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social and cultural diversity leads to different people having different definitions of "old age".

the world health organization calls people aged 15-44 young people, people aged 45-59 middle-aged people, people aged 60 to 74 young elderly people, and people over 75 years old elderly people.

but whether a person accepts old age often depends on the specific situation. some people declare that they are "old in mind and body" just after they turn 30, while some people who have reached retirement age never mention "old age" because"i don't feel old. as long as the country needs me, i can work for another 20 years."

the "post-60s" generation, which is about to enter old age, is a very special generation of chinese. they are the "baby boomer" generation, which has created the largest demographic dividend in china and even the world. a considerable number of them are highly educated. when they began to enter society, they just caught up with the reform and opening up. their income and consumption levels have increased significantly in the past few decades. they have witnessed and personally created an era of rapid change. in the 21st century, they have deeply participated in the wave of globalization and benefited from it. now, they are starting the largest "retirement wave" in history.

they have left their own mark in the course of china's changing times. with the youth of reform and opening up, the middle-aged who enjoy economic dividends and pc interconnection, and the elderly who enjoy asset abundance and mobile interconnection, their retirement life also has richer possibilities. they hope to "have fun and contribute to their old age" and are using their real lives to build a group of "new elderly people."

"human pixels" is continuing to pay attention to their stories.unlike grand historical narratives, we are concerned about how they will spend the second half of their lives, and are more concerned about how each specific individual lives in their era.

if you are such a "new old person" or have a familiar "new old person" around you, you are welcome to contact us.

below is the first article in this series, telling the story of 65-year-old shanghai aunt zhuzhu.

“i’m very strict with myself.

i will do my best.”

when i met zhuzhu for the first time, my eyes and mind were very busy.

she dresses up carefully, and if you look closely you will notice many details, whether it is the neatly combed bun at the back of her head, the carefully groomed eyebrows, the necklace that matches the ring, the silk scarf and shoes that match the color of the skirt... everything reveals the word "delicate". if you use shanghainese to describe such a woman, it is "嗲".

i added zhuzhu’s wechat and opened her personal homepage, and saw a line of “live and learn, and be a sophisticated woman of the times” prominently placed in the introduction of the video account.

most people who wrote an introduction like this would probably be criticized for being "too immodest" or something like that, but when i looked at the person in front of me and then lowered my head to read these words, i felt that they were apt.

zhuzhu is 65 years old this year. she has grown from a "shanghai girl" to today's "shanghai aunt". she has experienced the resumption of the college entrance examination, reform and opening up, the wave of self-employed individuals "going into business" and even the wave of computers and the internet. zhuzhu has a lot of stories to tell.

the true story we record today is zhuzhu’s growth story and also the story of a generation of shanghai people.

caoyang new village

in 1950, according to the instructions of the central committee, chen yi, then mayor of shanghai, pointed out: "the current economy has begun to improve, and we must take care of the treatment and welfare of workers." against this background, china's first workers' new village, caoyang new village, came into being. later, shanghai successively built fengcheng new village, anshan new village, kongjiang new village, laoshan new village, yutian new village and other workers' new villages. since then, a large-scale construction of workers' new villages has been carried out in shanghai and even across the country.

the workers' village is different from the traditional alleys of old shanghai, nor is it a european-style neighborhood. instead, it is a suburban garden-style residential area. zhuzhu, born in 1959, was born and raised in such a workers' village.

due to health reasons, she took a year off from school, which allowed her to catch up with the college entrance examination in 1977. however, she failed the physical examination and missed the chance to be admitted to the university. "i asked to go to a technical secondary school, but they said no, because the quota was occupied by the university." recalling those years, zhuzhu felt regretful and relieved."that year, many people, for one reason or another, did not go to college."

not being able to go to the countryside due to poor health was a "blessing in disguise", and not being able to successfully continue her studies and find a job later also became another "blessing in disguise" for zhuzhu.

after being unemployed at home for a while, zhuzhu began to take various job exams. zhuzhu found that she could be regarded as "the monkey claims to be the king" because "(those who passed) universities left, technical secondary schools left, and vocational schools left. what are the remaining ones? if i take the exam in those schools, i will rank first in the city."

in the end, she chose to work in a district department store not far from her home. on the first day of work, the store manager commented on the introverted zhuzhu:"you are good in every aspect, but you are not suitable for business."

it was this sentence "not suitable" that made zhuzhu, who had been introverted for 20 years, change herself from an i person to an e person. the motivation was the sentence "you said i am not suitable, but i will do it to show you, i will definitely do my best."

there was no concept of "sales champion" at that time."i always get first place in any assessment, including skill assessment and sales target."

the salesperson with a sharp eye can tell at a glance what size the customer can wear. the beads are sorted at the wool counter, and she can tell at a glance which color sells well and which color doesn't. she can not only tell what size the customer wears, but also the wool content of each yarn, and even estimate how many rolls of yarn the customer needs to knit a certain style of sweater.

this was not enough. zhuzhu also took the initiative to go to the factory workshop to learn, feedback the problems encountered at the counter to the factory, and communicate how to improve. today, zhuzhu is a reformer who "goes deep into the upstream of the industrial chain", and in that era when buying "shanghai goods" was popular all over the country,her hard work brought her a bonus of 7 yuan per month. "although it doesn't seem much, it adds up to one month's salary for a quarter."

"in 1988, zhuzhu and her friends went to guilin for a trip"

self-employed people who came down from the mountains

at that time, there was a star salesman in shanghai named ma guining, whose skill was "when you go to him to buy cloth, you don't need a ruler, you can tell how much you need just by measuring with your hands. not a cent, not a cent." "he was one of the top ten service stars on nanjing road, and i am also one of the top ten service stars on changshou road."

from a front-line salesperson to a buyer, and then to contracting counters and management teams, zhuzhu worked hard in her career at the department store, relying on her passion to prove that she "can do it".

but to truly achieve financial freedom, you still have to ride on the favorable trend of the times.

zhuzhu and her husband both work in a department store. in the early 1990s, zhuzhu's husband was ostracized in the workplace and could not help but "go into business" and become a self-employed business owner."at that time, we all said that self-employed people were 'people who came down from the mountains'. they were very shameful. it took courage to come out."

the two rented a 1.5-meter-long counter near the jade buddha temple and sold towels to pilgrims on the first and fifteenth days of every lunar month. they saved their first pot of gold one dollar at a time. later, they rented a store on changshou road and shaanxi north road and started selling wool sweaters.

in order to ensure that her children can go to school and receive medical treatment, zhuzhu chose to stay in the company. in order to avoid the suspicion of "abusing public power for personal gain", zhuzhu took the initiative to apply for a transfer to the men's shirt counter with the worst performance. that counter had been losing money for years, and everything started from scratch.

"in the past, we were dogmatic about purchasing goods. we bought one box for each size. the most popular ones in the middle, those with normal weight and height, were definitely sold out. the ones left were at the ends. if they couldn't be sold, we would discount them and suffer losses," zhuzhu recalled."after looking at the situation, i won't buy in this way. i buy the most in the middle, and i just need to make sure there's stock at the 'two ends'."

it didn’t take long to “revitalize” the worst counter, and zhuzhu didn’t stay there for long. the couple spent several years selling sweaters to the three northeastern provinces, and they had a position in the best sales points in each city.

it was not until the chinese new year when zhuzhu returned home and discovered that there were problems with her child's education that she decisively gave up her career and returned to shanghai."many people of my generation didn't make it to college, so my children can't be wasted, otherwise all our hard work for so many years will be in vain."

because of the family planning policy, zhuzhu's generation of people "in the system" living in the city only have one child, and their children's education is often put before their career, especially for women.

the road to financial freedom

in 1994, against the backdrop of a major adjustment in shanghai's urban industrial structure and mass layoffs of textile workers, shanghai airlines decided to relax the age limit for recruiting flight attendants and recruit a group of cabin crew members from laid-off female workers in the textile system. the 18 laid-off female textile workers selected from tens of thousands of applicants were later called "flight attendants."

at about the same time, the shanghai housing exchange company also released 30 positions, mainly recruiting laid-off female workers from the textile system to engage in real estate transactions. the recruitment advertisement at the time stated that it was recruiting "house wives."

"zhuzhu was interviewed as a representative of "house wives""

zhuzhu, who had been on unpaid leave from her job, also went to the recruitment site with the idea of ​​trying her luck. during the second interview, the boss asked her why she wanted to be a "housewife". zhuzhu replied: "i have nothing to do and i am bored. i want to find something to do. i said that you are recruiting here, and i can do a little better than the workers in the textile factory."

on her first day at work, zhuzhu was interviewed by a tv station as a representative of "house wives". at that time, she did not know that she would witness the 20 years of shanghai real estate development from its inception to its rapid development as an eyewitness.

during the years when she was a "housewife", zhuzhu was engaged in the replacement business. it was not until 1998 that china abolished the welfare housing distribution system, housing was completely incorporated into the track of the market economy, and the house replacement market in shanghai completely withdrew from the stage of history. zhuzhu and her colleagues became the earliest intermediary brokers in the shanghai commercial housing market.

in order to enhance her competitiveness, zhuzhu bought a computer and tried to learn interior design by herself, but later gave up because "renovation is too complicated." after her daughter was admitted to university, zhuzhu started to show her talents and founded her own real estate agency. zhuzhu can be said to have "participated in the whole process" of the excitement and fluctuations of the shanghai real estate market.

as soon as she turned 50, zhuzhu applied for retirement, officially ending her “suspension of pay with leave” at her original unit.

but zhuzhu's own business was booming at that time, and retirement was just a formality for her.from being a "housewife" to starting a business again, it is not so much a path to financial freedom as it is a path to spiritual freedom for an outstanding professional woman to find her career positioning.

don't say it's too late, the sky is full of rosy clouds

zhuzhu officially retired at the age of 60. when her daughter, who settled in australia, gave birth to her third child, zhuzhu and her husband wanted to stay at her daughter's home for a while to take care of her.

originally planned to stay in australia for three months, zhuzhu's husband only stayed for one month before returning home."the area there is vast and sparsely populated. after a child goes to bed at eight o'clock, he has nothing to do. how can he sleep?"zhuzhu stayed longer, but still decided to make shanghai her main base for retirement. “i really can’t stay there,” she said.

you have to do a good job when you are working, and now that you are retired and starting to enjoy life, you also have to have fun.

today, zhuzhu is a kol (key opinion leader) in her circle of friends. she likes to learn new knowledge, and when she sees health knowledge and life tips on the internet, she always tries them with great interest and then shares her experiences enthusiastically.

she likes to mix health tea, adding or reducing the amount of flowers and herbs in the thermos cup according to the season. her friends also follow her example and brew some chrysanthemums in dry weather, and add some red dates and longans in winter. recently, in addition to the thermos cup, zhuzhu also carries a small foldable water cup with her."just sit down anywhere and pour the tea from the thermos cup and drink it slowly. it won't burn your mouth," she said.

zhuzhu's attention to detail is hidden in the small details. when she gets together, her friends learn her "new tricks" and discuss them again at the next gathering. in the words of young people, this is an "active community atmosphere."

but even someone as experienced as zhuzhu cannot avoid being "cheated" when traveling with a group.

during that group tour, it started raining heavily early in the morning, so a whole bus of people were taken to the shopping spot early in the morning. because of waking up early and out of sympathy, zhuzhu and her friends were all unconsciously drawn into the shopping atmosphere.

"the agent acted very pitiful, a little girl, saying she was the boss's daughter and came to experience sales during the holiday. she said her father would not give her commission, and all she needed was sales. in short, her words were very touching, and we were all moved by her. everyone bought." zhuzhu recalled, "and we rushed to buy like crazy. after everyone finished the first round of purchases, we were taken to another room to see more high-end products. only then did i feel something was wrong and it didn't seem right."

seeing that her companion wanted to pay but didn't have that much money with her, and asked to borrow her card to pay, zhuzhu quickly whispered to her companion to "be careful", thus avoiding a larger expenditure.

after every failure, zhuzhu has become more cautious and picky when choosing travel products.

last october, zhuzhu saw a live broadcast room called "gongbilin juhuiyou" on the video account and discovered the product "yiyiju" designed for retired people. "it costs more than 100 yuan per person, two meals, and you can sing ktv in between." at that time, zhuzhu called on her friends to place an order together and went to experience it in a lively manner.

after the experience, we joined the membership group (this was not unfamiliar to zhuzhu and her friends). the housekeeper recruited "volunteer teachers" in the group, and zhuzhu also signed up."i like to play anyway, so isn't it great to join this? i'll learn about the product, and then whenever my friends want to go somewhere, i can take them there."unexpectedly, zhuzhu got a "new job" and her schedule was filled to the brim.

"zhuzhu receives the certificate as a volunteer representative"

the platform's users are mainly retired people, and the so-called "volunteers" are also recruited from the retired group, with an additional requirement of "love to share, love to organize". in gongbilin's travel routes, in addition to the standard tour guide, there is also a "silver-haired leader" who is a volunteer. this volunteer understands the needs of fellow travelers better and can supervise the quality of the tour group to avoid the "pitfalls" that zhuzhu had stepped on before.

we met zhuzhu on one of the tour routes. by then, she had already used her social skills to successfully lead several tours.

in addition to taking short or long trips as a group volunteer, zhuzhu's schedule also includes participating in various courses provided by gongbilin, such as mobile photography, video editing, online spreadsheets, etc. "if a (volunteer) teacher asks what they want to learn, we will make a course for everyone." gongbilin's housekeeper said that from monday to friday, the office building where they are often presents a strong contrast of pictures -elderly people who are well-dressed and energetic come to class, while the young workers who pass by them often have tired faces and a strong sense of class.

"zhuzhu meets with fellow volunteers"

as zhuzhu said, "now all i think about every day is having fun, being good, happy and healthy. the money comes in every month. how can i not be in a good state?"

starting from 2022, china's huge "retirement wave" of 20 million people per year will continue for at least ten years. faced with this generation of "new elderly" with broad vision, consumption ability and willingness, many businesses should be redone for the "new elderly" population.

a richer and more diverse retirement life is what they deserve.

(note: at the request of the interviewee, zhuzhu is a pseudonym in this article)