In 2006, 17 older persons got together for a scooter tour around the island of Taiwan. It was a trip most of them had wanted to do for years. Over 13 days, the riders triumphed over winding mountain passes, wind and rain and surprised even themselves with how far they were able to push their limits.
Their driving force was the strong held belief that we are never too old to live our dreams. Along the way, they visited nursing homes and encouraged others to remain active in old age. Considering the riders were, on average, 81 years old at the time of the trip, it was an easy message to get across.
Aging is a hot issue in Taiwan as the percentage of the population over age 65 jumps from 14% in 2018 to 20% in 2026. Because of a very low birthrate and almost zero immigration, the transition from aged to super-aged will happen twice as fast in Taiwan as the United States and more than eight times as fast as the United Kingdom.
Hondao Senior’s Citizen Welfare Foundation (Hondao), the social organization behind the scooter tour, helps older persons stay active and connected to their community. Their do so by focusing in three strategic areas: Bu Lao Meng Xiang, filial piety activities and community care services.
Older Persons
Bu Lao in Chinese means never old or forever young. This concept informs nearly everything Hondao does. The Bu Lao Meng Xiang philosophy (Dreams Never Get Old) inspired the first Bu Lao Grandrider scooter trip in 2007 and since then it is an annual tradition. The Bu Lao movement even reached North America! In 2013, ten of the original 17 riders rode their motorcycles for 3 days from from San Jose to Los Angeles. The Grandriders once again visited nursing homes along the way spreading the never too old message.
Over time Hondao offered more and more Bu Lao activities for older persons. Bu Lao Broadway is a wildly popular annual Broadway-style musical that older persons rehearse six months for. There is even Bu Lao fashion design, television broadcasting, baseball, art exhibitions and many more!
Family and Friends
Filial piety is a Confucian value. It sets the norms for children respecting and caring for their parents. Modern filial piety has been under siege because more and more children are moving away from their parents for work. With the global aging population trends, it is time for filial piety to make a comeback. Practicing filial piety can relieve existing institutional strains and financial burdens. It can also be the social platform for encouraging respect and care towards all elders in the society. Hence, filial piety themed programming is another key focus for Hondao:
Meng Xiang Backpackers
The Meng Xiang Backpacker program brings people aged 18-40 and older persons living in remote areas of Taiwan together. The goal is to help older persons realize any unfulfilled dream. The volunteers visit the older person three times. First to get to know the older person, then to stay overnight, listen to the older person’s life story and talk about their unrealized dreams. On the third visit, the volunteer helps the older person make their dream come true. In 2017, 80 Meng Xiang Backpackers visiting 18 townships and helps 100 older persons
Peng Zu Experience
The Peng Zu Experience is named after a Taoist who is said to have lived 800 years. The program gives young people the chance to experience what it feels like to live in an aging body. Participants wear vests with weights on their back, knee and leg braces, and special goggles which distort their vision. Some try this experience for a couple of hours. Others take the experience on the road; riding a bus, staying over night in a care home, or sleeping on the streets homeless. Since 2008, 27691 people have given the Peng Zu challenge a try.
Generations
Another Hondao program, Generations, promotes respect and care of elders through a national competition. Families with more than three generations under one roof compete on how well filial piety is practiced in day to day life. Stories about the winners are printed in Hondao’s newsletter and covered in local newspapers. Through these stories, others can see how filial piety is possible and practiced in the modern context. Since 1995, 2339 families have been spotlighted.
All the work Hondao is doing to help older persons remain an active and important part of the society is working. The organization found that 91% of people with negative beliefs about aging became more positive after they have learned about the Dreams Never Get Old activities.
Service Partners
The third part of Hondao’s long-term strategy is community care services. Hondao provide community care programs in health promotion, care delivery, education, and innovation. The organization is unusually open to partnerships. They welcome cooperation with anyone who is working to better the lives of older persons;
- 1,241 volunteers all over the country visit isolated older persons at their homes. Volunteers clean, cook, and spend time with the older person.
- A cycling and health research center allows Hondao’s physical therapists to use their top-of-the-line equipment to customize exercise programs for the older persons.
- Each year, tradesmen and suppliers work together to repair and make safe the homes of older persons who live alone. Sponsors, like 7-Eleven and Formosa Charity Group, also support the project.
- Family caregivers and health care aides received training based on personal care models from Age UK and Buurtzorg Netherlands.
Infrastructure Partners
All of Taiwan – individuals, corporations, governing bodies and social enterprises – is working together to create the infrastructure needed for Hondao’s programs;
- Celebrities work as Hondao ambassadors to promote participation, volunteering and donations
- Professionals and industry experts volunteer their skills and time to help make various “Bu Lao Meng Xiang” realities for older persons
- Hondao and other partners brought Aging Innovation Week and the Stanford Design Challenge to Taiwan for the first time
- The City of Taichung, in the western part of Taiwan, transformed it’s Mayor’s House into a Bu Lao Meng Xiang museum to exhibit, among other things, an original Grandrider scooter
- Township governments all over the country are the driving force encouraging volunteering
Hondao, in return, share their expertise and is an infrastructure partner to others. For example, in 2013, Hondao helped three university students develop their social enterprise, Eldpathy, and bring the Peng Zhu experience to Hong Kong.
New Value Proposition
When I asked Hondao if I could visit, I told them I wanted to learn how to apply ethno-cultural lens in older person care. I was in for a treat! Finding their understated office in one of the thousands of alleys in Taipei was instantly forgettable. The meeting with Ms. Chen on Hondao’s philosophy and programs was eye opening.
The icing on the cake was the “magic bag” for their care homes activities and friendly visits. Ms. Chen pulled out traditional Chinese toys from the bag, including a board game they co-created called Let’s Bandoh! The game encourages older persons to re-embrace the joy and community of bandoh by using their imagination, memory and a bit of luck to make their favorite dishes.
When I asked Ms. Chen what she is most proud of, she said it is Hondao’s commitment to listening to the older persons. Sometimes the simplest things mean the most. Bu Lao Study Hall, for example, started with an older person who never had the chance to go to school. He couldn’t read simple things like street or grocery store signs. So a volunteer decided to teach him how to read. The concept eventually grew into small classrooms of older persons learning how to read and write.
For 24 years, Hondao has been pursuing its goals of encouraging Taiwanese individuals, corporations and government agencies to care for older persons with love, help them achieve their dreams and engage with them as people, not statistics. As Hondao continue to listen to older persons and meet them where they are instead of where society wants them to be, there’s no telling what new Bu Lau experiences and partnerships will evolve. I do know that I can’t to find out.
