Sichuan auntie develops recipe for success amid virus tragedy

It was a Sunday and the last day of China's Spring Festival which was prolonged due to the novel coronavirus pandemic.

As planned, Yu Yunzhi would be in Shanghai taking care of her threeyear-old grandson Xiaotangyuan when her daughter and son-in-law went to work.

However, the whole family was stranded in their hometown Mianzhu city of Sichuan province in southwestern China because of the pandemic that affected the work and life of hundreds of millions of people across the country.

On that day, the 57-year-old started her livestream cooking show on Douyin, a videosharing site. This was the first time she had undertaken such a task.

"Hi, everyone, I'm Sichuan auntie Mama Zhi and today I'm going to teach you how to cook chicken with green and red peppers at home," she said in Mandarin with a Sichuan accent.

The 22-minute livestream was watched by 145 people.

Yu has experienced tragedy in her life, having survived the 512(May 12) Wenchuan earthquake in 2008. She knows what it's like to start again.

She has a talent and obvious enthusiasm for cooking. This actually made her a cooking celebrity in the neighborhoods when she came to Shanghai to take care of her pregnant daughter in 2015.

At first, her daughter's colleagues knew that she has a mom who's good at cooking after being invited to eat at her apartment. Later, moms with children in their community knew that Xiaotangyuan has a grandma who's good at cooking baby food.

Some moms even visited their apartment at night to learn how to cook delicious and healthy food for their children.

They suggested that Yu should run a restaurant or make livestreams to teach more people cooking. However, it was never on the busy grandma's agenda until the sudden outbreak.

"At first I thought what's the deal of livestreaming an auntie cooking at home? It's also weird to talk to a camera while cooking," Yu said.

New to livestreaming, Yu was quite uneasy and unconsciously shaking from side to side in front of the camera.

But the retiree from a rural commercial bank branch in Sichuan felt "a sense of excitement" to teach young people her cooking skills.

"Dining out costs a lot and is not safe enough, especially during the outbreak. Although I cannot go to the front line to combat the virus as many doctors did, I'm glad that I can teach young people how to cook at home so that they can stay at home and avoid infection," she said.