BEIJING, Dec. 9 (Xinhua) — At a latest live performance in Chengdu in southwest China’s Sichuan Province, which featured electrifying music, dazzling lights and a dopamine-charged ambiance, one surprising second stole the present.
Within the pulsating wave of power, the digital camera discovered an aged lady with graying hair. Her face was streaked with tears of pleasure and nostalgia as her favourite star returned to the stage after a decade-long hiatus. The picture rapidly went viral on Weibo, capturing many hearts throughout the microblogging web site.
Shui Shuzhang, 87, is a fan of Dao Lang, a pop singer who rose to stardom roughly 20 years in the past. “I don’t know how much longer I’ll live,” she stated. “So while I can still get around, I’ll go to every single one of his concerts.”
Shui’s story epitomizes a rising pattern in China — seniors embracing extra vibrant existence, to the extent that the hashtag “grandma at a concert, mentally 30 years ahead of me” lately trended on Weibo.
With 217 million folks aged 65 and above, China is residence to the world’s largest aged inhabitants, and roughly one in each 4 seniors globally. While some view this demographic shift as a burden, many economists spotlight the consumption energy of this group and the great alternatives this presents for financial progress.
The China Research Center on Aging predicts that the silver economic system might develop from its present worth of seven trillion yuan (round 970 billion U.S. {dollars}) to 30 trillion yuan by 2035. By 2050, aged consumption is anticipated to succeed in 40 to 69 trillion yuan — accounting for as much as 20.7 % of the nation’s GDP, in keeping with economist Ren Zeping.
Ren is chief economist of Zhengzhou-based Zhongyuan Bank. He was beforehand an economist with the Development Research Center, a key suppose tank affiliated with the State Council, China’s cupboard.
NEW PROFILE OF AGING
China’s seniors born within the Nineteen Sixties and Nineteen Seventies are rewriting the script on previous age. Unlike their predecessors, who grew up in an period of shortage, these seniors witnessed and took part within the nation’s reform and opening up. They are extra educated, extra impartial and extra prosperous, stated a report launched by Ren’s group.
According to the China National Committee on Ageing, the wealth amassed by aged people in China totaled 78.4 trillion yuan in 2023.
Take Yao Feng, 63, and his spouse, for example. Earlier this 12 months, they spent two months driving from Lanzhou within the northwest of China to Hong Kong within the south, passing via areas like Chongqing and Yunnan. “We have the time and vigor to explore now, and we hope to make up for the regret of not seeing more of the country during our working years,” he stated.
Senior vacationers like Yao made roughly 21 % of home vacationer journeys in 2023. By 2025, over 100 million wholesome seniors are anticipated to journey often and spend generously on tourism — producing income of greater than 1 trillion yuan, in keeping with the China Tourism Academy. This market worth is projected to succeed in 2.7 trillion yuan by 2028, in keeping with the report.
In addition to tourism, the meals, aged care, healthcare gadget and monetary providers industries, tailor-made to middle-aged and aged people, are additionally poised for progress because the silver economic system expands, stated Ren.
Chen Dongsheng, founder and chairman of Taikang Insurance Group, is a visionary within the sector. A decade in the past, throughout a real-estate growth, he resisted the temptation to promote a plot of land within the suburbs of Beijing for a revenue of as much as 10 billion yuan. Instead, he continued to develop it right into a premier aged care neighborhood.
“I didn’t sell it at that time because I wanted people to see that the elderly care sector represents a long-term opportunity and a major trend for the future,” he stated in a latest interview.
As of June 30, Taikang managed 890 billion yuan in pension funds, making it one of many largest company pension buyers and managers within the Chinese market.
WIN-WIN OPPORTUNITIES
China’s silver economic system is not only a home alternative — it is a international one. While it’s only starting to take root in China, this idea has already come of age in Japan and components of Europe. Entrepreneurs from these areas have set their sights on the burgeoning Chinese market.
Japan turned an aged society in 1994 and entered the super-aged section within the early 2000s. It has a thriving silver economic system that spans sectors reminiscent of healthcare, tourism and monetary consultancy. According to Mizuho Corporate Bank, this economic system is anticipated to exceed 100 trillion yen (roughly 670 billion U.S. {dollars}) by 2025.
A society is taken into account “aged” when these aged 65 and above account for 14 % of the whole inhabitants, and “super-aged” when the proportion exceeds 20 %, in keeping with the WHO. The determine stood at 15.4 % in China in 2023.
At the second China International Supply Chain Expo, held in Beijing in November, Panasonic showcased improvements like a mattress with a back-pressure-relief system and a senior-friendly bathe room.
These merchandise are already in use on the Yada Panasonic Community in Yixing, east China’s Jiangsu Province — Panasonic’s largest good retirement mission in China.
“We’ll continue integrating our expertise with local realities to explore this emerging market,” stated Tetsuro Homma, govt vice chairman of Panasonic Holdings Corporation.
The Chinese authorities has more and more acknowledged the financial alternatives offered by an getting older inhabitants. It launched the thought of growing a silver economic system in 2020 and mapped out methods and key industries in a coverage doc in January 2024. More lately, it has additional opened the aged care, medical and well being sectors to international funding, reinforcing its dedication to this market.
As getting older reshapes international financial and social realities, specialists say the important thing lies in proactive adaptation. With the appropriate methods, challenges can remodel into catalysts for progress — turning silver into gold because the inhabitants grays.