HONG KONG — With a daily schedule that includes catwalks, commercials and acting lessons, 58-year-old Regina Chan appears to lead a glamorous life.
“It’s a rewarding job, not in terms of monetary rewards, but to me it’s … fulfilling ,” she says of her job.
Chan says she worked in the fashion business for more than 20 years, so moving into modeling was fairly easy. She wants to encourage people growing old to take the leap of trying new things. “The changes begin from [within] ourselves.”
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The passing of Chan’s parents is one of the reasons she says she took up modeling. She said that as soon as they stopped being active they started to lose memory and her father eventually developed Alzheimer’s disease. “I don’t want my children to see me grow old lying in bed, or can’t even remember their names.”
Growing old in Hong Kong is increasingly a challenge. The Chinese territory’s residents rank comparatively poorly in the world for elderly income security. The findings are in the Global AgeWatch Index, a study that ranks how aging populations are faring around the world and conducted by the HelpAge International non-governmental organization.
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Using the methodology in the Global AgeWatch Index, researchers at the Chinese University of Hong Kong ranked Hong Kong 79 th out of 97 countries and territories in terms of the elderly population’s psychological well-being.
Despite the challenges facing Hong Kong residents, happiness in a person’s later years is still possible, says the founder of the modeling agency that Chan works for.
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“The ultimate vision of OHH Dear is to promote the message that aging can be cool,” says Zip Cheung, founder of Ohh Dear Communications. “It has nothing to do with whether you’re wealthy or not, educated or not. It depends on how you think, how you’d like to grow old.”
OHH Dear currently has a team of 30 models, the oldest being 93 years old.
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Hong Kong Model a Graceful Example of Growing Old originally appeared on usnews.com
