Tailor-made courses give seniors new lease on life

Zi Jing, an employee in Beijing who has worked alongside seniors during the past five years, said that elderly Chinese are pioneering and respectable, with unyielding perseverance.

Zi, who works with Beijing Hongsong Online Technology Co Ltd, one of the largest interest-service platforms for retirees in China, said most Chinese seniors were once participants in the country's reform and opening-up, serving as pillars in their various posts with rich experiences, skills and untapped passion.

"With the help of society, more seniors will join enjoyable studies and embrace a positive, healthy and dignified aging lifestyle after retirement," she said.

Zhang Xiaoling, 71, was born to a poor family in a small village deep in the mountains of Hunan province. She became the first woman in the village to be admitted to medical school and upon graduation became an obstetrician and gynecologist, saving the lives of tens of thousands of women during her 33 years as a doctor.

After retirement in Changsha, Hunan province, however, she suffered from massive bleeding and a stroke, and underwent an operation in 2021 due to lung cancer. Unable to take deep breaths due to pain, Zhang fell to a low point during her rehabilitation.

In the spring of 2022, she came across a Hongsong course on hulusi, a Chinese gourd wind instrument, while her daughter was teaching her how to browse social media. Thinking that it could help as an exercise for lung recovery, Zhang immediately signed up for the course. Starting from just a few minutes per day, she progressed to practicing for one hour every day through Hongsong's tailor-made course, which featured large subtitles, videos and even a dedicated assistant.

By practicing day after day, Zhang's life became more enriched and happier, and a medical checkup three months later showed that her lung function had recovered well.

Three years later, she said she hopes to live each day with a positive attitude, making her old age richer and exciting.

Liu Chunming, 75, is a retired expert living in Beijing's Fengtai district. After graduating as a polymer chemistry major from Fudan University in Shanghai in 1975, he devoted himself to national defense research and worked on rocket fuel experiments and missile development for decades.

After retirement, he tried a life of playing cards and chess, but he soon lost interest and turned his eyes instead to a broader world — baking, photography and manual creation.

If handicrafts were the foundation of Liu's retirement life, then music became a new interest he discovered in recent years, saying that when he was young, he didn't have time to cultivate hobbies, but could make up for it now.

In 2022, Liu signed up for an electronic keyboard course at Hongsong and began the first music lesson of his life.

Hongsong's zero-foundation progressive teaching system, designed specifically for seniors, impressed him.

Gently stroking the black and white keys of an electronic keyboard at home, Liu progressed step by step while a livestreaming teacher would slow down the lesson and repeat key points.

Nowadays, he practices the digital piano for an hour every day, and can smoothly play many classical pieces, which make him radiate with new vitality.

Lin Yingzi, 63 and once a "foreign trade queen" topping China's plywood export volume in 2004, also found a new chapter in her life by joining a piano course on Hongsong.

Born in Tonghua, Jilin province, Lin was a factory worker before the age of 32. Inspired by a book, she quit her job in 1993, and started her own entrepreneurial journey with 2,000 yuan ($281) in Weihai, Shandong province, which is 1,500 kilometers away from her hometown.

Due to a lack of business knowledge, she started as a grassroots interpreter and salesperson, renting a house on a mountaintop, which was rumored to have wolves around.

"I often spent two or three yuan a day on food," Lin recalled, saying that without any clients, she paid visits door to door, and practiced hard for two years in improving her Korean.

In order to expand into the Japanese market, she even locked herself in a room for six months to learn Japanese.

By establishing factories and businesses in Weihai and Lianyungang in Jiangsu province, with a persistent belief that "quality is life" and with her unwavering perseverance, her plywood products successfully entered international markets such as South Korea, Japan and Saudi Arabia, and her export volume once jumped to the top in the country in 2004.

After 30 years of hard work, Lin was once considered a legendary figure.

At 63 and as a client of Hongsong, Lin embarked on a new round of learning — practicing piano, singing and fitness.

"This is not fatigue, it's enjoyment," she said of her new life.

Jiang Peng, product manager of Hongsong, said their ultimate aim in helping the elderly is to let them "gain something" in life and not feel lonely.

Jiang added that during the past five years, Hongsong has attracted over 1 million paid clients.