to dominant content styles, older users frequently produce educational videos that prioritize knowledge-sharing within peer networks (Li, 2025). Existing research on Houniao vloggers with larger followings shows how these users document their seasonal journeys and share guidance about accommodation options, healthcare access, and social activities in destination cities (Li, 2025). However, questions remain about how ordinary Houniao migrants with smaller audiences engage in digital practice and whether they similarly use vlogging as a tool for digital place-making.

Given these dynamics, it is essential to explore how aging Houniao engage with social media for digital place-making activities. Hence, we ask: How do Houniao migrants use Douyin vlogging to counter existing narratives of aging, adapt youth-dominated digital practices, and reimagine seasonal mobility as digital place-making? Specifically, we examine what personal and communal meanings they derive from these digital practices and how they strategically adapt platform features to assert their presence in digital spaces.

Through a qualitative thematic analysis of 121 Houniao vlogs from everyday users, this study explores patterns of digital place-making visible in seasonal migrant content. By analyzing vlog content created by users with modest followings rather than those with larger audiences, this research documents how mundane digital narratives represent connections and community-building among older adults through shared migration experiences. The content analysis reveals narrative approaches that present alternatives to conventional aging representations while showcasing how older migrants adapt youth-dominated platforms for their specific communication needs.

Understanding digital place-making among older migrants requires acknowledging both its empowering potential and limitations. While digital platforms offer opportunities for older adults to creatively adopt technologies for community-building and identity construction, existing scholarship shows such practices remain contingent on access to economic resources and digital literacy skills (Helsper, 2021; Wang et al., 2023). These documented constraints suggest that socioeconomic background, educational level, and prior technological exposure may shape participation in digital place-making practices.

This article proceeds by first establishing our conceptual framework linking digital place-making with therapeutic landscapes and digital storytelling, then presents our methodology for analyzing Houniao vlogs, followed by findings on vlogging content and narrative patterns. This study contributes to digital aging scholarship by demonstrating how ordinary older adults represent their seasonal migration experiences through digital narratives, revealing patterns of digital place-making visible in mundane vlogging practices that potentially challenge youth-dominated digital spaces.

Digital place-making in mediated spaces

Place is a meaningful space segment, serving as a center of meaning and a field of care, where human life navigates between attachment and freedom, shelter and venture (Tuan, 1977). It gathers experiences, histories, languages, and thoughts, enriching its essence through the accumulation of multiple human interactions (Casey, 1996). As place is a socially constructed notion, it opens up possibilities for people to weave their own experiences, histories, and languages into understanding place as a cohesive landscape that supports empirical, moral, and aesthetic endeavors (Sack, 2003). This practice is regarded as “place-making,” a socially constructed process that leverages creative narrative approaches to transform spaces into vibrant, meaningful locations, often by embedding stories and historical context that resonate with the community (Basaraba, 2023; de Souza e Silva, 2023). These place-making practices, which, among other practices, take shape through location-based mobile storytelling, effectively turn locations into hybrid cityscapes (De Souza e Silva, 2017).

In addition, place is a whole assemblage of practices and performance from relationships between parts (De Landa, 2006). For example, vendors and visitors in a Hong Kong night market co-create a vibrant community space through their daily interactions, contributing to the market's identity as a cultural landmark (Chan, 2018). He and Zhang (2023) argue that mobile media grant greater agency to individual users and provide them with an advanced toolkit of emotional performance that synthesizes the body and the place, shaping the formation of interpersonal and intergroup relationships. These studies illustrate how place-making emerges from the interplay of diverse social relationships within the place assemblage, where every interaction adds to the collective narrative and functional essence of a place.

Within this framework, place-making differs from landscape in that it involves active transformation rather than just existing within an environment. Digital place-making, as both concept and analytical lens, involves active transformation rather than passive occupation of physical and digital spaces, with users actively reshaping environments through their online practices (Halegoua & Polson, 2021; Yu & Blain, 2019). This active digital engagement mirrors patterns observed in various studies of older adults’ transformative uses of online media (Brewer et al., 2021; Peine & Neven, 2019; Quan-Haase et al., 2016). As an analytical framework, digital place-making allows us to examine how individuals navigate the intersection of physical mobility and digital engagement. For seasonal migrants in later life, this lens reveals how place-making processes may be particularly shaped by the convergence of aging experiences and mobility patterns, where individuals seek to create environments that support both physical and psychological well-being through the creative adaptation of digital platforms.

One of the primary motivations for seasonal migration is the desire to escape winter's hardships. For Houniao migrants, this is also the case, and we argue the concept of “therapeutic landscapes” can further extend the understanding of place-making. The therapeutic landscape stipulates that the interplay among physical spaces, social interactions, and the meanings attributed to these spaces benefits individuals’ health and well-being (Gesler, 1992, 1993). Within the evolving concept of therapeutic landscapes, three distinct strands of scholarship are identified: the cultural ecological analysis of the natural environment, highlighting nature's influential role in everyday lives (Bell et al., 2015; Doughty, 2013; Gesler, 2018); a humanistic reading of symbolic landscapes that act as cultural expression, sensory experiences, and representations of social values (Bell et al., 2018; Chen & Wang, 2022; Wang et al., 2024); and structuralist examination of the interplay between power, ideology, and historical contingencies (Doughty et al., 2023; Sampson & Gifford, 2010; Yu & Blain, 2019). However, this assemblage disregards a critical fourth dimension: the interconnection of online and offline spaces.

In the digital era, in which people, space, and mobile technologies are profoundly intertwined, hybrid spaces have become crucial in understanding place-making practices (de Souza e Silva, 2006, 2023). As individuals like the Houniao use digital platforms such as Douyin, they extend place-making into the virtual world, engaging in digital environments that allow them to forge and sustain social connections, construct identities, and manage personal narratives (Bell et al., 2018; Chen & Wang, 2022; Sampson & Gifford, 2010). This digital place-making involves dynamic interaction with mobile and networked technologies that reinterpret and reconfigure traditional physical therapeutic landscapes to suit a digital and mobile lifestyle. Simultaneously, digital place-making accentuates the place-makers’ proactive involvement, stressing the significance of autonomy and active participation in forming (therapeutic) landscapes. Distinct from the passive absorption of environmental therapeutic effects, digital place-making advocates for a reciprocal relationship wherein individuals actively contribute to and benefit from their surroundings (Biglin, 2020; Li & Alencar, 2023; Sampson & Gifford, 2010). This conceptual shift highlights how a sense of community and well-being are dynamically co-created through active engagement with digital technologies.

For Houniao, vlogging emerges as a central component of their lifestyle, not merely as a method for documenting their migrations but as a means for therapeutic engagement. Using digital place-making as an analytical lens, we can examine how storytelling becomes a place-making practice, wherein Houniao use narrative techniques to transform both physical and virtual spaces into meaningful therapeutic landscapes.

Narrative means to place-making ends: Vlogging as a form of storytelling

Narratives convey cultural memories, linking individuals and communities across time and space (Eastmond, 2007; Johnson, 2005; Straub, 2008). Bruner (2004) postulates storytelling as a constructivist world-making approach shaping our perceptions and experiences. For Houniao migrants, vlogging transcends documentation; it is an act of narrative world-making, focusing on “how it is interpreted and reinterpreted, told and retold” (Bruner, 2004, p. 708). The entity we call place materializes in narratives (Price, 2004), Houniao vlogs become the textual and visual mixture of meaning-making, enriching everyday lives and constructing their identity. It allows Houniao to perceive stories as lived experiences.

Vlogging, for the Houniao migrants, emerges not merely as a method of storytelling but as an active form of place-making (Ibrahim, 2021). Vloggers structure their content to (re)construct and connect virtual and physical spaces that embody their identities and experiences of aging and mobility to transform their southern residency into their second home (Li & Alencar, 2023). Creating a virtual space means curating experiences that extend beyond the screen to invoke real-world sensations and emotions. The way a vlog is structured – its sequence of scenes, the transitions between topics, the narrative pacing – crafts a “place” within the viewer's mind where they can engage with the content and community, like how public spaces foster interaction in the physical world (Barthes & Duisit, 1975; Benjamin & Zohn, 1963).

Benjamin and Zohn (1963) frame storytelling as a sociocultural mechanism that is used to preserve cultural and ethical values and strengthen community ties. Houniao vlogs, like oral traditions in Benjamin's writing, become narratives, embodying the convergence of physical and digital realms, blending material tools, shared meanings, and continuous practices (Cresswell, 2014; Tuan, 1977). Digital storytelling has been increasingly recognized by researchers as a pivotal medium in the emergent space of digital communication. Couldry (2008) discusses this evolution in his examination of mediatization and mediation, emphasizing how digital platforms transform personal narratives into public communication. Similarly, scholars have explored how vlogging, as a form of digital storytelling, redefines migrants’ mediated mobility, but also shapes destination images (Peralta, 2019; Yun, 2023).

Given this theoretical understanding of vlogging as both digital storytelling and active place-making, we examine how Houniao migrants construct narratives that create meaningful digital–physical spaces.

Methodological considerations

We focused on authentic narratives of place-making among aging Houniao migrants by collecting publicly available Douyin videos from novice vloggers (≤200 followers) using purposive sampling (Jaramillo-Dent et al., 2022; Palys, 2008). An initial search with #olderHouniao (候鸟老人) yielded broad results; iterative refinement identified two complementary hashtags – #thelifeofhouniao (候鸟生活) and #Houniaoaginglife (候鸟老龄生活) – that better captured self-representational vlogs by Houniao individuals. While the Chinese term Laoren (老人) carries contextual nuances, we retained a neutral translation to respect community identity.

This approach prioritized organic content but inherently excluded untagged or algorithmically suppressed videos. Our data collection comprised 1,516 videos collected across two phases: December 2021 to March 2022 and December 2023 to March 2024.¹ Applying criteria for a regular bi-monthly engagement (≥1 video/2 months), we identify 121 authentic videos from 99 unique Houniao migrant vloggers. The sample exhibited natural participation patterns: one prolific creator contributed 15 videos (12.4%), another contributed three videos (2.5%), six creators posted two videos each (9.9% combined), while the majority (91 creators) appeared only once (75.2% of total content). Verification of migrant status relied on self-descriptions (e.g., “settled in Hainan for four years” 定居海南四年). The sample revealed two key demographics, with 82% identifying as retirees and 63% documenting rural-to-urban migration trajectories. These profiles empirically reflect the platformed realities of digital place-making: while Douyin enables self-representation, it privileges migrants with socioeconomic stability (e.g., smartphone affordability and digital literacy). Rather than a sampling bias, this mirrors the material constraints of who can participate in mundane vlogging.

We employed thematic content analysis informed by ethnomethodology (Garfinkel, 1967) to examine how Houniao vlogs construct narratives of place. Videos were viewed and transcribed with attention to verbal and visuals elements, then coded in three stages: open, axial, and selective coding (Strauss & Corbin, 1998). Our analytical approach integrated both textual and visual dimensions of the vlogs through a multimodal framework. During transcription, we systematically documented visual elements, including shot positions (close-up, medium, wide angles); editing techniques (cuts, transitions, text overlays); setting characteristics (public/private spaces); and nonverbal expressions. This visual coding allowed us to catalogue the cinematographic techniques employed by vloggers alongside their verbal narratives, providing a more comprehensive understanding of how place is represented in these digital artifacts.

Through the three-stage coding process applied to both textual and visual elements, this iterative approach of deconstructing and reconstructing the data resulted in themes illustrating how Houniao migrants craft narratives that weave together personal and communal dimensions into the assemblage of their digital place-making practices (Cresswell, 2014; De Landa, 2006).

Our research adhered to ethical guidelines for internet studies (Abidin & De Seta, 2020; Markham & Buchanan, 2012), with particular attention to platform-specific considerations. We collected data using researcher accounts that did not interact with vloggers or their content (no following, liking, or commenting) to avoid influencing the natural environment. Given Douyin's public accessibility structure, we focused exclusively on publicly shared content, removed usernames and specific location identifiers from our analysis, paraphrased distinctive phrasings that could enable identification through search, and excluded content involving sensitive personal disclosures. When translating from Chinese to English, we preserved contextual integrity while ensuring quotations could not be reverse-translated to identify specific accounts.

Our content analysis approach has inherent limitations: we examine vlog representations rather than creators’ lived experiences directly. While we identify patterns in how vloggers narratively construct place, we cannot confirm psychological or social impacts beyond what is explicitly stated in vlogs. We therefore distinguish between observable content and interpretive analysis, using tentative language for potential implications. Future interview-based or mixed methods could explore how vloggers themselves perceive the impact of their digital place-making activities.

The analysis of 121 Houniao vlogs reveals three interconnected and overlapping themes that demonstrate how older seasonal migrants use vlogging as a digital place-making practice to negotiate ageism and represent themselves in online–offline spaces: (1) Identity construction through selective narration and cultural practices that counter decline narratives of aging; (2) Community-building through linguistic strategies and shared experiences that foster collective belonging; and (3) Wellness and therapeutic engagement through documentation of daily activities and emotional expression that promotes positive aging narratives. These themes manifest simultaneously within individual vlogs, illustrating the holistic nature of digital place-making practices where identity, community, and wellness intersect to show how Houniao vloggers subvert youth-dominated digital spaces while creating alternative representations of aging that emphasize agency, connection, and vitality rather than dependency and decline.

Vlogging as a conduit of Houniao digital place-making

The three themes of identity construction, community-building, and wellness engagement manifest through vlogging practices that serve as powerful forms of digital place-making, effectively bridging the gap between online and offline worlds. Through vlogging, personal experiences and communal emotions are woven into shared narratives that foster authentic connections.

For example, Wenjie's vlogs demonstrate sophisticated visual storytelling that transforms square dancing documentation into compelling narratives of migrant experiences. Her cinematographic techniques include thoughtful scene composition, alternating between wide shots that situate the dance activities within the public square and intimate close-ups that capture individual expressions and costume details (Abidin, 2019; Bock, 2020). This technical approach mirrors the dual nature of migration: balancing individual identity with community integration. By carefully sequencing her content from preparation through performance to social interactions, she creates a narrative arc that reflects the journey of cultural adaptation.

Focusing on identity construction, gardener Jiangcheng narrates a combination of cultural wisdom and geographic insights into his gardening approach. He introduces the traditional Chinese concept of “zuo bei chao nan” (sitting in the north and facing the south), providing both a cultural foundation and a practical strategy for his narrative (Straub, 2008). By positioning his balcony garden on the south-facing side of an urban apartment, Jiangcheng optimizes sunlight exposure, benefiting his plants and well-being. By integrating traditional knowledge with modern urban living, Jiangcheng's story transcends personal gardening tips, evolving into a powerful tool for identity-formation and community-building – a pattern also observed among other Chinese migrants maintaining cultural practices in unfamiliar environments (Liu, 2019). His vlogs illustrate how individual actions, rooted in cultural practices, can foster community connections and inspire others to engage in place-making, both physically and digitally (Biglin, 2020; Leurs et al., 2020; Wilken & Humphreys, 2021). Yet, all these examples also illustrate the hybrid place-making practice across the offline–online nexus.

The interweaving of digital and physical environments is also common practice in the Houniao vlogs (Bell et al., 2018; Biglin, 2020; Marino, 2015). A vlogger called Yuhua illustrates this well by documenting her garden's evolution from initial planting to harvest. Her thoughtful combination of visual techniques and personal narration transforms this documentation into an immersive experience: “Since the first seeds were sown, and the first seedlings planted a few months ago, you have seen the slowly growing greenness and vitality in my daily vlog.” The synchronization between her enthusiastic commentary about harvesting (“What do you think, guys? Amazing, right? It is fun, exciting, and healing”) and her carefully composed shots creates a powerful narrative about establishing roots in a new environment. Like Peimin, Yuhua incorporates vivid sensory details from her environment, bridging the digital–physical divide. Peimin and Yuhua make their vlogs both relatable and actionable, while offering an intimate glimpse into Houniao life.

A broader view on Houniao life is provided by vlogger Lanting, who shares his culinary experiences in his neighborhood food market. Detailing the flavors and adequacy of local cuisine that he never had the chance to appreciate before, he highlights food as a physical necessity and a powerful instrument of social, emotional, and material healing (Marino, 2018). To enhance the immersive quality of his vlogs, Lanting incorporates close-up shots of his episodes with invitations for his audiences to share their experiences by engaging with comments. A slogan – “to show the lives of ordinary people and record colorful and extraordinary lives” – is added to each vlog. Such practices foster a vibrant online community bonded over shared aspirations and mutual encouragement. Meanwhile, Lanting includes high-resolution images and sounds of the market, almost allowing viewers to taste and smell the dishes he describes. These techniques enrich the storytelling and engage the viewers’ senses, making the narratives more memorable and impactful.

These visual storytelling techniques serve a vital role in supporting migrant well-being, transforming everyday activities into meaningful expressions of identity and belonging. Through sophisticated cinematographic choices and narrative structuring, these vlogs create immersive experiences that capture both the physical activities and their deeper social-cultural significance within the migrant community.

Regarding therapeutic wellness aspects, the emotional landscapes shared across Houniao vlogs contribute to a collective experience that defines the community. In the 121 vlogs analyzed, a recurring theme emerges prominently: compensation. This narrative thread explores how individuals reclaim the joys and opportunities missed during their youth due to various constraints (Chen & Bao, 2020; Cheng et al., 2019; Li & Alencar, 2023). Our analysis reveals that over two-thirds of the vlogs explicitly focus on the theme of compensation, assumedly illustrating the resonance of these narratives within the Houniao community. Consider Wanyin, a Houniao vlogger who embodies the essence of this theme. After decades of prioritizing family, she finally cherishes the time spent with her husband by the seaside:

Watching young couples play on the beach takes me back to the youth I missed out. My partner sits beside me under the shade of coconut trees, and the salty sea breeze washes away our worries. These simple moments are precious to me, ones I could never have imagined when I was younger. As the sun sets slowly into the sea, I do not feel sad but delighted.

Through vlogging, Houniao vloggers like Wanyin carefully select and blend audiovisual elements that set the narrative's emotional tone. They carefully choose the background music to match the mood of the scenes, whether tranquil or uplifting, enhancing the emotional depth of the visuals. The vloggers also carefully pace their speech and visual transitions to maintain viewer engagement, aligning the rhythm of their words with the unfolding visuals. This orchestration of sound and rhythm is fundamental in connecting emotionally with the audience.

As a form of digital place-making, Houniao vlogging contributes to a communal narrative that celebrates both individuality and community cohesion. This ongoing narrative construction is not merely about sharing stories; it's about crafting a shared space where personal and communal experiences foster a sense of belonging and community strength. These carefully constructed narratives raise an important question: How exactly do Houniao migrants use vlogging to build these new stories and strengthen their community ties?

Vlogging in hybrid spaces: From personal nostalgia to communal resilience

The narrative techniques employed in Houniao vlogs suggest Houniaos’ efforts in co-creating emotional connections and a collective narrative redefining the aging process with their viewers. This digital platform merges personal reflections with community insights, creating interconnected narratives that transcend individual nostalgic experiences (Sedikides & Wildschut, 2019). This collective narrative emphasizes resilience and optimism, suggesting a possible shift from the more common discourses around aging that suggest decline and vulnerability toward one of felt empowerment and vitality (Ikeda, 2009; Libert et al., 2020; Romaioli & Contarello, 2021).

Much like how Filipino migrant workers use TikTok to create counternarratives (Cabalquinto, 2024), Houniao vloggers employ deliberate linguistic choices to build rapport with their viewers, frequently using collective pronouns like “we” and “our” to create a shared identity while posing direct questions that invite viewer participation. These carefully crafted interactions create spaces for collective meaning-making around aging and mobility, transforming individual experiences into shared understanding through digital storytelling. The creation of a sense of community takes shape in different forms. Examining community-building strategies, Houniao vloggers employ linguistic and cinematographic techniques, often simultaneously, to address their audiences as members of a community. For example, Peimin strategically uses the pronoun “we” to connect with both Houniao and older individuals, weaving his personal narrative into the broader community experience (Cai et al., 2023; Chen & Wang, 2022). His vlogs focus on practical daily adjustments, from modified exercise routines to age-appropriate dietary changes, and the active use of “we” transforms his content into a communal resource.

Building on these linguistic community-building strategies, some vloggers also employ poetic expression to create collective meaning-making. A reflective poem in Tianming's vlog exemplifies wonderfully how Houniao weave individual experiences into collective storytelling that evokes a sense of empowerment. He begins with a nostalgic look at his youth, infused with the vitality and carefree spirit of earlier days: “How I wish time could stay young, longing to return to youth, so sprung. Those days were filled with splendor, far from worldly commotion and clamor.” He then conjures vivid memories of playful moments connected with nature: “Daily by the river, fish we would seek. Up the hills for dates, playing hide and seek. How I wish for time not to age, in my mother's arms, a comforting stage.” Tianming continues, evoking the sensory experiences that anchor his memories to places of his youth: “Listening to the birds’ chirp on the branch, ducks flying, dogs barking by the river's expanse. Even the wind carried a unique hometown scent, reminding me of days so wonderfully spent.” Transitioning from the past to the present, Tianming contrasts these youthful reflections with his current life in old age, which, while different, is no less fulfilling: “Now, no longer in youth's embrace, silver-haired life also has its grace, still free from any fret. Daily walks and square dances set.” He then highlights the continuity of his social connections despite physical changes: “Laughing with old friends, our spirits high, though my children have grown and flown by. Through smartphones, life we share, dreams we discuss, living in two cities, the south also feels like home to us.”

Tianming's verses blend past experiences with present realities, documenting both individual journeys and environmental transformations – from initial struggles to achieved prosperity. Through this textile-like construction, vlogging creates a space in which personal reflections become communal bonds, and isolated experiences transform into shared understanding (Fang et al., 2016; Gibbs et al., 2019). This digital storytelling also enables forms of imagined mobility, where viewers can virtually experience migration journeys and emotional landscapes, strengthening connections across physical distances (Petzold, 2017; Sheller & Urry, 2006). Tianming's story illustrates how later life can provide meaningful well-being through community connections and purposeful activities.

Houniao vloggers use digital storytelling to share and reimagine their migration experiences, fostering hope and connection throughout their community. Drawing on existing theoretical frameworks (Boym, 2001; Routledge et al., 2012), this digital storytelling serves multiple purposes – from personal well-being to community-building. This shared digital narrative space creates a sense of intimacy and proximity, making distant experiences feel immediate and accessible.

The vlogs of people like Tianming and Wenyuan highlight how resilience plays a crucial role in crafting identity and belonging in our increasingly digital world (Alexandrakis et al., 2020). While many Houniao find empowerment in contributing to this collective narrative tapestry, their learning processes become visible markers of authentic intragenerational knowledge-sharing that challenges ageist assumptions about older adults’ digital capabilities (Li, 2025). These visible learning moments contribute to the community's collective resilience by demonstrating older adults’ adaptability and agency in digital spaces.

Theorizing digital place-making among Houniao

Seasonal migration is inherently tied to place-making. For older adults like the Houniao, studies highlight how climate and environment in relation to well-being – the therapeutic landscape (Gesler, 1993) – is one of the primary motivations for seasonal migration. However, traditional place-making frameworks overlook the interplay between digital interaction and psychological well-being, and how unequal access to technology shapes these experiences. We define digital place-making as the process by which individuals use digital storytelling to create hybrid spaces that foster well-being, identity, and community. Grounded in therapeutic landscape theory and digital media studies (Basaraba, 2023; Gesler, 1993, 2018; Halegoua & Polson, 2021), this framework acknowledges how socioeconomic and technological disparities shape participation (de Souza e Silva, 2006, 2023).

Digital place-making through vlogging takes shape in the offline/online nexus. Redefining the place-making frameworks, the Houniao vlogs offer a different view on digital place-making that counters traditional discourses on aging individuals and the relation of aging populations with social media. The vlogs in our sample suggest three ways that digital place-making practices do this.

First, vlogging cultivates mindfulness by anchoring Houniao migrants in the present, rather than dwelling on the past or worrying about the future. As one vlogger says while recording her breakfast: “Back home I was always rushing. Now I take time to enjoy each bite. This is what retirement should be.” These acts of documentation align with Ikeda's (2009) work on gratitude and acceptance practices. By focusing on daily joys, vloggers counter ageist decline narratives (Romaioli & Contarello, 2021) and reframe aging as a time of presence, not loss.

Second, the vlogs support the dynamic construction of migrants’ identities. Allowing for the selective narration of experiences profoundly shapes social realities. Migrants can emphasize stories that resonate with their evolving self-concepts, using digital media to weave rich, sensory communal narratives that engage viewers on multiple levels (Eastmond, 2007; Marino, 2015; Vindrola-Padros & Johnson, 2014). This active storytelling preserves and reinterprets past experiences, making the narratives particularly emotional and resonant to a broader community (Leurs et al., 2020; Ponzanesi & Leurs, 2022). All the vlogs in our sample create a strong sense of community using linguistic and cinematographic techniques.

Third, the content created by Houniao vloggers presents alternative narratives of aging that differ from mainstream media portrayals that often emphasize dependency and frailness. In these vlogs, creators construct and share stories that depict active, engaged lifestyles, potentially offering counternarratives to dominant discourses of aging as decline. This form of digital storytelling allows migrants to offer a nuanced and authentic view of their experiences, serving as both a form of resistance and a declaration of agency. The vlogs present aging migrants that are able to define their identities beyond the constraints of dominant cultural decline narratives (Gilleard, 2022).

The Houniao vlogs analyzed in this study display patterns of content that align with digital place-making practices spanning physical and virtual boundaries. Our analysis identifies three interconnected narrative approaches present in these vlogs: documentation focused on present experiences; selective storytelling that constructs particular migrant identities; and representations that contrast with ageist stereotypes. These narrative approaches in the vlogs correspond with Keightley and Reading's (2014) concept of mediated mobilities, illustrating how seasonal migration experiences and their digital representation are intertwined in these digital artifacts.

The content of these vlogs suggests an extension to traditional therapeutic landscape theory (Gesler, 1993) by showcasing how digital storytelling introduces another dimension to place-making practices. In the analyzed content, sensory experiences (like coastal sunrises or market sounds) are captured and shared through platform affordances, creating multimodal representations of place. Yet, as Yu and Blain (2019) note, such digital engagement is contingent on material resources. The patterns observed in our sample reflect participation primarily from Houniao with sufficient digital literacy and connectivity, potentially reinforcing existing inequalities (Helsper, 2021; Wang et al., 2023). Based on our content analysis, we argue that the place-making practices visible in Houniao vlogs represent narrative work extended into the digital realm. The vlogs we examined showcase how these older migrants construct representations where physical mobility and digital storytelling converge. These narrative constructions align with Barthes and Duisit's (1975) perspective on narrative's representational power and Bruner's (2004) concept of identity construction through storytelling. While our methodology cannot determine the experiential impacts of these practices for creators or viewers, the content itself demonstrates how digital narratives can represent communal meanings that potentially contribute to expressions of belonging in platform societies (Leurs, 2023; Ponzanesi & Leurs, 2022).

Conclusion

This study illuminates patterns of digital place-making visible in Houniao migrant vlogs. Our content analysis reveals that these vlogs exhibit dual narrative functions: personal storytelling and community-oriented communication. These digital narratives present alternatives to conventional representations of aging by showcasing how older adults adapt youth-dominated platforms for their specific communication needs.

Our work contributes to mobile media communication by documenting how digital narratives represent connections among aging migrant populations beyond mere information exchange. It also enriches digital migration studies (Leurs, 2023; Leurs & Ponzanesi, 2024) by bridging research on aging and digital engagement (Gallistl et al., 2023; Hausknecht et al., 2019; Peine et al., 2021) with mobility and migration studies to examine how older migrants use digital platforms for place-making. The analyzed vlogs contain elements of what Sheller and Urry (2006) conceptualize as imagined mobility, where narrative content represents journeys and locations that potentially enable virtual experiences despite physical distance.

However, our content analysis reveals that the vloggers in our sample represent a segment of the Houniao population with sufficient resources and digital literacy to engage in these practices. Future research should employ interview-based or mixed-methods approaches to understand how these practices are experienced by creators and audiences, along with investigating how digital place-making might develop across diverse populations and mobility contexts.

Footnotes

ORCID iDs

Yongjian Li

Tonny Krijnen

Funding

The authors received no financial support for the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article.

Declaration of Conflicting Interests

The authors declared no potential conflicts of interest with respect to the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article.

Notes

Author biographies

Yongjian Li works as a Lecturer at Department of Media and Communication at Erasmus University Rotterdam. His area of research is digital migration and production culture focusing on aging population, particularly in the Chinese context.

Tonny Krijnen is an Associate Professor in media studies at the Erasmus University Rotterdam. Her area of research is popular television, morality, gender, and qualitative research methods. Her current research concentrates on big data and TV production, gendered morality and emotions, and transnationalization of the TV industry.

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“Vlogging my lives of two homes”: Chinese Houniao and their place-making in the online–offline nexus

Abstract

Keywords

Introduction

Digital place-making in mediated spaces

Narrative means to place-making ends: Vlogging as a form of storytelling

Methodological considerations

Vlogging as a conduit of Houniao digital place-making

Vlogging in hybrid spaces: From personal nostalgia to communal resilience

Theorizing digital place-making among Houniao

Conclusion

Footnotes

ORCID iDs

Funding

Declaration of Conflicting Interests

Notes

Author biographies

References