‘Second Spring’ Urged for Taiwan’s Elderly

The Taipei government stirred an uproar three years ago when it set out to encourage the city’s widowed elderly to start a “second spring” with a new love.

The idea was outrageous in a Confucian society that frowns on remarriage. Social workers had to comb parks and community centers for people bold enough to attend get-togethers intended to make matches.

But lately things have started to change.

When the semiannual “Find Your Second Spring” party was held in September, 120 widowed men and women barbecued and danced in a hillside park while hundreds of others signed up for the next parties.

Two couples have tied the knot.

The newfound adventurousness among Taiwan’s “silver-haired” set, as they are called in Chinese, illustrates the changing role of the old in Chinese society.

For ages, Chinese people have revered their elderly as the heads of traditional extended families. Their word was law to sons and daughters, grandchildren, and grandnephews and grandnieces, who often lived in one home.

But in recent years, more young couples have chosen to live apart from their elderly relatives, breaking the traditional power of the old. Now, in place of houses filled with several generations, Taiwan’s elderly face loneliness and a sense that society no longer needs them.

The problem has grown more acute with increases in the population of old people. The average life span in Taiwan has increased by 2.1 years for women, to 76, and 1.6 years for men, to 71, over the last decade.

Aware of the trend, social workers in this city of 3 million people began organizing the get-togethers.

“The elderly first shied away at the idea, fearing their children and friends would laugh at them,” said social worker Huang Chun-chang who put on one party. “They now know it is their own happiness that counts most.”

Wu Hsien, 83, met Hsu Nien-hua, a 60-year-old widow, at a “Second Spring” party last April and admired her graceful performance of gymnastics.

After three months of courtship, Wu, whose wife of 50 years died three years ago, married his new sweetheart with the blessings of their children and 20 grandchildren.

“I feel full of energy and much younger now,” Wu said. “An old companion is worth more than millions of dollars.”

The Taipei city government also introduced a series of educational programs to help the elderly adjust to the social changes.

Elderly men and women can gather at community centers for health and recreational classes. They also are taught ways to manage their savings and pensions.

One important goal, Huang said, was to persuade Taiwan’s elderly to stop giving their life savings to their offspring before they die. Officials said relatives often dumped the sick and old into old people’s homes after they ran out of money.

Another new program helps the skilled elderly fight boredom.

The city recruited 50 aging men and women last September to teach middle school students martial arts, calligraphy, painting and cooking. The experiment worked so well that hundreds of other elderly people have signed up for the volunteer work next year.

King Ta-chiang, 73, teaches tai ch’i, a slow-motion Chinese martial art and exercise, four hours each week. He told his students that he recovered well from a lung cancer operation five years ago because of his long practice of the art.

“An old man does not have to sit at home all day and wait for death to come,” he said. “I work, I am fit and I feel young at heart.”