friday 5 | chinese seniors 2.0 ::
Friday, June 5th, 2009
:: in last week’s Friday Five, I focused on China’s “Post 90″ generation on the Chinese Internet. This week, I’ve decided to take a look at the other end of the age spectrum – China’s oldsters.
China’s Internet population may be dominated by young people, but Chinese seniors have a space of their own online as well. In fact, Baidu.com, China’s leading local search engine, recently launched a special senior-oriented search option that features large text, links to handy reference information like weather and stocks, and a categorized directory of major online destinations that oldsters might find useful. As nice as it is, it’s still a wrapper around a normal browsing experience, and to find individual Web sites specifically targeted at the elderly demographic requires a bit more effort. To that end, I thought it fitting to dig around and take a closer look at the Senior 2.0 scene in China. Below is a selection of senior-oriented offerings on the Chinese Internet.
general ::
The focus of China50Plus is pretty self-evident. It’s a news and information portal for people getting on in years, with a fairly extensive blogging platform and other forum tools as well. China50Plus bloggers post photos, reflections on life, and cheesy animations. And a blog purportedly by 99-year-old math professor Xu Xianyu (徐献瑜) contained posts about his interests, which included poetry as well as math, until he announced he was headed for the hospital in a March post. An English language about page explains that the service is supported by the Gerontological Society of China. Lots of BBSs can be found that target oldsters, but many of them are very low-trafficked and limited to a small community of users. China Seniors Forum (中国老年社区) is a moderately-trafficked discussion forum. The most active sub-boards are Making Net Friends (网友之窗) for new member introductions, and Learning for Seniors (老有所学), where members share information about computer-related topics like Photoshop, Flash, and HTML. “Setting Sun” (夕阳) is a gentle euphemism for aging, so many websites targeted at the elderly will include that in their names. The Red Sunset Forum is a space for seniors to meet people and chat; the most popular sub-forum is a virtual Tea House whose topics include word games and dialect exchange.
services ::
OldKids (老小孩) has blogs and forums, but its main mission is to offer training in computers and the Internet to the elderly. The Web site has a directory of off-line training sessions in skills like WindowsXP (in Shanghai), and offers video courses on the same subject matter. OldKid’s archives also feature entertainment offerings like classic movies and games. Seniors, get ready to experience Super Mario! (well, Luigi’s Revenge). Other websites help seniors with more immediate concerns, like finding places to spend the rest of their years. Older99 is a directory of retirement communities and nursing homes, with a wide range of other categories of aging-related information. Health is another concern, and God of Longevity manages to provide wellness information relatively unscathed by the flood of dodgy ads for drugs and supplements that cover most other health websites. God of Longevity has sub-sites for illnesses, healthy living, emotional life, and friends-making.
nostalgia ::
The Zhiqing (educated youth) sent down to the countryside in the 60s are getting on in years, and there are a number of online forums for them to look back on their younger days. Beijing Zhiqing BBS is aimed at former zhiqing from Beijing and receives a few thousand posts a day. The most popular sub-boards currently are Yan’an, which connects people who spent time in northern Shaanxi province, and Mountains and Gardens, which organizes outings for members. There’s a similar BBS for Shanghai-based zhiqing, which is more art-oriented, and for zhiqing based in other major cities throughout the country. For participants in an earlier period of Chinese history, Love Old Soldiers is ostensibly a website for veterans of the anti-Japanese war, although current active members seem to be mostly younger people. One of the site’s missions is to provide stipends to elderly veterans in need of financial support, as in the case of 58th Division veteran Duan Wenzhou (段文周).
offline activities ::
The Jianchen Cup, an annual exercise competition for seniors, hosts an active BBS on its website. The Cup is co-organised by the Chinese Health Education Association and is sponsored by the Shenzhen health products company King Soldier (深圳市金士吉康复用品科技有限公司), which means a lot of the off-line activities promoted on the site are also in Shenzhen. The BBS, too, is mostly about activities in the local area, such as this post about a the Guanhai Tai dance group. According to rankings listed on the site, the top three interest groups at the moment are Food, Morning Exercise, and Social Issues. (More Jianchen Cup info on Baidu Baike.) Old Cadres Home (老干部之家) is associated with the print magazine of the same name, and provides forums and information, as well as travel planning, products, and outings. And like other age groups, seniors get together through QQ groups set up for organizing dancing and other activities (one for Guangzhou).
companionship ::
Seniors need love, too. Old People Love is a website for senior singles in search of their other half. Users can search by city and availability. Another match-making site In Search of a Spouse is fee-based: VIP members can upgrade to send messages and add friends for 200 yuan for six months or 300 yuan for one year. A thorough help section explains how to log in and register for the benefit of old people who don’t know how to use the Internet (and other information about sending and receiving messages and check private contact details). The Web site also features a BBS. Oldster (夕阳夜话) is a BBS targeted at gay seniors. A photo sub-board is the most popular forum on the site, but photos only show up for registered users. ChGay, a website aimed at a wider age range, has a section for seniors as well as a group for May-December romances.
// AjS
[Friday 5 is the product of my work at Edelman Digital (China). Link here for the full Friday 5 archive. If you'd like to be added to the bilingual (English & Chinese) Friday 5 email distribution list, please send me an email at: adam DOT schokora AT edelman DOT com.]
