You're listening to Roundtable.
I'm Steve Hatherly today with Yushan and Fei Fei.
Coming up.
For many older Chinese citizens, the pursuit of a quality life now has a global dimension.
Beyond the pursuit of material comfort lies a deeper desire for continued growth and self-discovery, leading an increasing number to embark on educational journeys abroad.
Pretty cool, huh?
These immersive experiences where seniors engage with new cultures through language and art are becoming more and more popular.
We'll learn about it today.
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And now.
Retirement.
For many, it's long been associated with a life of looking after their grandkids, maybe some square dancing in the evenings and attending local senior classes a predictable routine confined to a few kilometers within your house.
But lately in China, a growing number of retirees are shattering that stereotype.
They're trading familiar comfort for the adventure of studying overseas, from art classes in the UK to culinary courses in France.
These silver-haired learners are not just traveling.
They're embarking on a journey of self-discovery and lifelong learning.
It is a growing trend.
How is the study abroad industry adapting to cater though, to this unexpected new group of learners?
Are they at all?
We're going to talk about that.
And does it say anything about China's aging population and what they want when they say quality life?
This is a really fun and interesting story to me.
So where does this begin?
It goes back it's not brand brand new in 2026.
I think it goes back about a year or so.
Yeah, since 2025, last year, there have been a lot of in particular, agencies have been starting to exploring these silver-haired learners.
So they launched a lot of services and tours and study clubs targeting these retirees instead of you know, traditionally the stereotype would be young people aged between 15 to 35.
Yeah, that's the kind of age for study abroad.
Yeah, yeah.
But now for people aged above 50 or even 60s.
They also want to explore overseas and see if there is a chance for them to be enrolled in this type of a university or any classes.
We're not talking about a week time of short time classes.
They could be staying for several months or even longer than that.
And this is a growing trend because in 2025, there is a survey.
They found that these study programs for these elderly range from two weeks to a year.
They cost between 20000 to 70000 yuan, which is about up to 10000 US dollars, and not including travel as well.
Oh, that's just for the classes.
Just for the classes.
And an agency called EF estimates that by the year 2030, these senior education market could reach 12 trillion yuan.
So we're talking about a business trend as well.
And these agencies.
They are actively kind of studying these new they call it the customer segments featuring retirees with financial stability and also a strong desire to learn that they see them as evolving businesses from potential customer bases the young people into a key target group.
So one of these agencies called ACG, which is an educational agency, it launched its Retirement Study Abroad Club after the 2025 Spring Festival.
So the founder of this one called Ziwen Li, who is by herself a retiree with international study experiences, this one day the club stems from her own insight into the unmet needs of silver-haired learners.
So mrs said that chinese universities, the domestic ones, they perhaps lack a little bit of systematic channels for retirees to return back to campus.
And most study abroad agencies focus on young people nowadays, which is quite understandable.
That's been the mainstream trend in China for many years.
So this club ACG, has since attracted over 50000 members nationwide and helped 500 learners to enroll in universities around the world.
So that's something that's going on with this one.
Then another one called New Oriental Future Study Abroad.
They also rolled out the TULIP program in the second half of 2025, which is also a program dedicated to overseas learning projects for mature groups, meaning the retiree group.
So this program in particular they are offering to a lot of these retirees that seek in-depth experiences rather than academic degrees, which is understandable.
I think after you retired in the age of 50s or 60s, it doesn't really matter if you have a master or doctorate degree.
It's more about the experiences or things you actually learn for yourself.
Yeah, when you compare it to typical university and what young people go to university for?
Yeah, it's degree acquisition.
But when you're older and you've retired already, you've already gone through your entire career, but you still want to learn some stuff.
You go back to the stuff that you wanted to learn before but never had the opportunity to. to do.
Yeah.
I have this example called Lillian Wu.
She is 66 years old and she joined more than 20 fellow students from across China for a four week art program in a university in the UK.
So what she said is that, instead of just traveling, you know, just glimpsing, taking photos and then leave to the next stop, type of tour, Which is also great.
Yeah, but these kind of study experiences can be highly intensive in learning.
She tried four majors.
You can see how active she is in learning.
She tried fashion design, she tried printmaking, jewelry making, and photography.
And then after class she get the chance to explore the UK with her classmates and also make new friends who share her passion for art.
And then even she started a live stream after returning to China to promote this new lifestyle to others.
That's amazing.
I mean, there's no pressure, right?
Young students have the pressure of getting a high score.
But here you want number one, you want to learn.
You want to be there.
So you're a highly motivated student.
But number two I don't even know if they give out scores in these types of programs, because it's not like you're studying for any particular degree.
Yeah.
And also you can ask the case that I just talked about Lillian Wu.
She can change her majors four times over the course of four weeks.
So we can see it's more about experiences other than scores or certificates, or maybe she doesn't really plan to do anything in terms of you know the skills she learned from fashion, design or jewelry making.
She probably may not be turned into a fashion designer.
Anytime soon.
Yeah, but it will be something fun.
With no desire to do that anyway.
That's the ideal case for learning, I would say.
Yeah, yeah, exactly.
Without all that pressure.
Yeah, I think it totally makes sense because I was just sharing with Fei Fei, right before the show, that back in the days while I was doing my master's in the UK, the majority of the class I majored in translation and culture.
By the way, the majority of our class were all under 30, if not 40, years old.
Then there were two ladies, one from Russia, the other one I can't remember where she's from, but both of them are above their 50s, if not 60s.
And when you see younger students hanging around in group activities and group tasks, these ladies sometimes they feel As if they don't belong with any of the groups.
But in the meantime they also try actively hard to engage with whatever activity and assignments assigned to us.
And they they had the same passion shared with the rest of us and finishing each and every step.
During that one year of master program, each quiz, each exam, each essay or the dissertation in the final stage.
They were just so focused in each and every one of these, just like the rest of us younger students.
Sure.
They were there getting their master's.
Yeah, that was a serious master degree.
But the point of me mentioning this is because it's really hard for for them, because they were there, because they want to to become a translator for so long, but they don't get to do it, perhaps during their entire career.
One of the Russian lady I know she comes from finance background, so she just want to do something she like after retired and after her kids are in university.
So that's why she became enrolled as part of this program.
But I guess it's not for everybody.
For the majority, such as today's Chinese retirees.
They're just looking for immersive experience rather than a whole long project that require one year for them to just focus on.
So these are becoming more and more popular.
And you said Feifei, that the times can vary a little bit, because I guess the agencies is this fair to say the agencies are adjusting to their customer base.
And their customer base, they might want a few weeks, they might want a few months.
So I guess there would be some different options available.
Yes.
So most retirees like to choose short-term study programs lasting, as I mentioned before, from two weeks to four.
And according to this new oriental company, their two-week program that Yushan talked about, over 95 of their participants opt for in-depth study experiences rather than long-term study programs.
So then, and I think this is true for a lot of different programs.
The ones I was looking at, too, I'll share those in a couple of minutes.
The ones I was looking at, if you take a two-week program, it's very intensive.
And actually, you don't have a self-discovery outside of the class, for example.
But if you take a four-week program, it's a little bit more relaxed.
You spend... Yeah, it stretches out a little bit for you.
Yeah, exactly.
So your day of learning is broken down into smaller chunks, I suppose.
But the people with that particular program.
They said they want to go and just dive straight in huh.
Yeah, I think it also depends on the goals of you getting enrolled in these kind of programs.
If you're really after learning about something, attaining some sort of skills well, this comes from true passion, like Yushan shared about those two ladies wanting to be translator.
And of course, they will choose more intense curriculum design and more study.
But when you are just thinking about you know, I just want to give it a try maybe explore the local culture a little bit, making some new friends.
They could be up to spend more time and more relaxed when it comes to what kind of classes they're in.
Language is one of the things that some of the travelers or students I don't know what to call them traveling students one of the things that they want to study, but language skills are not necessarily required.
In the other example you were talking about the ACG program, Yishan.
So they have about 15 students per class, but they have full-time translators in the room.
That's really cool.
Yeah, and teaching assistants too.
So if your language skills aren't up to snuff, if you're in France or Italy or where have you, it doesn't matter.
They have a translator there for you, which is amazing.
So that takes the pressure off too.
Yeah, and this also gains these traveling students a whole experience of just getting immersed in knowledge and also bringing them the confidence and personal growth for them to realize this is how life can be.
I can continue learning after retired.
It's not like I'm just staying at home and taking care of kids, which brings to one of my big I wouldn't say controversy.
It's more like a question I have regarding this topic when I first see it.
It's not like we're talking about it because it's happening all over China.
Well, it is happening.
It's a growing trend, apparently.
But it's not like every Chinese family, every Chinese retiree is doing this.
Well, yeah, it's not cheap.
Right, precisely.
And also, the majority of us, of the retired and over 50 and 60 silver-haired economy recipient parts, they're still... know staying in china and they're still enjoying the domestic um life as they do it's not like we're trying to say that this is all of a sudden all of chinese retirees are doing this and in the meantime i almost feel like are we trying to promote this idea to them as well or like how do you guys Well, I think it's more about opening up the possibilities in the future.
Like if you have the financial capabilities to afford that and you feel like you really want to explore more about the world, you're not really satisfied with just staying in your own community, your own city or even within your own country.
You want to see other cultures, meet new friends, maybe speaking a different language friend, these would be a possibility.
And there are channels for you to get this thing done.
Yeah, I see the business model quite sophisticated now.
You know, when we're talking about people, people are different.
Some of them are more adventurous.
Some of them are just quieter and like to stay within their comfort zone.
And there is nothing wrong with that.
But for people who look for adventures and want to See more experience more.
This is the channel.
Yeah.
You can get the option is there.
Yeah.
You know, and I think it's a good thing because yeah, of course, the argument would be well, this is not for everyone, because not everyone will be able to afford this.
These programs are really, really expensive.
The ones that I found from America, they have these in the States, too, by the way.
Also very expensive.
For example, art and architecture in Barcelona.
You can take a two or four week course there.
You can take a wellness course in Bali in Indonesia.
That's pretty cool.
Again, two or four weeks.
Another one that stood out was cuisine in Mexico City.
Again, two or four weeks.
But these are thousands of dollars, thousands and thousands of dollars.
So, yeah, it's not cheap.
But I think it's true too that people, when they retire, some people are very content, like you said Feifei, very content staying within the community or staying within the country and playing golf or whatever your hobbies happen to be.
But for other people who want to pursue this, the fact that the option is there and the fact that these companies are catering to these retirees when these programs wouldn't have even existed before, I think it's kind of a cool thing.
Yeah.
Well, that makes sense.
I remember when my dad retired.
My dad was a school teacher for 34 years.
Impressive.
Yeah.
Never missed work.
Never missed a day of work.
And really, really loved his career.
And it was his first summer of retirement.
And I came out onto, we were at our cottage or the beach house, and I came out into the front area.
And I said, what are you doing, Dad?
And he was on his hands and knees.
He said, oh, I'm putting wheels on the bottom of the plants.
And I said, why?
Why?
And he said, well, I usually have to bend over to pick up the plant and carry it and put it down.
Now I can just kick it.
I said, oh my goodness, you need a hobby.
That's his hobby.
You need a hobby buddy.
That's a practical hobby.
Putting wheels on plants.
But my dad is one of those people.
You know, my parents would go to Florida for a few months every year.
But he's one of those people.
He wouldn't be interested in a Barcelona architecture course for four weeks.
You couldn't convince him to go to that.
But there are people who are into that.
That's my parents, actually.
My mom, after she retired, she's just looking for tours all the time.
Every year, every couple of few months, she'll call me and like I'm going to this country next month.
And I'm like, okay, good for you.
But don't you feel like traveling too much maybe can be really tired because you join a tour group and you travel for like four spots within a day.
But she really, really enjoyed it because she said either before she retired, when she went to another destination, it's either for business or with a group of family.
She needs to take care of them.
And now she can really take the burden off and she can really spend time looking at the architecture, listening to local people chatting, even though she may not understand them, enjoying the local cuisine trying.
For example, when she traveled to Italy, she tried to order a coffee by herself, even though she speaks no Italian at all.
How did that go?
It turned out really great because everybody's really friendly when seeing her trying very hard and trying to figure out what kind of coffee she wants to enjoy.
And that really opened up a new window for her.
She was really intimidated about traveling, because it's a different country, it's a different culture, it's a different language, it's a whole different system.
Really intimidating.
Yeah, what if I get lost?
Who should I turn to for help?
I didn't speak the language and it just feels like very scary experience, but now she's more brave.
And I think for a lot of people who are sort of on the fence of, should I go out?
Should I just stay in my comfort zone?
This is the place that you can really just try a little bit for two weeks.
Maybe it's fine for you.
Yeah.
I agree with that too.
I mean, for me, Me, the idea of traveling to a new country was never scary or intimidating.
And the idea that something might be new, or I might get lost or I might not understand what words are being spoken to me always made me feel curious.
Not everybody feels like that.
I remember before I moved to Korea, right before I moved, my mom put about 40 boxes of toothpaste in my suitcase.
I said, what are you doing?
And she said, well, I said, mom, Korean people brush their teeth.
I'm pretty sure.
And she's like, well, I don't know if you can get this brand there.
And my dad's out putting wheels on the plants.
But that's what I mean.
The concept of, like a country that's very far away, with foods that are unfamiliar or languages that are unfamiliar, is really scary for a lot of people.
So coming back to this topic.
If there can be translators in the classrooms, if there can be guides that are there to help with the experience.
I think this is just such a wonderful thing.
This is what I mean.
Of course, it's wonderful for the individuals that are taking part in these programs, but I think it's more important for those individuals to come back to China and share their hopefully positive experiences with other people and say actually, you know, getting out there and like challenging yourself and trying new things is not as terrifying as you think it is.
In your brain, it's 100 times worse than what you actually experience.
And this is the time when I recommend to Feifei's mom a translation earbud.
It really works magically.
You know, we're getting so spoiled these days, though.
It's just making things a little bit too easy, I feel.
Yeah, but technology can help.
Imagine about five years ago.
Even you go to a different country.
You need to make sure everything is working on my phone or I need to place an order for a digital translator.
Otherwise, if I need help, for example, especially medical help, I can get things done.
Yeah, that's true.
That's true.
That's very true.
That's an important point.
Safety first.
All right, so where is this market heading then?
Obviously, the opportunity exists for some really special experiences.
Are they expecting the market to grow in the future?
Is it going to get bigger?
Yeah, definitely.
These agencies, they're looking at this huge market potential for this group.
So the president of the New Oriental Future Study Abroad pointed out that about 20 million people retire in China every year.
And even if only 1 of them have demand for studying abroad, it will form a large market for these agencies and also a good opportunity for these retirees.
So for studying abroad agencies, silver hair study abroad may as well just become more than just a supplementary business side business in the future.
And also it can be inspirational. for domestic educational institutions.
They don't have such programs right now.
Build them.
Make them.
Yes.
After seeing this trend, opening up new programs targeting these 50 60 plus retirees will be another thing.
Last very quick question, quick answer.
What program and where in the world would you go?
Retirement program.
Oh my gosh, I want to be a dramaturg or a director for stage drama.
Ooh, which country?
Maybe in the UK.
Okay.
I want to go to France, study culinary.
Well, that was my answer.
Sorry, Steve.
We're going to take the same class.
Oh, there's going to be a competition there.
Yeah, that's the dream for a lot of people, I think, right?
Learn how to cook professionally.
These programs sound like a whole lot of fun.
All right, that'll do it for today's roundtable.
Thanks very much for sharing your time with us today.
I'm Steve for Feifei and Yushan.
Have a good one and join us again next time.
