I’ve been in China for just over 6 months now and it’s given me a chance to look at life in a more detailed way. It takes a while to adjust to any new space and of course it a can always be a little overwhelming at first and so you tend to miss what’s going on in the background so to speak.

Apart from all the noise and the chaos, the traffic etc I began to notice the legions of old people, some of them looking after the grand kids and others are aimlessly walking around lost in a lost world. There are very few Grand Parents that I have seen that are really living in the moment, in the present. Most look to out of place and out of time. I have been living in a very quiet complex for the last 3 months and there are a variety of folk to choose from. Early in the morning when the weather has been fine there are around 6 older women, grand mothers I would say, doing their Tai Chi for at least an hour. I always wanted to go down and join them as it is something I have been interested in, but it was winter and it was too difficult to get out of bed for 7am to start Tai Chi, I’m not a morning person. These women were all quite fit obviously because they do exercise but they also looked young because of the way they dressed. These weren’t farmers that had been dragged from the country and dropped into the 21st century and trying to get a handle on things.

The old men wear suits, usually black. Mind you this is also common in older generations in other countries, it’s not unique to China but I think there are many more here. It’s like a uniform for the older man and I haven’t seen many Chairman Mao suits, which is a shame really.

But apart from the clothes it’s everything else about them that I find intriguing. A lot of them have mobile phones but there not smart phones, they would be the equivalent to a Nokia 5510 but with one difference, when they punch the keypad it shouts the number out loud and proud for all to hear. When the call connects it’s quite funny, although a little annoying, because they shout down the phone and you can hear them for miles. Mind you I have no fuckin idea what they are saying because my Chinese is not that good. It reminds me of when I was a kid and I made my first telephone with a piece of string and two empty bean cans and sometimes you did have to shout depending on how long the piece of string was. But it seems to be the women, more than the men that shout down the phone loudly and it sounds so so aggressive but that’s just the Chinese way.

In this digital age that we live in many people haven’t quite mastered the technology, I myself know a few like this and some are just not interested but the difference is they seem to be engaged in the modern world, these old Chinese Grand Parents seem to be the complete opposite and I think that is why I get some smiles and interesting looks when I use my technology to pay for shopping, or to navigate the public transport system using my trusty Samsung S5. ( I’m old and grey you see) The Chinese have several apps of course, but one you may have heard of is Wechat. I can send messages with it, voice or text. I can pay my mobile phone bill, I can buy things using this app. I don’t carry money anymore, I use my phone. I can transfer and receive money using it. Order a Taxi, a meal, train tickets………….the list goes on and on, oh and you can make phone calls for free. This army of old folk have no idea what potential the modern world holds. This might be because they never received an education and so can not read or right well. Mind you I’m illiterate here too.

Many of them have been drafted in of course to bring up the kids while the parents are out at work. It is the Chinese culture that dictates this continuity, even in the digital age. So I wonder what will become of these old lost souls, are they going to be able to adjust or are they to be doomed to live in a world so alien to them that they walk like zombies.

These old folk are not stupid, they may be illiterate but if you were to put them back into their natural, familiar surroundings you would see them bloom once more.