Karaoke classes strike a chord

"The new course is more vivid and interesting, providing us with a whole new way of enjoying daily life," she said. "I have also made lots of like-minded friends in the class. We can get together to have a karaoke party in our spare time."

The university received around 39,000 registrations for the autumn semester at its eight campuses, with students' ages ranging from 45 to 90. It offers 118 courses covering fields including life arts, calligraphy, dance, information technology and literature.

To keep up with the latest trends, it has developed courses such as video editing, fitness, geriatric psychology, street dance and drone operation in recent years that have been welcomed by the elderly.

Over the past decade, 69-year-old Wang Jinfeng has attended over 30 different courses at the university, including dance, photography, calligraphy, writing and smartphone skills.

"Although I am at an old age, I have never given up following trends, such as learning how to use smart devices," she said. "I have learned smartphone skills and video editing at the university for five years and will continue, as advanced technology is always improving."

Wang can now use a range of basic video editing software on her smartphone, and her short video posts on social media platforms always receive many likes.

"The short videos can help me record my daily life with my family and friends," she said. "I also like captioning my videos with beautiful words. The writing courses gave me lots of help."

Sun Dengcheng, the director of the university's academic affairs office, said it had remained focused on the real needs of the elderly and had designed courses accordingly.

"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 in a timely manner," Sun said.

Songshan campus director Qi said it was planning a new course on choosing packaged food at the supermarket.

"Our professional teacher, who is majoring in food science, and a senior public nutritionist will give the students detailed explanations of the technological process of food production, the standards and the labels to help them choose healthier food," he said.