‘Old people and children are quite similar’: China’s silver economy shines as births plunge

{"text":[[{"start":12,"text":"From robotic heat therapy and exoskeletal walking aids to milk powder and furniture with no sharp edges, thousands of visitors to a Shanghai trade fair last week were offered a glimpse into China’s rapidly approaching future."}],[{"start":26.05,"text":"More than 600 businesses flocked to Shanghai’s International Exhibition of Senior Care, Rehabilitation Medicine, and Healthcare to display wares tailored to the country’s swelling old-age population — a focus for Beijing at a time when birth rates have collapsed."}],[{"start":43.05,"text":"“The market [for old people] is very hot,” said Zhu Yan, a sales representative at a stall displaying tooth-washing devices for infirm elderly patients under the brand Kangaroo Care. The design, she added, was originally aimed at children before switching to its new target market."}],[{"start":null,"text":"

"}],[{"start":59.8,"text":"Policymakers in China are putting an ever-greater emphasis on its “silver economy” — a concept that offers growth prospects at a time when a struggling property market has weighed on consumer spending. "}],[{"start":71.05,"text":"The government says the silver economy could be worth as much as Rmb30tn ($4.4tn) by 2035 as the ranks of the elderly grow and draw various companies into their orbit. About 400mn people, or more than 30 per cent of the population, are expected to be over 65 by the middle of the next decade."}],[{"start":91.05,"text":"Even state-owned rail equipment manufacturer CRRC is getting in on the act with intelligent nursing beds that apply principles from toilet technology on high-speed trains."}],[{"start":102.45,"text":"Wang Baozhen, a manager in one of its healthcare divisions, said everyone who came to their stand asked how CRRC got into elder care. “We want machines to take over the dirty work, the heavy work, the exhausting work,” she said."}],[{"start":null,"text":""}],[{"start":115.95,"text":"The halls of the exhibition centre were replete with similar references to technology. One company was displaying elderly nappies that notify an app when they become wet. "}],[{"start":125.9,"text":"Another, Xiamen Fuhuikang Electronic Technology, featured sensors designed to be attached to shoes to measure gait, alongside screens that map out the trajectory of each step."}],[{"start":137.4,"text":"Founder Lin Qida said such rehabilitation technology had previously been applied to the waist. “The foot can collect more data,” he said, adding that a subsequent assessment would “be able to evaluate the elderly person’s risk of falling”."}],[{"start":151.35,"text":"Elsewhere, a company affiliated to the Harbin Institute of Technology Robot Group displayed an immersive booth offering vibration therapy — technology that the salesperson said was also used by astronauts. “In a zero-gravity environment of space, astronauts’ muscles can experience some atrophy,” she said."}],[{"start":171.1,"text":"The event, which has been running annually for at least two decades, drew in groups of older consumers eager to test out the products as well as a number of associations for the elderly. “People’s attitudes are changing now,” said Sun Xuemei, head of an elderly people’s organisation at a Shanghai jiedao, a street-level government unit, that brought almost 70 people along."}],[{"start":192.7,"text":"“They will first pay attention to their own spiritual and material needs,” she said of older people. “Those needs are becoming more important and more prominent than before.”"}],[{"start":203.04999999999998,"text":"A salesperson at a booth for an elderly university in Shanghai said one course cost Rmb300 for a semester and included one 90-minute class a week. “It’s energetic — they don’t want to leave,” they said."}],[{"start":215.99999999999997,"text":"The event also highlighted a shift away from products for children in a country where the birth rate has more than halved since 2015 to 7.92mn last year, the lowest since 1949. "}],[{"start":229.04999999999998,"text":"A2, an Australian company that sells a milk formula product for the elderly, was attending the fair for the first time. “We are a big brand in the infant formula category . . . but with newborn babies declining sharply we stepped into the senior category,” said a marketing director at the stall."}],[{"start":246.1,"text":"Another booth laid out various educational technologies for the elderly, including lights that trace out Chinese characters for practising calligraphy, and pianos that guide the fingers to the correct keys. "}],[{"start":258,"text":"“Another part of our business is education products for children,” said salesperson Liu Cong, adding that “old people and children are in fact quite similar” in their requirements."}],[{"start":268,"text":"The event at times resembled the atmosphere of Shanghai’s many parks, where huge numbers of elderly people gather each day. Hu Rong, who was born in 1959, was participating energetically in a table tennis game and said the exhibition’s various exercise equipment caught her eye. “I just want to keep exercising,” she said, adding she goes to the park twice daily."}],[{"start":291.15,"text":"Some companies, such as appliance giant Haier, were displaying products that had long been on sale but now have newfound relevance amid the silver economy frenzy, such as dual-tube suction cleaning machines that could be used to wash bedbound patients."}],[{"start":306.25,"text":"For Wang at CRRC, the state-owned rail company attending the fair for only the second time, more people this year were aware of its role in the sector. “Many institutions are discussing future applications with us, and even talking about how the entire caregiving industry could be transformed and upgraded,” she said."}],[{"start":324.7,"text":"With contributions from Wenjie Ding"}],[{"start":335.05,"text":""}]],"url":"https://audio.ftcn.net.cn/album/a_1780985530_2954.mp3"}