Who lives longer, men or women? According to China’s fifth national census, among the 218 centenarians living today in east China’s Jiangxi Province, 84.4 percent are women – and this proportion keeps climbing upward. The centenarians include 184 women and 34 men whose lives now have spanned three centuries, with the percentage of women up 4.2 percent over last census.
The census also reveals that among these long-lived people -- 163 or 80 percent of the total -- live in countryside. Thirty-five live in cities, and 20 in small cities, towns and mining zones.
Among this group’s secrets of longevity: Good dietary and good living habits including regular eating habits with a preference for vegetables, no smoking, and moderate wine drinking. Proper physical labor and exercise also counts, and the centenarians were found to be usually optimistic people who treat others well.
The oldest centenarians are two 112-aged rural women. Zou Chaxiang was born in April 1889 in Fangcun Village, Xinjian County; Liu Tianxiu was born in August 1889 in Bozhu Village, Yiwu County. Most women centenarians in Jiangxi got married between the age of 15 and 25 and bore their first child at an average age of 20.7, and their last child at 37. On average, they bore 5.5 children, with every one of the women bearing at least one child and at most 13 children.
Regular check-ups by health departments on the centenarians have found that only 24 of them have incurred chronic health problems such as heart disease, high blood pressure, and asthma and although some had weak hearing, poor eyesight, and difficulty walking. Yet the rest -- 89 percent -- report no chronic diseases. One hundred sixty-three of the centenarians can take care of themselves, and 55 are attended by others. Reports show that 102 can deal with the daily routine housework, such as sweeping, washing, wood chopping, and babysitting. Some can cook dinner for themselves and plant vegetables in the courtyard, some still read newspapers, and others participate in recreational activities.
Nearly all the 218 centenarians did not receive a formal education; 191 are completely or almost illiterate, 27 either studied in private schools or church-run schools. Shen Xunhong in Yichun City enjoys the highest level of education equal today to a university education, having studied in a medical institute run by a Christian church.
So far, 188 centenarians in Jiangxi are supported by their family, 15 by local government or collective bodies, 8 live in homes for the elderly, and 7 live on their pension.
(From Xinhua News Agency February 25, 2002 and translated by Guo Xiaohong for china.org.cn)
