yaoyuan-新华社英文专稿向全球推介快乐老人大学

红网老年频道10月18日讯 10月17日，中国传统佳节重阳节这一天，新华社播发英文专稿《Xinhua Insight:Growing young a popular subject at China's "elderly colleges》（新华视野：越活越年轻——中国老年大学里的一个热门话题），专稿向全球读者详细分析了快乐老人大学在湖南受老年人追捧和喜爱的现象，展示了中国退休老年人追求老有老乐、老有所为的文化追求和精神面貌。在此之前，10月16日，新华社发表了另一篇题为《湖南：社区大学助力老人乐享文化晚年》的报道，其中也提到了快乐老年大学在湖南广大老年人中大受欢迎的现象。

附新华社《Xinhua Insight:Growing young a popular subject at China's "elderly colleges》英文专稿全文（中文翻译为红网老年频道编者所加）：

新华视野：越活越年轻——中国老年大学里的一个热门话题

By Xinhua Writers

Yao Yuan and Gao Wencheng

新华记者姚远、高文成

CHANGSHA, Oct. 17 (Xinhua) -- Wanna feel young when your grandchildren are already in kindergarten? How about enrolling in a college that teaches you how to be a youngster?

新华社长沙10月17日电——当你的孙子已经上幼儿园了，你想要越活越年轻吗？不如加入老年大学吧——教您重返年轻的大学。

Attending "elderly college" is in vogue at the moment in fast-aging China -- just take a look at one institution in central China's Hunan Province, whose classes on ballroom dance, yoga and how to take a selfie using smartphones are luring in legions of retirees.

目前中国老龄化不断加剧，读老年大学是一件时髦的事情——只需看看中国中部湖南省的一所老年大学，其开设的交谊舞、瑜伽、智能手机自拍课程正在吸引大批退休人员。

At Happy Seniors University, youngsters become teachers while seniors become inquisitive students. At the same age as their teachers' parents, the elderly students are eager to learn anything that can help them live like teens and twenty-somethings.

在快乐老人大学，年轻人成为老师，而老年人变成了满怀求知欲的学员。老年学员和老师的父母岁数差不多，他们渴望学习任何可以帮助他们像青少年或二十多岁的人一样生活的东西。

Some have to start from the very basics. Xin Yu, a teacher with Happy Seniors, said the university's smartphone course teaches students how to text and download apps before proceeding to more advanced content like shopping online and taking photos.

有些人必须从非常基础的东西开始。快乐老人大学的老师辛雨表示，他们的智能手机课程教学员们如何发送和下载应用程序，然后再教更高级的内容，如在线购物和拍照。

"We found that many old people have the most advanced iPhones but only know how to make phone calls. They can't even send messages or take photos that are not blurry," she said.

“我们发现许多老人拥有最先进的iPhone，但只知道如何拨打电话。他们甚至无法发送信息，拍摄的照片也模糊不清，”她说。

More ambitious learners can opt for courses like catwalks and Latin dance. There is even a class that teaches senior tourists how to communicate in English when traveling abroad.

更有想法的学生可以选择模特或拉丁舞等课程。甚至还有一门课程教老年游客在国外旅行时如何用英语交流。

Liu Jianjian, headmaster of Happy Seniors, said since opening in 2016, more than 10,000 senior students have attended classes at their 41 branches across the central province. Booming demand is now feeding their ambition to expand to other provinces.

快乐老人大学的校长刘建剑介绍说，自2016年创校以来，分布于湖南省的41个校区已招收超过10,000名老年学员。蓬勃发展的需求正促使他们向其他省份扩张。

FLY OVER THE EMPTY NEST

飞越空巢

China has around 60,000 elderly education institutions, according to the China Association of Universities for the Aged Apart. from those funded by governments, privately-run institutions like Happy Seniors are also cropping up, suggesting there is a huge market for elderly education yet to be saturated.

根据中国老年大学协会的统计，中国现有约6万所老年教育机构。除去那些由政府资助的机构，像快乐老人大学这样的社会机构也在不断涌现，这表明老年教育的巨大市场尚未饱和。

And they are expecting a bigger boost, as China's 2016-2020 development plan for elderly education has called on every city to have at least one university for senior citizens, and for 50 percent of towns and 30 percent of villages to have schools or learning centers for the elderly by the end of the decade.

老年教育期待进一步的发展，根据中国2016-2020年的老年教育发展计划要求，十年内每个城市至少有一所老年大学，50％的城镇和30％的村庄有老年学校或学习中心。

Behind the later-life learning fever is a quickly aging society. China's population aged over 60 reached 241 million at the end of 2017, and the number is expected to peak at 487 million around 2050, or a third of the total population.

晚年学习热的背后是一个快速老龄化的社会。截至2017年底，中国60岁以上人口达到了2.41亿，预计这一数字在2050年左右将达到4.87亿，占总人口的三分之一。

Though a significant number of retirees manage to keep their life busy by taking care of their grandchildren, many others are left idle in their "empty nests" as their children flock to other cities to seek better-paying jobs.

尽管有相当数量的退休人员通过照顾他们的孙辈们来充实自己的生活，但还有许多人因为他们的孩子涌向其他城市寻找薪水更高的工作而只能无所事事地留守“空巢”。

How to spend their spare time has become not only a family matter, but also a societal matter. In recent years, mahjong rooms in the name of "community centers for the aged" have sprang up in droves, city squares and parks have been invaded by "nanny dancers," and neighboring countries like Thailand and Japan have been seeing more arrivals of gray-haired Chinese tourists.

如何利用空闲时间不仅是一个家庭问题，也是一个社会问题。近年来，以“老年人社区中心”为名的麻将馆纷纷涌入，城市广场和公园遭到广场舞者的侵袭，泰国和日本等邻国也出现了更多的银发中国游客。

Zhao Baoquan, director of Happy Maturity, a Hunan-based newspaper for elderly readers, said the good news is that most of China's "empty nesters" are not feeling lonely, as they are actively seeking socialization.

湖南的一家老年纸媒负责人赵宝泉表示，有一个好消息是，中国大多数“空巢老人”并不感到孤独，因为他们正在积极寻求更多的社会参与。

The raging popularity of educational institutions also suggests an increase in healthy, energetic and educated Chinese seniors, thanks to rising prosperity and medical advances, Liu Hongchen, an expert on seniors at the China Volunteers Association, told Xinhua.

中国志愿者协会老年问题专家刘洪臣告诉新华社，老年教育机构的日益普及也表明，由于生活水平的提高和医学的进步，身体健康、精力充沛、受过良好教育的中国老年人增加了。

"The elderly universities also meet seniors' great psychological and social needs. They don't want to be marginalized and want to prove their worthiness by joining the classes," he said.

他说：“老年大学也满足了老年人的心理和社会需求。他们不想被边缘化，并希望通过课程学习来证明自己的价值。”

GOOD OLD STUDENTS

勤奋好学的老年学生

Feng Guangqian, 68, agrees. An active student in four music classes at Happy Seniors, Feng said that after retirement, he and his wife constantly felt the urge to learn something other than "the study of their grandchildren."

68岁的冯光前对此表示赞同。作为参加了快乐老人大学四个音乐课程的活跃学生，冯光前说，退休后他和他的妻子非常渴望学习，不想一门心思地围着孙子孙女团团转。

"We care more about the process than the results. Studying makes us feel much younger," said Feng, who is also the leader of the university's students' union.

“我们更关心这个过程而不是结果。学习让我们感觉更年轻，”冯光前说，他还是快乐老人大学学生会的领导者。”

Li Danyang, the Latin dance teacher at Happy Seniors, admits that most of her old students are good learners. "Old people study hard in class and practice a lot out of class. They learn even faster than small children," she told Xinhua.

快乐老人大学的拉丁舞老师李丹阳承认这群“老小孩”让她刮目相看。“老年人课上学得认真，课下坚持练习，他们学得比小朋友们还快，”她告诉新华社记者。