FT report | China’s elderly flock back to university

Chen Yulan says she is too busy studying to get old. The 70-year-old takes so many classes each week at Shanghai University for the Elderly that she does not even have time to shop for clothing.
The university, one of a network of nearly 50,000 elder education institutions in China, can help with that, too. Ms Chen, a retired dancer with the People’s Liberation Army, learnt how to save time and money on clothing by taking a course in how to buy and sell on Taobao, the Chinese equivalent of eBay.
“I’ve been studying here for over a decade, I’m busy every Monday to Friday with classes,” says Ms Chen. “I feel like I’m getting younger and younger!”
The university has spanking new studios for the teaching of everything from electronic piano to traditional Chinese stringed instruments such as the guzheng, erhu and pipa, with all equipment supplied by the Shanghai government. Shanghai authorities see elder education as a key component in keeping the city’s seniors healthy, happy – and out old age homes.
Like many parts of the world, China has an ageing problem but here it is exacerbated by three decades of birth limits known as the “one-child” policy. By the middle of the century, China could have nearly 500m people aged over 60 – the retirement age for male office workers in the country, where in general retirees are on the young side. Women doing heavy manual work can retire at 45, for example, while all women retire by 55.
In Shanghai, a city of 23m people, the city government wants to keep 90 per cent of elderly people in their own homes. But these days many live alone, in impersonal high-rise flats, often away from their adult children. One goal of elder education is to get them to socialise.
Lifelong learning has obvious benefits for mental health but it can also help the elderly stay physically healthy, says Yu Ning, elder education expert at the Shanghai Academy of Social Sciences.
“Attending classes gets them out of the house,” she says. “It’s a kind of physical exercise, it can keep them in a good mood and in good physical condition, improve life expectancy and the quality of life after retirement.”
At Shanghai University for the Elderly, where the average age is 65-70, students walk or cycle to class, eat a nutritious lunch together, and the classrooms and hallways are noisy with the sound of laughter and gossip, often in Shanghainese, the local dialect.
“English for elderly travellers,” one of the most popular classes, is so full it is hard to get in the door. In one recent session, the students were practising what to say in English if mugged while overseas.
“Give me all your money or I’ll kill you,” the dialogue began – to which pensioners were taught to reply: “I’m sorry sir, I’m such an old woman, I have no job and I’m ill.”
Teacher Wilson Song insisted students get their intonation right, to sound fluent.
Learning English is an obvious choice for Shanghai pensioners who have children overseas or just want to spend their silver years touring the world.
One of the star students in Ms Song’s class is a retired teacher who uses the English name Jennifer. Her pension, of about Rmb5,000 ($800) a month, is enough to finance two to three trips overseas per year.
Lv Lunyu, director of the University’s teaching office, says some students have higher degrees but others were not able to study when young.
And many Shanghai elderly would have come of age when universities were disrupted by the cultural revolution. “We had one student who studied piano for one year when she was young, but her parents forced her to quit,” Mr Lv says. “At that time, society did not need pianists.”
But now, society does need healthy old people, and local governments across China are investing in elderly education as one way to achieve it. Classes at Shanghai University for the Elderly cost only Rmb150-Rmb300 per term – a tiny fraction of the average pension. Many of the students say that, at that rate, they never want to graduate. Patti Waldmeir, Shanghai, MDT/Financial Times Exclusive