The people in China who are interested in new things and social activities and are active in physical exercise are senior citizens, while many young people feel tired and uncomfortable, according to a recent survey that showed today’s Chinese senior citizens feel psychologically young, while many Chinese youth feel old.
Over 80 percent of the youth surveyed showed they already had entered middle age mentally. Meanwhile, the older people surveyed – with an average age of 60.5 years old – registered a mental age of between 29-30 years.
Hong Baose, an expert with Beijing Xinhaizhou Psychology Health Center, attributed the phenomenon to the societal transformation, with elderly people much less affected by current intense competition and other social changes in China. With less worries and pressures, they also have more time for physical exercise -- beneficial both physically and mentally. Last year, the Institute of Chronic Diseases under the Beijing Disease Control Center found senior citizens to be the group that most liked to participate in sports among some 1,000 people interviewed in the city.
According to Hong Baose, mental age is determined to a great extent by an individual’s psychological thinking. When people think themselves young, they tend to feel happy and fit. Otherwise, they age both in mind and body.
In that regard, the mental state of people in the prime of life does not look so good. According to a survey by the Chinese Academy of Preventative Medical Science, only 15 percent of people in China are healthy under The World Health Organization’s definition of health -- a state of complete physical, mental and social well-being and not merely the absence of disease or infirmity. Some 15 percent of those surveyed actually were suffering some kind of disease or other medical disorder. The remaining 70 percent had no functional diseases but said they often felt uncomfortable, tired, inactive, bogged down, worried, irritable, and helpless.
In part, social changes have had a greater impact on the young and middle-aged in China because of a gap between reality and what these groups expect, Hong Baose said. Many companies require job applicants be not older than 35 or even 30 years of age, which leads young people to worry about growing old. But that very worry leads to mental aging which, in turn, restrains young adults’ creativity, initiative and social ability.
Young people should broaden their horizons and minds to gain a fuller understanding of the society as a whole, Hong Baose said.
(Jiangnan Times, translated by Feng Yikun for china.org.cn January 7, 2002, )
