雅虎香港新聞 We Age: A feature about the changemakers in the ageing Hong Kong
Hong Kong's Census and Statistics Department has predicted in 2038, 15 years from now, there will be one elderly in every three persons. Meanwhile, the United Nations Population Fund's (UNFPA) latest report said Hong Kong will champion as the world's oldest population by 2050.
The ageing population hits the government's finances, for instance, an additional 768.8 million HKD was allocated to elderly-related support provisions in 2023/24 including a three-year Care the Carers campaign. It also poses challenges to the medical system, carers' well-being, and perhaps subtly, social inclusivity.
Since 2009, local slang "fai3-lou5" (「廢老」) has been used to enforce a stereotype of older persons. Usually adopted by the younger generation, the term labels the seniors “useless old".
While it is without unanimity on who or when first coined the term, its popularity is found to be associated with the priority seat launch in MTR around the early 2010s when the young were pressurised to offer their seats to the elders and otherwise risk facing criticism. The term was then masked with a political meaning during the Anti-Extradition Bill Movements in 2019 — referring to the elderly who were indifferent to politics or supported the blue camp (Pro-Beijing stance) — representing a greater tension between the two age groups.
"We have a common perception: when people get old, they become a burden to society awaiting passive care," said Legislative Councillor Tik Chi Yuen. "It's about time we see our elderly as social capital. The seniors can contribute greatly to our society."
Tik notes that he has witnessed some community-level changes towards shaking up this perception, "It's good, for the wellness of the society, and the wellness of our elderly."
Meet the changemakers
Behind the individuals and organisations that challenged the stereotype, and led towards an age-friendly society
Caritas: bringing transformative activities to empower the old
In traditional elderly service, the elderly are portrayed as people who need care from others, but what if they can be the ones who give care to others?
Community centres play a critical role in leading this transformation, by providing opportunities for the elderly to contribute to the community, or even among their older fellows.
Deep Luk, a social worker from Caritas Mok Cheung Sui Kun Community Centre (below ‘Caritas’), has observed a younger trend among the elderly and classified the 50- to 70-year-olds as “young old” who demand differently from the elderly we have in mind.
"A lot of the young olds love seeking fun and energy," said Luk.
During his 13 years of work at Caritas, Luk started off specialising in youth services. However, in 2018, he was in charge of the elderly services for the 300 active members.
Despite the age difference, he said the way of providing services to the seniors is more or less the same as the youths, as he described the elderly as “knowledge explorers” who are eager to join activities and learn new things. He then launched the “Elderly as Digital Content Creator” programme in 2021 where the elder participants are trained as key opinion leaders (KOLs) and produce videos about issues close to them.
Most of the participants had no prior experience in filming or post-production, but they were taught the skills and were encouraged to try, Luk said, “If they could press the button, they’re winning already!”
Being a KOL is particularly attractive to the elderly as they have a desire to share. They can share their work immediately on Facebook and WhatsApp, letting their family see what they have accomplished and take pride in them.
About 30 to 40 elderly take part in news discussion meetings at Caritas, where they freely discuss elderly rights policies, for example, the $2 Scheme, elderly home arrangements, and medical accessibility. Some also served as representatives to voice their discussed agenda to the District Council and Legislative Council directly.
In 2018, the group expressed safety concerns about road-crossing on Centre Street in Sai Ying Pun to the District Council, as the narrow road was dangerous for the elder pedestrians. The government bodies later took action to widen the crossing area and draw a line designating the road-crossing zone.
“The elderly benefit not only in terms of their personal growth, but also the community — we hope to give the elderly a voice and a chance to show care to their rights and opinions,” said Luk.
Nancy, almost 70, is an active member of Caritas, and she reckoned that she has advanced her communication skills by discussing news with her elder friends.
She worked in a managerial role until she retired even before 65 years old, and is now enjoying her retirement as planned: regular worshipping at church, joining community activities, and pursuing a master's degree at the Hong Kong Metropolitan University.
“I used to speak like a boss,” said Nancy. “You know, when I was at work, everyone just shut their mouth when I slapped the table. But I can’t now, right? I’m still learning how to better communicate with others.”
Through participating in group activities, she has expanded her social circle and learned to respect others while holding tight to her ideas. She also appreciates the exposure she gained as it is “never too old to learn.”
Luk said young olds like Nancy are competent and have moved with times, and he hopes the government can provide support to aid the elderly in running their own organisation for other elderly.
“They can direct their own services for other elderly in need, and move forward with the community as it ages,” said Luk. “The elderly can take up more roles, yes, this is what I envision for the future.”
Chow TV: self-started elderly entertainment channel, allowing happiness for all ages
“I just have one simple goal — bring happiness to the elderly,” said Wing Chow, with a big smile on her face, in her cramped studio.
Wing Chow solely runs an online media platform producing content that targets the elderly. It all started six years ago when she graduated from the City University of Hong Kong (CityU).
Chow was enlightened by her internship experiences at social enterprises, where she brought seniors in wheelchairs and living in elderly homes out to have fun and enjoy many of their “first times”: eating shabu-shabu, playing air hockey, and singing in party rooms.
"I was shocked to see a Japanese uncle got all dressed up in a suit for a buffet dinner, treating it very seriously.... It was really sad. Think about it, being trapped in elderly homes, they’ve never been able to go outside for years," she recalled.
Chow was constantly reminded of her grandmother during her work, who looked after her when she was small and the two were bonded like friends. Yet, they gradually grew distant and Chow regretted the less time spent with her grandmother’s rest of life.
Later, she started paying more visits to her grandfather at an elderly home. She then realised the aged find it hard to kill their pastimes and therefore came the strong desire to do something to bring happiness to the elderly.
When Chow graduated from CityU in 2017, instead of applying to jobs like most of us, she made a very different choice and started a YouTube channel for the elderly, Chow TV, named after her surname.
Clasping the 200 thousand dollars of funds she won from a social innovation competition, she purchased some equipment and began filming vox pop videos on YouTube, asking the elderly to share their romantic stories and views.
The channel soon became more diverse, as a lot of elder acquaintances met from internships supported Chow and formed a crew of 15 sharing content about cooking, travelling, singing, planting and more. Some of the crew members later took part in external media productions, like featuring in music videos and TV reality shows.
The brand is also active on social media, especially on Instagram, which has accumulated over 17 thousand followers. As Chow reckons a lot of youngsters often associate "old" with "boring" or "outdated", she wants to shake off this common perception while calling for more understanding across ages.
“When you talk about ‘elderly’, many would still picture a grey-haired man in floral shirts and cheap plastic slippers…. But in my opinion, they are always hungry for fun and knowledge, and can be very stylish!”
Stepping into the sixth year of operation, Chow TV has gone through ups and downs as Chow described, but “money is definitely the main struggle” and was once the centre of an argument between her and her family.
“My family never supported me from the beginning. They’ve said things like ‘why don’t you go seek a proper job’, ‘you can’t even live with that money’, ‘just stop and go to work’...”
Despite feeling sad, Chow was not deterred from pursuing her ideal — she promised her parents: if things did not work out by the time she turned 30, she’d stop. To sustain the channel, she began sourcing more external jobs like hosting KOL classes at schools and elderly centres, as well as doing multiple part-time jobs.
What kept her moving was simply the happiness she brought to the elderly and the connections they built through her work. The elder friends who once rejected her have joined her league, “It’s only because of you, if others called me to show up at events, I wouldn’t.”
Her enthusiasm has changed her parents’ attitude too. Chow’s parents are now showing support to her by attending events and press interviews, and she was touched as her parents finally acknowledged her work, and the things she wanted to do.
Recently, Chow started working full-time Mondays to Fridays, but she continues to run Chow TV and serve the elderly in her limited free time.
She is now 30 years old.
When reminded of her promise made to her parents, she laughed, “Haha, so I’m doing full-time now to make money! That 30-year-old limit? It’s just a lie, I’ll never give up.”
Build a more age-friendly city with Happy Ageing Lab
Apart from service-based assistance, our urbanscape shall be transformed to cater to the seniors' needs to achieve happy ageing. All-rounded and tailored transportation and outdoor spaces and buildings are both essential for building an age-friendly city, according to the World Health Organization.
In 2012, it launched Universal Accessibility Projects that promote mobility among the elderly by constructing more accessible facilities like elevators and ramps. The Projects now expanded to include the facilities in housing estates.
Yet, other than accessibility, the elderly now demand more from the community: resilience, network, participation and inclusion. An urban design-focused participatory initiative at the Chinese University of Hong Kong (CUHK) is trying to make it happen:
Legislative Councillor Tik Chi Yuen echoes Professor Mo's viewpoint and urges the government to set up a task force dedicated to solving the crises along with the city's ageing population, in addition to a 10-year plan similar to the city's housing strategy.
He described it as "absolutely necessary" and that the government was short-sighted without a semi-long-term plan ready to cope with the rising elderly proportion.
He calls for more changemakers and wider cooperation between sectors: individuals, communities, government and businesses, to jointly weave a "safety net" for our elders.
The stories were extracted and edited from We Age (original copy here, published on 8 December 2023), a final-year capstone project co-produced by Prudence Lam and Alison Chan, for the course JMSC4001 at HKU. This website serves the purpose of entry to the Yahoo! Student Journalist Award 2023-2024.
In the original copy, we also discussed the crises brought by the ageing population and aimed to present a holistic view of the issue, as frankly, we all age.
Stories are co-produced in December 2023 by Prudence Lam and Alison Chan,
Final-year Journalism students at HKU
