Seniors saved from their lonely sunset years

HAIKOU — Dressed in a traditional Chinese costume, Huo Jianjun swaggered along the catwalk and struck a pose.

More than 300 senior citizens were performing in a New Year gala performance in Anding county, Hainan province. The performance included poetry readings, dancing, Peking Opera, modeling and a gong show. The oldest performer was 86.

“Performing has truly enriched our lives,” said Huo, 64, from Hebei province. “Years ago, life was really boring and lonely in Anding.”

Huo is among many seniors who join in the yearly migration to Hainan to escape a life stuck indoors due to the chilly weather in northern China.

From 2000 to 2018, China saw its population age 60 and older nearly double from 126 million to 249 million, according to a report released by the Peking Union Medical College and Chinese Aging Well Association last year.

Chinese seniors have been flocking to the south in increasing numbers for a better quality of life during the biting winter.

Anding, which has beautiful mountains, water, fresh air and warm temperatures, attracts almost 20,000 senior citizens every year.

However, life in the warm climes wasn’t making all the seniors happy, particularly those who are single, or unaccompanied by their children.

“When I brought my parents and parents-in-law here, they could not understand the dialect and they couldn’t even find friends to play chess with,” said Fu Ziyun, founder of The Beautiful Sunset, a service center for senior citizens in the county. “Loneliness was killing them.”

Fu said he could sense the sadness in their eyes.

“I brought them here to get through the cold winter, only to have them go through another kind of coldness here,” he said.

In 2012, Fu launched The Beautiful Sunset to help the seniors find friends, and set up a 24/7 hotline to help disabled and widowed elderly people.

Over the years, it has launched a variety of activities, including a dining hall for senior citizens. It also organizes volunteers to visit the homes of the elderly to do household chores and relieve their loneliness.

“I was alone at home a while ago and fell to the ground, and the volunteers sent me to hospital and offered me meals,” said a citizen surnamed Cao, 79, from the Xinjiang Uygur autonomous region. “They are like family to me here.”

The Beautiful Sunset holds many activities for seniors spending the winter in Hainan, including the New Year gala.

Jia Cuiying, from Shanxi province, said: “We have a lot of opportunities to perform thanks to the center. When I’m on stage, I feel like I’m 30 years old again”.

Liu Huamin, 78, from Xinjiang, said there were professors, doctors and performers from around the country, and the center bound them together and made them feel welcome.

We have a lot of opportunities to perform thanks to the (service) center. When I’m on stage, I feel like I’m 30 years old again.” Jia Cuiying, a winter visitor to Anding county, Hainan province, from Shanxi province