Sound of music: Elderly go back to school
Print Edition
One week before the end of her course at a university for the elderly, Wu Yue鈥檈 carefully made notes for her speech at the closing ceremony as a student representative.
Wu, 72, has been a student for more than 10 years at Changsha Senior Cadre University in central China鈥檚 Hunan Province, where she learned a number of new skills including reading and writing pinyin, using traditional Chinese medicine and playing the erhu, a traditional two-stringed instrument.
Heading back to school for further study and cultural enrichment is becoming a choice of many Chinese senior citizens.
The greatest regret of Wu, an active participant in all facets of school life, is that she had not received a full education when she was young.
鈥淚 have always loved literature even though I dropped out of school very early,鈥 Wu said. Before retirement, Wu was a textile worker who insisted on reading in her spare time. Her favorite book is 鈥淭he Count of Monte Christo.鈥
After her retirement, she was able to fulfill her dream of studying at the university for the elderly. 鈥淚 felt the elderly should keep up with the pace of social development and I haven鈥檛 done well enough,鈥 said Wu, adding that she hopes to improve herself through learning and set a good example for her children.
Yin Jianlin, 57, echoed Wu鈥檚 views. Five years ago, Yin had just retired from an enterprise where she worked for decades and was unable to adapt to her retired life. 鈥淥nce a person stops working, the sense of loss comes,鈥 Yin said.
In 2015, Yin was enrolled in the university for the elderly to study folk dance and mental health.
鈥淚 used to take care of my family as my sole responsibility. Now I have learned to take care of myself, too,鈥 Yin said, adding that whenever she took her school bag and headed off for class, she was filled with confidence. 鈥淎lthough we are old, we feel like we are still teenagers when dancing with our classmates.鈥
Since China entered an aging society at the end of the 20th century, the number of elderly and their proportion in the total population have continued to grow.
From 2000 to 2018, the population aged 60 and above doubled from 126 million to 249 million, and the proportion of the elderly increased from 10.2 percent to 17.9 percent.
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