To Feel Young

Chinese New Year period always makes me reflect on aging, partly because of the unexpected aging faces of relatives I meet or the look in the eyes of people who presumably are surprised by how much I have aged. I myself am occasionally shocked by my own mirror image. "When did my eyes shrink in size amidst the puffy eyelids, my lips become so thin, my cheeks so sunken and my dark spots seem darker?" It didn't help when someone shared old photographs of my aunties when they were in their 60s. I must say I look older than them and I can see how my nieces and nephews view me now.

Statistics always use 65 as a benchmark to categorize the elderly eg. demographic statistics of  the elderly aged 65 and above or health statistics like " young onset dementia in a patients aged 65 and below". So it doesn't help that I will be hitting the official benchmark of being a senior citizen.

The strange thing though is we usually perceive ourselves as younger and are thus surprised at our image in the mirror. My mind's stagnated image of myself is 'me' in my forties. I must however qualify that this feeling of being younger only happens when I am free of physical ailments. A research has shown that people generally feel on average 16-17 years younger than they really were.

In a report featured in Lianhe Zaobao on 5 Feb 2017, Dr Feng Qiushi of NUS highlighted Singaporeans' view on "Successful Aging" as compared to those of other countries, reflecting how the views vary by culture:

"Researchers found out that solo-living elders in Hong Kong tended to highlight filial piety of children in their perceptions of successful aging; Ogimi villagers in Japan considered the traditional weaving as one means towards successful aging; in Korea, many elders take the success of their children as the marker of their successful aging."

Hmm...somewhat skewed I think. The Singaporean view I think is more balanced which is :
"Singapore elderly people wish for healthy, happy and independent lives, and meanwhile are eager for love from children, care from family and respect from society. " (Follow this link for the full text of the report  http://www.fas.nus.edu.sg/cfpr/media/images/lhzbcolumn/2017/Feb17E.pdf ).

As for me, while habitually twitching my fringe to hide the parallel lines above my nose despite the constant inner voice to be zen about it, my true Chinese New Year wish is to remain healthy so that I can always feel younger than my real age.