Ø The issue/problem the project addresses
Currently, the statutory retirement age in China is 60 years old for male, 55 years old for the female cadre and 55 years old for the female worker. The worker retires at 55 years old for the male and 45 years old for the female legally who are engaged in underground, high temperature, heavy manual work or other harmful work and reach the fixed number of work seniority. The aging tendency speeds in recent years. China National Committee of Aging published a communiqué titled Statistical Communiqué of the People's Republic of China Aging Development on June, 13th, 2010, indicating that the aged population above 60 years old reached 167.14 million standing at 12.5% of the whole population. It predicts that the aged population will break through 2 hundred million taking up above 15% of the whole population during the National Twelfth Five-Year Plan period (2011-2015).
However, considering the life condition, the percentage of empty-nest family exceeded 50% in urban and rural of China and reached 70% in some large and medium-sized cities. A recent survey by Key Laboratory of Mental Health of Institute of Psychology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, shows that 40% of urban old people suffered depression, of which detectable rate raised remarkably compared with that of ten to twenty years ago equivalent to the western countries. And 18% of the urban old and 30.9% of the rural old always feel lonely, 2.6% in the urban and 4.9% in the rural had the intention of suicide before. The health problem and the psychological problem become more and more prominent, and it causes much discussion in the society widely about how to spend the old age.

Ø The method for addressing the issue
1. Thoughts of Design
Chinese government advocates the development of culture industry with great efforts at present. In recent ten years, many policies came out and the government is investing a great deal of funds to protect the ethnic culture heritage. Transmitters of Intangible Cultural Heritage have been selected countrywide and sponsored, receiving high benefits. We think that the program would spread the points to sphere of the culture heritage protection work. It not only saves the both financial and human resources of the fund, but enriches life of the old, beneficial to the social stability and development of culture industry.
Human are mixture of social relations and unable to do without communicating with others in every stage of life. Based on the substantial and medical needs, the old also desire to communicate with others emotionally and enrich their life. As the Statistical Communiqué revealed, the attendance of the urban old climbed from 38.7% to 45.1%; the number of the old willing to join the community-organized activities went up from 56.4% to 66.2% in the urban and from 54.0% to 61.4% in the rural. It shows that the majority of the old have an aspiration to join social activities, and the number is rising.
On the other hand, from the perspective of human resource, the old own two broad kinds of human capital generally:
①Reserving traditional culture more such as the cooking skill, handicraft, cultural customs, dialect and so on;
②Many valuable stories in the memory.
Two programs have been designed in the theme and some efforts are made.Although the plan is dedicated to China, still fit for other countries and region as well after some adjustment.

2.Ethnic Featured DIY Workshop Program
Background: With the modernization advancing, people’s awareness of inheriting and developing the traditional culture is fading away. The post-80s and post-90s generation in china grow up in the environment of quick economic growth and social revolution. Chasing the trend of globalization, they are influenced less and less by the traditional culture. However, the old reserve what the young are losing like the cooking skills, handicraft, cultural customs and dialect and so on. At the same time, DIY is a burgeoning industry, of which the profit pattern is offering customers sites and properties for creating and entertainment. DIY workshops are various in creations and cheaper. What’s more, it appeals much to the young as a way for leisure to show oneself and enjoy delight of lives. Currently, there are many DIY workshop making dessert, clothes, handicrafts and so on. With the mission of providing platforms to inherit the traditional culture, the Ethnic featured DIY workshop keeps the traditional profit pattern, and makes the old mentors, then the young DIY.

Methods of operation: Collect the information of the old willing to teach skills. After testing, register the name, contact information, address and specialized skills and so on of the qualified old. Rent a site in the community or of buildings near the community where the old lives in, and purchase the properties and materials. Promote the workshop to attract the young. The old teach or instruct the young to DIY and receive some fees for costs spending, paying the old and funding for the program.
The DIY creations vary according to the specialty of the old. There are some typical creations as reference:
①Cooking: To instruct cooking skills, especially the ethnic featured snacks like pickles, steamed stuffed buns, pies of Han nationality, beef jerky and dried milk cakes of Mongolian nationality and so on.
②Handicraft: To instruct to knit the sweater, the scarf and the paper-cut, the embroidery of Mongolian nationality and Li nationality and so on.
③Calligraphy: To instruct the calligraphy to write more beautiful on the creations when in need.

3. It’s Story Time Program
Background: According to the legal retiring age, the retired female are all born before 1956 and the retired male before 1951. As the data shows that there is a large span on age of the old, they may experience some historical events or have many valuable stories in their memory. In It’s Story Time Program, the old could not only feel the loving care from the society, but also enjoy the procedure of telling stories; as for listeners, the story could be materials for researches or helping memorize the history knowledge. The life story of the old are also intended to be dug out and used for a part of intangible cultural heritage.

Methods of operation: Collect the information of the old willing to tell stories, and register the name, address, contact information and outline of stories. Contact with a few high schools and primary schools to organize students to pay a visit to the old as volunteers. Students chat with the old, listen to the old telling stories and write diaries or reports which are sent to teachers and the old. Teachers may comment on the work and make a judgment, dig out deeper and even publish them. These materials can also provide convenience for the researcher about culture，languages and history.

When the plan goes further, there'll be a database on the information of the old participating,exclusive magazine to publish stories of the old written by student listeners, to broadcast the potential stories and to develop interests for the old.

Example

In Ethnic Featured DIY Workshop Program, we develop the business model of traditional DIY workshops, that is, providing materials and spots to DIY which will be paid. What the program develop is employing the old who manages skills in making ethnic things(food, handicraft and so on) to teach customers, especially the young unable to do ethnic things as elder people. In It’s Story Time Program, we organize students to chat with the old and make them write down stories of the old with permission. Appreciated writings will be published on media like webs, magazines, newspaper and so on with our recommandation or directly on our exclusive magazine. And the payment should be given both to the author and the old telling stories.