The Full Circle: First meetings, silver-haired students，time-honored brands

Discussion keeps the world's turning.

This is Roundtable.

You're listening to Roundtable.

I'm Neil Hulling, joined by Steve and Yushan.

And it's time for the full circle.

This is the part where we rewind the week and pull out three stories

that on the surface should never be in the same room together.

They have different topics, different worlds, zero obvious connection,

and yet somehow there is one.

Can't wait to review that threat that links all of them together.

So now, this week's full circle.

Three stars, one connection.

This is the full circle.

Welcome to the full circle.

Let's see if you can find that threat that links up all the random stories that we pick today.

Yeah, our first beat on that threat is from Monday, where we talked about China's first meeting of the spring.

This first meeting of the spring is the high level conference that usually each province holds on the very first working day after the spring festival holiday end.

It's not just a routine meeting because it's a big agenda setting moment.

Yeah, indeed.

It isn't just a symbolic meeting like all the other meetings.

It's directional.

Because on the first working day of the year of the course.

Our greatest is above all the other meetings.

Yeah, I mean, meetings can mean a lot of things.

But these meetings, they actually happen on the first working day of the year of the horse.

And that various provinces across the country, they just gather together and get this high profile first meeting of the spring.

So these are agenda setting moments where provincial leaders, they outline strategic industries locally to double down on or what kind of tech innovation or advanced manufacturing or private capitals and risk control they are getting at.

Which all signal where development is headed for their province.

So this is both practical and ceremonial indeed.

So it's a decision making point that really indicates where future goes for local province.

That one's from Monday. What else did you choose?

The second one is from Tuesday.

So this one is really interesting is about the silver haired students going global.

Yes, since 2025 last year, there have been a lot of in particular agencies have been starting to exploring these silver haired learners.

So yeah, that's around in 2025, isn't it?

And that's when study abroad agencies are really focusing on the new demographic, which are the financially stable retirees with a hunger for lifelong learning.

So now these agencies are rolling out programs such as the retirement study abroad club, which subtracts over 50,000 members and help over 500 silver haired learners to enroll in universities worldwide to learn about fashion, about painting, and I don't know, jewelry design we mentioned, right?

You know, sometimes people criticize young people for saying that, ah, I want to enter my silver hair age sooner.

Yeah, but when they're saying that to start with their self mocking a little bit, they're making fun of it and they're trying to release their pressure, it does not mean they want to get older faster.

But on the other hand, if you take a look at the life of those silver haired generation, they're really having fun.

Yeah, there was a guy from the story, I forget his name, but he had grown up, you know, with a passion for an Italian painter, I forget which painter as well.

And throughout the course of his career, he never had the opportunity, of course, to pursue painting or anything like that.

So after he retired, he went to Italy to learn how to paint in the same style as his favorite historic Italian painter.

And that's kind of an amazing thing if you can pull that off.

Yes, and that's first meeting of the spring and silver haired students going global.

What would be the third story?

The third story is from Wednesday, where we talked about time on their brands going viral.

More than 90% of Beijing's traditional brands have gone online.

They're setting up shops on major e-commerce platforms like JD.com, Tabao and Timo, and also on social media platforms like Do In.

So yeah, that's not only happening in Beijing, that's across different major cities in China, Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou, Hangzhou, you name it.

Where China's time on their brands are stepping out of brick and mortar store fronts and going on to live stream studios and selling their products online.

And in the meantime, bringing people to their brand culture in multiple ways, like such as building a museum.

And their sales revenue are also growing and that this is not just about, oh, some old brands opening an online shop.

But rather how these central names are learning to thrive, if not revitalize in the digital age.

I personally am very interested in this because growing up, my family tend to always buying similar brands and as I grow up and learn about the history behind it and why people love them.

I tend to learn more about why it's important for these brands to still find ways to thrive and grow even in modern times where a lot of people shop online.

It really matters how to stay relevant and cool when your company is old.

Three very fun stories, but what would be the full circle?

Here comes the common thread. All three stories are about redefining the timeline.

So this is about refusing to accept that beginnings and endings happen only one sim bear only one meaning.

So on the first meeting of the spring, a new year used to mean a reset.

But here it's more than just that. These provincial gatherings compress time.

They connect a single day back to five year plans and five year plans to decades loan ambitions, if not longer.

So the message isn't just about work starts now. It's about directions how to define them and that matters more than just speed.

The first meeting reframes January not as or rather February in terms of spring festival.

It's not as recovery from celebration, but as the opening chapter for a longer arc.

And then on retirement study abroad, we tend to believe retirements was supposed to be a wrap up time.

The last chapter.

Yeah, that's what we often think, isn't it?

But work, we tend to believe work hard for 40 years than rest.

But now we see silver haired learners are pushing back on that linear script there extending the timeline of growth beyond the traditional cutoff point.

Education is no longer front loaded into young people or a youth.

Curiosity isn't just confined to the first third, if not half of your life.

If the old model said learn work retire, then now we see how these silver haired learners redefining that to learn work and learn again.

So now we see retirement isn't shrinking. It's expanding.

And then on time honored brands, sentry old brands, they might seem like it's belonging to the past or it's just good old stuff.

But these businesses are collapsing historical distance and instead building their name on live streams and online platforms, newer platforms.

And sometimes they can, you can see them found it back in the Qing dynasty from 100, 200 years ago, but they're really proving that longevity isn't about freezing tradition in time.

It's about updating the interface without deleting the memory.

So that's really something that I found interesting among, you know, as I go through the three stories.

This is like three stories with three different clocks.

Exactly.

And you can be the decider of your own clock in your own matter, no matter if you're starting a meeting and deciding how much effect the meeting can put on the development of your province, no matter and you can decide on whether or not your clock is reset on a certain age.

You can also decide whether or not you can start a new shop even if it has a sentry old friend.

Yeah, some of our clocks are defined though in some are some are imposed definitions and some are self-imposed definitions, I think, because if you look at the five year plans or the two sessions meetings or what have you anything that's very structured and organized.

It is known months if not years in advance when those meetings are going to take place, right?

We know when the next five year meetings are going to take place for years from now.

But when it comes to us, it's self-imposed, I think, or maybe it's just that society imposes it on us, which in my opinion is still somewhat self-imposed.

What I mean is this the same thing in the West, right?

You go to school, you work, you get married, have your family or whatever, and then you retire and then you play golf or what have you.

But that what have you is almost the self-imposed definition because that's it.

Now you're just kind of like on the path to death where things like curiosity or ambition or striving for new things, society doesn't, I was going to say doesn't want us to do that, but I don't think that's it.

It's just, it's not a priority in society, right?

We're not that expected.

Yeah, we meet expectations from different parties that each face of our lives.

Exactly, and that's why I said self-imposed by society is because expectations are there.

And also when there's a lack of expectation, that's still kind of an expectation.

So when you do something outside of that, people think, oh, that's cute, or oh, that's weird.

Like if you went to a club and the DJ was 82 years old, you'd think, well, that's weird.

Well, I'll say well, respect.

That too.

Because we don't expect to see that at that time or we might think, oh, that's cute.

So the thing that I get too is it's about clocks, yeah, but it's also about, you know, redefining expectations a little bit too.

Yes, and you should say it's about having a different clock or having a different timeline,

but I don't think it's exactly about starting over in certain sense.

I do not think we can ever start over because of our past experience.

We are building something on our past experience.

The reason that the century-old Brent can get to the popularity is, of course,

because they are finding out news stories that they can tell in today's social media or online market

that young people would be able to appreciate, appreciate.

But yes, at the same time, they're also having and using their legacy that century-old.

And for the silver hair generation, of course, being curious about certain things and being able to go to Italy to learn about fashion is super cool.

But it's not that they didn't have the dream when they're young.

It's just because they need the time, they need the financial support and they need a little bit of, I've seen everything.

Now I really do want to pursue my dream.

So on today's internet, we see sometimes people say I didn't have a good enough childhood because of my parents' way of raising me.

It's not that they don't love me. It's just that they didn't-

Expectations.

So what I want to do is to re-raise myself again by doing the things I didn't get to do.

But I don't think that's the correct definition.

I do not think they are re-raising themselves again.

It's more of that they know better and they are doing something to make themselves a bit more complete.

To have a better, a harder insight or a stronger heart and to compliment for those things they didn't get as a kid.

And that is also okay.

So never think of it as I am restarting.

I am throwing away what I have in the past.

No, you are building on it.

Yeah, and who gets to decide what we do at a certain time to be correct or not?

It's perhaps based on all the past experience and those that we know we've accumulated that we get to enjoy things better.

What we didn't get to experience when we were younger.

So here is my question to all of our listeners out there.

Are you living on a fixed timeline or are you rewriting it and to answer that, here is my final thought.

Spring Festival, we know that it comes back every year.

But it's never the same spring every year.

And on the very first working day when provinces convene their first meetings, they're not just reopening offices.

They're quietly redrawing the map for the years ahead.

And when it comes to individual life planning, we're often obsessed with the idea that life runs on rails.

School by 22 years old, career by 30, success by 40, stability by 60, after that what?

Quiet.

But what if time isn't a staircase?

It's a circle.

A retiree sits in the classroom in London, but she isn't starting over.

She is continuing.

A 100 year old shop opens a doughy in the count.

It's not abandoning history, it's extending it.

Maybe growth isn't about racing forward.

Maybe it's about knowing when to begin again.

Yeah, I think it's a matter of, I think it's this.

So I could disagree with both of you, but it wouldn't matter.

Because it's a matter of perspective.

It's what it means to you, right?

Actually, I do disagree with Yonglin in a certain sense.

I don't think everything is a continuation on our timeline.

I think you can start again.

And I think number two there would be that we need to start again sometimes.

Think about this very extreme example.

If you went through some sort of emotional or physical abuse as a younger person or in a relationship,

when you were able to escape that, then that would be starting again.

I don't think that would be seen as a continuation on a timeline of who you are, as a person, per se.

It would emotionally be needed to feel like I'm going to start again and my life starts today.

My life starts now.

So I think in certain contexts, it's okay to say I'm starting again.

But again, it doesn't matter whether you agree or disagree with me or I disagree with you because it's all just a matter of perspective.

Yes, and the important thing is to remember that we are the only people who can define who we are,

who can define whether or not we're starting again or we're starting maybe just a new chapter

buting on the previous ones and no matter whether you're 20 or 80,

you can always, always be the master of your life and decide on what you wanted to.

Do you know why I used that grandpa DJ as the example?

There is one.

That's my dream.

DJ!

When I'm like 75 or 80 years old, I want to be a DJ, like a club DJ.

I would say address.

That is super cool.

And that brings us to the end of today's roundtable with love to hear your thoughts on today's topics.

Leave us a comment wherever you listen to your podcast or send us an email to roundtablepodcast at qq.com.

I'm your Holen with Steve and Aishen.

Thank you for listening.

Bye-bye.