City of centenarians points way to future as China ages rapidly

Gu Bin leans over a desk as he carefully adds strokes to the Chinese character for “fortune,” before signing off in a flourish with his age — 104.

But the spry great-grandfather is five years younger than the oldest member of the community in Rugao, a city in the eastern Jiangsu Province which is home to more than 500 centenarians and which celebrates its elderly with pride, statues and subsidies.

Calligraphy is one of the many hobbies practiced by Gu, who was already in his 90’s when he taught himself to use the Internet.

“I write poetry, read books and newspapers, and watch the news every day,” says Gu, who was born in 1918, in the tumultuous early years of China’s republican era.

Decades of a one-child policy has built in a demographic challenge for China, with a low birth rate and the world’s largest population of elderly to provide for, while the pressure of urban life is ripping up traditions of filial responsibility for aged parents.

By 2050, the government predicts retirees will make up a third of China’s population and caring for them will cost a quarter of annual GDP.

This week’s census data showed the population of over 60 had reached more than 264 million — a 5 percent rise over the last decade — making Rugao a testing ground for China’s future.

It is dubbed China’s “longevity city” for its impressive number of super seniors, with 78,000 people aged between 80 and 99 among its 1.4 million residents — and another 525 over 100.

Temples and parks are replete with the elderly praying with long sticks of incense, dancing or practising the slow strokes of tai chi.

Old residents gather to chat on cobbled riverside streets, or sit in public squares to sing songs in a city which celebrates its pensioners with a 50-meter tall statue of Shouxing, the God of Longevity.

“Our ethos here is to respect the elderly,” Rugao Longevity Research Center director She Minggao — who is nearly 70 years old himself — said.

“We believe that to have an elderly person in a family is like having a treasure.”

That pride reflects onto the residents. Gu shows off a medal for city centenarians who complete a hundred-meter walk, as well a certificate dated 1951 for fighting in the People’s Liberation Army.

AFP

Bundled up in padded trousers, coat and hat, the former accountant mostly stays home after a fall a few years ago. But he maintains his sharp wit and keeps connected with the outside world through the Internet. “Biden is just too old to be president,” Gu quips, pointing to a news item about the 78-year-old US leader.

“He’s not as old as me, but he’s also not as smart.”

Rugao is surrounded by fields of green and yellow crops and decorated with stately canals. Locals believe the natural environment plays a part in their longevity.

Researchers from the Chinese Academy of Sciences speculated in one report that high levels of the mineral selenium in the city’s soil could be a factor extending the life expectancy of its citizens.

But after over a century living through China’s tumultuous history, others have a more straightforward explanation.

“I still work,” says great-grandfather Yu Fuxi, aged 103, who zips around town on his motor scooter.

“I sweep the floor every day and like everything clean and tidy. I go to the market on my scooter and buy what I want,” he adds, from a room with a neatly rolled up bedspread.

Yu regularly makes meals for his grandchildren, darting around the kitchen in white cooking overalls.

The elderly in China are traditionally cared for at home by younger relatives.

But the one-child policy created a fast-aging population and a shrinking workforce, putting pressure on working children to care for two sets of parents.

Urbanization, long working hours and high property prices — plus changing mindsets among younger Chinese — makes pairing tradition with modernity a challenge.

Rugao authorities introduced subsidized or free door-to-door services — health checks, hair cuts and massage — for the elderly.

Residents also get a pension top-up that increases with age, and a subsidy towards elderly care costs.