Biographers extract extraordinary tales from lives of ordinary people

Emotional therapy

A woman in her 30s reached out to Tong to write a memoir of her dead father in the hope it would help ease the sorrow of her mother. Another woman in her 40s who had a bad relationship with her mother, asked Tong if documenting the older woman's life could help her better understand her mom.

"I saw deep family love in such inquiries … I am also now working on the memoir of my own father," he said.

"We do not have a bad relationship, but we are not good at communicating either."

Tong said his mother was bedridden for 18 years, and after she passed away he realized he didn't know much about his father. "I remembered when I first mentioned to him writing his memoir, he choked up. It touched me a lot and I think at that moment, he knew he was seen," he said.

Many memoir writers, including freelancers and part-timers, have been flooding into the sector, and have shared their experiences on Xiaohongshu.

The price of a memoir can vary greatly based on the size, writing styles and the writers' career status and experience, according to posts on the platform.

On average, the cost of memoirs ranges from 20,000 yuan ($2,760) to 50,000 yuan, with some lengthier ones costing more than 100,000 yuan. However, with more writers entering the market and the application of AI, the sector is likely to fluctuate and prices may fall.

"I don't think writing memoirs for older people is a shrewd or highly profitable business, as it involves much effort and energy and is actually tiring. But the social value behind it, such as showing care for the elderly, is more meaningful," said Tong.

Earlier this year, the Shanghai municipal government rolled out an action plan, encouraging volunteers and organizations to provide memoir-writing services for elderly people in nursing homes and communities.

A group of students from the city's Fudan University have formed a team to provide pro bono memoir writing for senior citizens in Shanghai.

"Running out of time is not the end of life, forgetting is. Pick up the fragments of the glittering memories and link them together in a memoir, so that the world remembers that you were here," the team from Fudan wrote on Xiaohongshu.

At the end of last year, China had 310 million people aged 60 and above, and 220 million aged 65 and older, representing 22 percent and 15.6 percent of the total population, National Bureau of Statistics data showed.