Recreation for the elderly: an American’s discovery at Houhai

A couple years ago, while I was studying Chinese near Wudaokou, I received a phone call from a young woman named Luo Rui who asked me to be her English language partner. I agreed and that winter we became friends. She showed me old-style Beijing food and invited me to her grandparent’s apartment to celebrate the Laba festival (臘八節). One day, we toured the historical home and gardens of Soong Qingling and I told her about my experiences at Wellesley College, where Soong Mayling ’17 studied English and philosophy.

But of all the memories we shared that winter in Beijing, I was most moved by something that did not phase Laura at all. In fact, she could not understand why I was so awestruck by a group of elderly Chinese men who leapt into frozen water at houhai—just for fun. As my fingers stuck together from the cold, this group of senior citizens, clad in swim shorts, paddled through a half-frozen lake. It was not some once-a-year event to show on a television special. It was an ordinary day in Beijing.

As I watched the men swimming, my gaze soon caught other elderly people using the lakeside playground, where a Chinese abacus nearby gave them a place to calculate house bills. Seniors stretched their legs on the colorful exercise machines. My eyes widened in surprise. I had never walked outside in Boston to see groups of retired men and women having so much fun together. Weren’t playgrounds for children? Seeing the seniors play together, swim together, and work out together in public in what appeared to me as a children's gymnasium introduced me to an alternate way of life for seniors. I had never seen the same sight in the United States. When I visited other parks near Beijing that winter, I also saw seniors singing traditional songs together. They swayed and smiled and encouraged me to join them.