You're listening to Roundtable.
I'm Yeohong Lin, joined by Steve and Yu Shen.
Coming up, we've all seen it.
Young people glued to their screens, watching stories of CEO falls for the girl next door.
But now, imagine CEO falls for the grandma next door.
That's right. Elderly love stories are officially a thing.
And you're not. And these stories are not just for the elder crowd.
Young folks are binge -watching these silver -haired romances.
And honestly, who can blame them?
It's like The Bachelor with way more wisdom and stuff.
And that's what's behind this cross -generational obsession with senior romance.
We'll be talking about it right away.
But just before that, Roundtable's Happy Place.
What is it? Happiness from Roundtable.
Welcome to Roundtable's Happy Place.
This is the part of the show where we step away from the noise of the world and share something that's brought us joy this week.
Sometimes happiness is found in the simplest of things.
So Yu Shen, what is your Happy Place for this week?
Well, for my Happy Place, it's definitely my day trip to the Chinese archaeological museum that I had during the alternate holiday.
Well, not really. It's just shocked me to see how our museums have gone to a next level, because I was in there expecting to see some unearthed artifacts that reveals the Chinese history, as always, as you would assume to be exhibited in a museum.
But when I was there, it was so cool to see the technologies, like digital screens and 3D animations and 3D movies and everything being used to just showcase the artifact in the most detailed way.
You can just be there and put your finger on a big screen right in front of the artifact and just see the subtle details of the pattern being reviewed to you as well as what they mean, which part of the history this represents and what it possibly tells you.
I was there. One of my favorite parts of this museum is to be there in person to see this turquoise inlaid bronze plaque with beast mask design.
I actually have it in the studio right now.
You stole it. No, it's a picture I took.
Oh my gosh, I wish I can steal it.
It's about the size of your hand, the real thing.
The picture that I took is right here.
It's a piece of decoration that originated in, I think it's back in Xiong Dynasty about 3 ,600 years ago.
This is from unearthed in the Arli To site in central China's Hunan province.
This is just another piece of souvenir.
It's a cup holder, I think, that replicates the pattern of this decoration I'm talking about.
Very cool. It's a mask face, little piece of turquoise decoration.
Yes, it's round. It's kind of like a plate.
The color is actually very shiny.
Different 50 shades of green and a little bit yellow.
Very, very beautiful.
I think I should not be using yellow.
It's gold. It's golden color.
I feel like seeing the souvenir makes me want to see the real thing because the souvenir is definitely very trendy and bright and shiny in color, but you could imagine a little bit of history and culture in the real artifact makes me want to visit.
One other thing is that it's called the Chinese Archaeological Museum instead of the History Museum because as you go through the exhibitions, it also tells you how certain artifacts that you're seeing right now was unearthed from the site.
How the archaeologists, how they worked on this site to get this piece all the way to you and to reveal the history behind it, which just reminds me of a very deep thought that is we always assume that we know about our history.
We think we know everything about how China came to be, how Canada came to be, how the whole world comes to be, such various civilizations that we now have.
But as we learn, as I learned from the museum, it's like you walk through it, you see a lot of the excavations are still ongoing and there's still more things, quote unquote, new things that's only new to us being unearthed and being exhibited into the general public.
It just reminds you how small human beings are in the land history and how respectful we can be in face of the rich history that's presented in front of us.
So yeah, that's my trip to the Archaeological Museum.
Very lovely. And I feel like nowadays museums are trying really hard to attract people back into their arms so that they can give them the knowledge, the souvenir, and the fun that people should be loving.
Yeah, that's very nice.
I would like to visit as well.
How about you, Steve?
Well, Yushan, your happy place was an artifact from 3 ,600 years ago.
Mine is a cake from 45 minutes ago.
My wife prepared a lovely birthday cake for me and I just wanted to - Happy birthday!
Happy birthday! Thank you, thank you.
But I don't want to focus on that.
I want to focus on the cake because she spent a month, a month, searching for a good cake for me for my birthday because we tried to order a cake about a month ago and we just kind of chose a random place and it was not good at all.
So she spent a month searching online for a great cake place and she found one and I had it after lunch today.
She prepared it for me.
So thank you, honey, if you're listening, it was amazing.
That was a legit, legit carrot cake, by the way.
If you're a fan, I'll tell you off air where to get your next one from.
That was a really happy place for me today.
Aww, I think the happy place is not a cake, it's love.
Yeah, it's the sweet memories as well.
Did I focus on the wrong thing?
Sorry. That's very beautiful.
I think we should always cherish what we have.
And you know, your wife is amazing, by the way.
I should learn a bit from her.
I think, yeah, after a while, you, after being getting married for a while, after spending 20, 40, well, 20, 30, 40 years with your parents, after working in the same company, in the same office for several years, you kind of take things for granted.
You lose track or you kind of like ignore or sometimes, uh, unconsciously or unintentionally neglect the fact that you should still appreciate what people are giving you and you should do the same thing for the people you care about.
Yeah, yeah. So she worked really hard to get that cake, so I just wanted to say thank you.
Yeah, that's very sweet and it's worth sharing.
So for those of you who are listening, do something for your significant other or do something for people you love.
It will make them happy and it would definitely make you happy as well.
And folks, Honglian has been looking me in the eye the whole time she's talking just now.
So yeah, for the young folks out there, be prepared.
We've got homework to do.
Alright? What's your happy place this week?
Okay, so for me, the happy place is still something a little bit about the just past National Day holiday.
It's about revisiting or just visiting a place that I have been to.
I would definitely say about hundreds of times in my childhood, that is the biggest commercial area in the city, Taiyuan.
That is the provincial capital of Shenxi province, my hometown.
And that area is called Liao Xiang.
So it's like the, uh, commercial area.
Like a big market? It's not a market.
It's just one, several rows a block, basically a commercial block.
And originally, or when I was little, I would talk to my friends and say, let's go there and go some shopping.
We don't usually shop.
It's more like window shopping.
So what we walk in the area, go to certain shops, have some food, have some, I don't know, afternoon tea.
I didn't realize I do that when I was a kid.
Anyways, so that was the area that I visit all the time, but because of the kid, the marriage, the pandemic, everything, I'm not saying they're the same or they should be listed together.
What I'm saying is things happen in life and I haven't been there, been back there for around five or even seven years.
So this time was the time after around five years.
And I realized the place has been renovated, like two, a whole new different.
Did that make you feel good?
It makes me feel good because the essence, the spirit is still there.
So for the food court, there are still the food street is still the food same food street.
It's just it's getting wider.
It's getting cleaner.
It's introducing more interesting snack, little shops into the area on top of the ones that I'm super familiar with.
I'm also looking at the ones that I thought I could only get in other places outside of the province.
Yet they introduce them to the area so I can enjoy them.
And the old ones are still there.
And when it comes to the commercial area, I realized that some of my favorite old stores are still there, yet they've introduced some new ones and they've even transformed the entire area with this relatively traditional ancient Chinese and Tiki looking kind of way.
They have decorated the shops, the outside of the shops.
So it's old, new and nice.
And I see so many people enjoying their times there.
But yet you still get to see the shops that you used to see when you were going there.
Yeah. And that's really great too.
That's really great.
And that is why I also did a little bit of research and I realized that area actually has a history of over 300 years in commerce.
And it is home to one of China's four largest night markets and the largest night market in North China at a certain period of time.
So that was only because I had this feeling that I did research about this childhood area.
So one thing is I definitely recommend you to visit the Liu Xiang or Kai Huas area in Taiyuan if you want to go tour that place.
And the second thing is revisit the place that you loved as a kid.
Maybe it'll surprise you.
Yeah, that's a little trip down memory lane.
And those places are still there.
What a nostalgic feeling for you.
That's great. And for our dear listeners out there, don't forget to find your own little slice of joy this week.
It's definitely out there.
Just trust me. You're listening to Roundtable.
Don't go away. We'll be right back.
Looking for passion?
How about fiery debate?
Want to hear about current events in China from different perspectives?
Then tune in to Roundtable, where East meets West and understanding is the goal.
It's Roundtable with myself, Niu Honglin, Steve Heatherly and Yu Shan.
What makes love stories so timeless?
Is it the feeling of unknown excitement and youth?
Or is it something deeper?
Lately, short videos and reality shows featuring elderly romance have emerged, captivating a wide spectrum of viewers from tense to signers.
Could these fascination with elderly love stories be a reflection of a changing society, one that's starting to appreciate that love isn't bound by age?
Well, that's a very deep question.
To answer that, let's first take a look at what change has taken place in this content industry.
How come? Or what kind of elderly romance are we talking about?
Well, for now, the trend points to the media and content creating sector, because recently there's several romance shows and Chinese short drama from China and maybe abroad as well, that have highlighted such a significant shift towards romantic stories featuring old or like elder demographics, because I
would assume it's not that respectful for a lot of listeners out there.
But anyway, so the short drama series, let's call it The Flash Marriage with a Wealthy Partner, that's his name translated from its original Chinese name, which is And the South Korean dating show, Finally in Love.
So both of these are reflecting this trend and it's ongoing and it's like very popular recently.
Take the show for an example.
So The Flash Marriage with a Wealthy Partner and by the phrase used, the Lao Bar term, which refers to partners of an elder age in Chinese, I would assume that this is a romance story between two like older people who's got some sort of popularity among young people as well and the data proves so as
well. So this short drama has exceeded 4 .8 billion views on Douyin, the domestic TikTok following a traditional romantic framework yet also combining elements that resonate with older viewers as well.
So The Female Lead embodies the classic image of just imagine the frugal, caring women engaging in activities like selling inexpensive meals and hand -selling for the male lead, et cetera.
And there are some typical idol drama behaviors that can be spotted in the show, such as partying or getting jealous because of her romantic partner is ignoring her stuff like that.
And also there are scenes that features their age, well, maybe in a stereotypical way, such as taking the leading female role, taking care of the daughter -in -law by bringing them eggs.
I don't quite get it.
That's a nice gesture.
This is a drama though.
This is not a reality show.
No, this is just a drama.
The other one from Korea that you mentioned, Finally in Love, this is a dating show though.
So a little bit of a different style, isn't it?
And when we think of reality dating shows, which by the way in Korea are really, really popular, but typically you see young people on those shows, young single men and young single women.
This one is for older single men and for older single women as well, which is a really, really cool thing.
And I wondered, oh, is this just something that's happening in Korea, maybe something that's happening in China as well?
Or is this happening in other parts of the world?
I remember watching a dating reality show on Netflix that was called Dating Around.
That's where one person goes on five different dates with five different people and then they choose at the end of each episode, the one person that they want to go on a second date with.
That's the premise for the show.
And each episode has a different main dating person.
And one of the episodes, my favorite episode featured two, I don't know if elderly is the right word, but maybe they were in their late sixties or early seventies.
And I found it so appealing because the style of the date that they had was so different, not in what they were doing.
They were simply having a glass of wine eating dinner together.
But the things that they talked about were so entirely different.
They weren't bragging about their careers or the type of car that they drove or bragging about which university they graduated from.
They were talking about how proud they were of their kids growing up.
And maybe one of them, their spouse had passed away, you know, 10 years ago, 15 years ago, and now finally they're comfortable getting back into the dating scene.
Things that you'd never ever hear about.
Those were the types of things that they were discussing.
And I can see why this appeals to not only an older generation, but I can see why this is appealing to younger people too.
Simmetality goes to this reality show I've seen that's made here in China.
That's a blind date kind of reality show featuring elder folks.
So if you're looking at the kind of blind dating show in China for the younger generation, like Steve said, it's similar here.
They would talk about their career and they will brag about the background they have yet for the elder folks, they get quite serious.
Well, there are different couples for sure, but some couples get really serious.
They would come and start saying, you are my type and this is what I have.
These are things that I expect you to do.
And these are the things that I want to do.
I know love is too early as a content of our conversation, but I can take care of family issue.
I can cook. I'm a really good cook.
I'm good at cooking noodle.
Do you like noodle?
I mean, these questions and these conversations are so real.
Yeah. And it's just so honest and upfront.
And I think that the, what's behind that is let's not waste each other's time.
Let's just, what can you offer our relationship?
What can I offer our relationship and let's see if we could potentially have something together that Korean show, by the way, that I just talked about.
The participants are between 50 and 60 years old and they have 300 ,000 views per episode on YouTube.
And I'm telling you, it's not just the older people that are watching that.
Younger people are watching it too.
So now we're already looking at at least the three different types of entertainment focusing on these silvered haired.
So the first type being, you know, the relatively romantic, unrealistic, silly, love romance stories that give you the, almost like a Doberman shot right there.
It's like an electric pacifier for everybody.
You, you see the simple plot.
You see someone who's getting bullied by some bad people, quote, unquote, bad people and getting saved by the prince charming, the relatively elder prince charming, but still prince charming.
And for the second type, the reality show one, we see elder people getting really serious about love and you appreciate that honesty.
You appreciate this different shape of different type, different form of romance.
And the another one you see, also see relatively silver haired people in their, really in their shape when we talk about 60 or 70, they do not look 60 or 70 in our stereotypical imagination.
Actually they look 40 or they, they go exercise in a gym, they look very fit and the relatively elder ladies are also elegant and beautiful and you appreciate their love and their romance quite so much.
Finally, we have some content for the elder generation and it is not without reasons.
Oh yeah. I was just looking at some, some points that Steve mentioned just now about the love that one featuring one Korean guy who is 60 year old Jin Zayu.
I believe that's his name.
He always appeared in black casual suit and he says that he always exercised at five 30 am and always to remain his youthful look in a way.
And also on that show, a lot of the guests, they discuss things that you don't normally imagine people of their age would pay attention to, such as MBTI, like the character, even like the Zodiac thing.
Like, yeah, they discussed about their characters, their individualities, same here in China as well as far as I've watched.
Well, I watched one with my grandpa once and it's just featuring how straightforward those guests could be when they're right in front of each other.
I didn't hear much about the love and romance part, but all I heard is their financial status and practical issues and what their characteristics are, their health status for us.
One of the most mentioned topics as well, do, do I have any chronic, chronic diseases or what will happen?
What kind of care would daycare what I require if we're to be together because we're talking about guests at their sixties and their seventies.
And it just reminds me, you know, now nowadays, a lot of these guests, these elder people, when they're seeking for romance, they're coming out of a very practical way, but in the meantime, they're also demonstrating self independence in a way that I am not someone's mom.
I'm not someone's husband or someone's wife.
I am me. I have such needs and I'm, I have, I share such features with you.
Would you like to join me in such a way?
Yeah, for me, that's the main point that it attracts a young person to watch them.
And you mentioned the bachelor before.
Did you know they had a golden bachelor?
Oh really? They did it in 2023.
They had planned to do it around 2020, but the pandemic set it back.
And when they finally did it last year, their debut episode had the highest ratings that they had had since 2021.
And their finale had even higher ratings than that.
I think it was 6 .6 million people viewed into the finale of that.
Those are the shows, but let's talk about why these shows are popular at all.
What's behind this?
I think this is a reflection of the silver haired economy growing and growing and growing, and we can look at different countries for examples, but since we're here in China, let's, let's stay here.
For example, from 2016 to 2020, China's silver haired economy market size, it was growing and continued to do so, reaching 5 .4 trillion yuan.
That's about $76 billion in 2020.
And they say, according to the National Health Commission, this is from the New York Times.
The number of elderly people in the country is going to increase to 400 million by 2035.
And we're seeing a lot of different things reflecting those numbers in society these days.
The New York Times article talked about a dairy company that made formula for babies, but because of the declining birth rate here in China and because of the reduced number of babies, the company has switched to making formula for the elderly.
There was another example about a company that made smartwatches where you could give them to your children so you could track them.
Now that company is marketing smartwatches for the elderly, where kids, their kids, 40, 50 years old, can give them a smartwatch that is equipped with a one touch emergency call.
That's another reflection.
One last example. There's a woman by the name of Yidong Mei in Jinan in East China who used to run a string of kindergartens.
And again, seeing the declining number of children enrolling in those kindergartens decided to switch those kindergartens over to centers for the elderly.
She now teaches singing and dancing and music and art.
And those students, they don't take summer breaks or winter breaks.
They're there all year round.
They go on class trips and things like that together.
They're loving it. And I think all of those things that I just talked about, they all tie together as a reflection of the silver economy.
And I think that's why these, these television shows about old people, old people dating, older people dating, excuse me.
I think that's why these are popular.
Yes. And the super haired economy is definitely something that's booming.
People say that this super haired economy actually provides a lot of opportunities and yet we also see that they are catering to the needs of the elder generation.
We talk about elder generation, but actually these generations are still constitute of different groups of people.
If you're looking at those who are around their sixties, seventies, eighties, and nineties, they all have different needs, very specific needs that need to also be looked at, to be focused on and to be offered.
And actually in 2020 for this year, this year, the double ninth festival, a traditional Chinese festival, which is Chong Yang Zie in Chinese falls on the 11th of September.
That is a traditional Chinese festival designated to show our respect to the elder generation and the family pay attention to their needs and to see what can we do to make their lives better.
So for any kind of company, no matter the reason behind the shifting of focus, actually, I think focusing on the elder generation and to provide better services, better goods, and make the society more friendly for the elder generation is definitely good because we will get old someday ourselves as
well. That's the plan.
If things go well. Definitely.
When there's a need, there's always a market.
And when we talk about his silver hair economy, we're talking about the big market that's behind a certain percentage of the population of a nation.
Take China as an example.
So by the end of last year, 2023, about 297 million, nearly 300 million people in China are aged 60 and older, accounting for about 21 percent of the total Chinese population.
And those aged 65 and above exceeded 217 million, representing about 15 percent of the overall population as well.
So when we talk about fulfilling their need or creating, say, contents or creation of creative contents for them, those are the audience, the viewers that we're catering to.
Yes. And that is why I ask for those content creators to be a little less stereotypical and not to just change the age of your actors, of your characters and try really look into what is happening.
What is a romance story for those in their 60s, 70s are like and do that stories and pretty sure all of different audiences and different age group would be very much inclined to watch that as well.
So a lovely romance story is changing the 20s, the actors in their 20s to their 60s is not the best answer just yet.
And that brings us to the end of today's roundtable.
We'd love to hear your thoughts on today's topics.
Leave us a comment or send us an email to roundtablepodcastatqq .com.
I'm Yul Hong -lin with Steve and D 'You Shen.
Thanks for listening.
