An award-winning journalist turned educator is teaching Hong Kong how to age well – not through textbooks, but through life stories.

At Ginger Innovation, founder Chen Yimin trains older adults to become storytellers and mentors, helping them rebuild confidence and inviting society to redefine ageing as a form of continued learning.

When Chen left journalism in 2020 after more than a decade covering social and ageing issues, she carried with her a realisation that would change her career: no one teaches us how to grow old.

“I visited a 90-year-old man who once climbed trees to pick longans,” she said. “A year later, he could not bend down to gather the fallen fruit. That moment made me realise how power fades quietly and how unprepared we are to face it.”

Chen surveyed more than 1,000 university students about their perceptions of older adults and found that over 80 per cent of responses were negative, with words such as “lonely”, “frail” and “dependent” appearing most often.

“Ageing can be so diverse. That is the missing piece in our education that I hope to fill.”