Korea’s Elderly More Active Than Ever

She swims on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays and takes a dance class on Tuesdays and Thursdays.

She searches for and visits good restaurants with her friends in the day and is into the computer at home.

She finds the Internet easy, but the Excel program is difficult. So, she is planning to take a computer class soon.

This is not the story of a young housewife or college student. This is the story of Park, a 63-year-old woman.

Park’s monthly income is about 2.5 million won, real estate rent and pension combined. She spends 30 percent of the money enjoying cultural and leisure activities.

She has two kids, but she says, “I will not bequeath my property to my children. I’ll squander the money as much as I can before I die,” adding, “I want to live happily while I’m alive.”

The New Silver, those who are old but independent and want to actively participate in society just like Park, is emerging in Korean society.

The phenomenon was clear in a recent survey of 500 men and women aged between 59 and 67 that ANR, a research firm, conducted on the commission of the Dong-A Ilbo and Shinhan Bank.

The survey was done through face-to-face interviews. An in-depth group interview was also conducted on 16 interviewees by dividing them into three groups and having them discuss for about two hours.

The survey found that the interviewees have a proactive and positive mindset and enjoy their leisure time with various hobbies. They were considerably different from the traditional image of the elderly who were thought to be insensitive to the change of times and resistant to learning something new.

According to the survey, the New Silver generation actively enjoys its own hobbies and leisure activities (40.2 percent) and wants to focus more on the present than on the future (55.6 percent).

The members actively participate in society even after retirement and have socioeconomic influence. About 74.2 percent of the respondents believe that a job is needed regardless of pension.

They are independent in their relationship with their children.

They want to live separately from their children, even after their mates die (32.4 percent) and when their health deteriorates (18.6 percent). Two out of three (65.0 percent) of the respondents said that they would not give their property to their children before death.

One out of three (31.8 percent) denied that they are in the “silver generation.”

The term, New Silver generation, originally depicted the phenomenon in which the baby boomers, born between 1946 and 1964, break away from the traditional image of the elderly, while they are getting old.

Byun Jae-gwan, director of Korea Labor Force Development Institute for the Aged, said, “Korea’s New Silver generation is between the existing old generation and Korea’s baby boomers (born in between 1955 and 1963). But they show in advance what the baby boomers will be like after they become the elderly.”

Sun-Woo Kim Suk-Min Hong sublime@donga.com smhong@donga.com