Before I moved to Hong Kong, all I'd really seen of the city was from watching Martin's non stop google streetmap searches to find out where everything was in relation to the few street names he knew. When I finally arrived, I learnt that what I'd seen on the screen was pretty accurate: the architecture, the transportation, the shopping centres and the toilets are all fantastically futuristic, and neon flashes at you from every possible direction. I recently read that HK "feels like somewhere that came into existence only yesterday, or if such a thing were possible, that came into existence tomorrow", and for the most part, I have to agree. But contrary to popular belief, evidence of the HK's past is easy to find: just look at the faces of the old folk, wayfaring from fruit stalls, to tea shops to noodle soup style holes in the wall. Old people are everywhere and seeing old people has become something of the norm in Hong Kong, whereas in other places I've lived, seeing old people felt more like a novelty; something that only happened on Sundays. There are many factors which contribute towards this phenomenon, from low birth rates, low levels of saturated fat, good healthcare, and gallons of herbal tea to the simple fact that limited space means there isn't the possibilty to build new homes to hide the aging HK population. And if you think I'm exaggerating about age, just check the statistics: Hong Kong holds 2nd place (after Japan) on the UN's national life expectancy chart with women living for an average of 85.1 and men living for an average of 78 years- and it's expected that by 2039, life expectancy at birth will increase to 90 years for women and almost 84 for men. So when I say old people, I mean really old.
The area we live in -Hollywood Road- is well known for its abundance of antique shops, selling Chinese furniture, art and ornaments. Maybe it's because older people are more attracted to older things, or because they have a greater authority on such subjects, but there seems to be an above average amount of elderly activity in these parts. Old men and women run souvenir shops offering bookmarks, mugs, paperweights, postcards and all unimaginable household items in the form of the twelve Zodiac animal signs. Old men and women sit and wait for tourists in tiny room-cum-shop spaces stacked with shelves and cabinets displaying jade made buddas in every shape and size you didn't think possible. Old men and women sit on the fresh veg stalls, selling the the brightest sprouts and the longest spring onions to the locals while trying to offload pale unpungent tomatoes to the unconvinced expat community.
Those oldies who aren't sitting and selling are out carrying and collecting. It's something I noticed within the first few days of being here and I haven't stopped noticing it since: old faces and bent bodies throughout the city, earn what's left of their living as recycling pushers: scavenging around for recyclable goods and earning money by trading what they find for cash. It’s particularly popular with older folk because many of them don’t have an alternative source of income as they were probably already far into their retirement when the HK state pension scheme was first introduced in 2000. Ten years on, they earn their keep, and keep themselves fit, by exchanging old boxes and bottles for bunse. But old people paced work this is not: it means walking for hours, stacking, pulling and dragging carts piled high as the collect cardboard from recent deliveries at shops and restaurants; scoop newspapers from rubbish bins and stretch their arms inside the designated recycling containers to grab donated plastic bottles and metal cans. The work is difficult to maintain, not to mention manoever, so many of the recyclers rountinely ditch the paved pedestrian areas and trawl their carts through the streets instead. Unsuprisingly, this earns them honks from bus drivers and bells from tram drivers who remind them in their own fast paced ways, that perhaps people of their age should find a safer way of transporting themselves and their treasures around town.
Of course, not all the old folk work - but those who don't work, walk. or stretch. Old people nearly always wear trainers; they walk up and down steps and take the same steep route home that they always did and find spaces in the city to stand and swing their arms back and forth. During the Christmas holidays, as expected, our local park was overflowing with children wrapped up ridiculously warm to play on swings and slides - but there were also quite a number of old people playing in their own corner of the park: an outdoor fitness area for simple exercises and stretching. One older gentleman stood using a machine to rotate his arms around and around, at his own gentle pace. Another man sat a little further away, kneeding then punching then massaging his legs conducting some sort of self acupressure to improve his circulation during the colder months. An old lady stood next to a bar on the other side of him and caught my eye as she circled her ankles, holding her helper's hand to keep steady. Once her ankles were warmed, they made at couple of slow but steady laps of the park, followed by a round of steps. The session ended with them sitting next to me, where the old lady covered her head with a scarf to hide the sun from her eyes while her helper carefully massaged her delicate hands. And so that's how it goes in Hong Kong: this ultimately urban environment is actually full of lively old folk, who look remarkably healthy and continue to keep remarkably active and generally just keep on living.
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| Old man sorting his souvenirs |
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| collecting recycling |
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| old man , fresh fruit |
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| The ankle circling lady doing a lap of the park |
