University in Harbin innovates with courses for the elderly

Recently, a new course teaching senior citizens Karaoke singing is proving to be a hit at the Songshan Campus of Harbin University for the Aged in Northeast China's Heilongjiang province.

"In recent years, we can often see many elderly people going to KTV to sing together with their family members and friends, so we came up with the idea of starting the course," said Qi Xin, the director of the campus. "Before its beginning, we carried out a survey among our students and received a warm response."

"The first class opened on Oct 30 and then the second on Nov 4, each at full capacity with 42 students, each of which costs 90 yuan ($12.4) for 16 classes." he said. "There is still a high demand exceeding our supply."

"I give the students a one-and-a-half-hour lesson twice every week," said the university's vocal teacher Huang Nannan. "Different from other vocal courses covering different singing styles, the course mainly focuses on popular songs."

"I usually choose current popular songs that don't need complex skills, such as the theme songs from the latest popular movies," she said. "With their great enthusiasm and hard work, my students can make themselves skilled at singing one song after two lessons."

The university received a total of 39,000 registrations in the autumn semester in its eight campuses, with students' ages ranging from 45 to 90 years old.

It provides the students with 118 courses covering different fields, including life arts, calligraphy, dance, information technology and literature.

In recent years, the university developed a series of courses keeping up with modern trends, such as video editing, fitness, geriatric psychology, street dance and drones, all of which have been popular.

"We focus on the real needs of the elderly and design courses based on their characteristics," said Sun Dengcheng, director of the university's office of academic affairs. "With the rapid development of an aging society, especially the rapid growth of the elderly's demand for spiritual culture and learning, we will introduce innovative courses suitable for our students."