When a 78-year-old quantum physics professor goes viral "dissecting "Schroedinger's cat on short-video platform Douyin, when silver-haired models from Hangzhou, Zhejiang province, strut defiantly at Paris Fashion Week, and when musicians with an average age of around 70 ignite standing ovations on stages overseas, it is further evidence that China's "silver economy" is rewriting the rules of aging.

Far from a niche market for retirement homes and stairlifts, this $4 trillion revolution has become a cultural reckoning - one where pensioners aren't just spending money, but creating whole new markets that are likely to be a greater force in the economy.

The reason is quite simple: the elderly are transitioning from fulfilling basic needs to seeking avenues for personal growth, according to political advisers to this year's two sessions, the annual gatherings of the National People's Congress and the National Committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference.

From ensuring quality elderly care to embracing smart aging, from promoting silver-haired cultural tourism to developing age-appropriate technology and silver economy finance, this "aging revolution" covering all facets of life, health and leisure is reshaping the landscape of economic growth and societal values, they said.

The term silver economy - a cross-section of the economy consisting of the over 60s, especially the retirees - was popular during the two sessions. As of the end of last year, China's population included 310 million individuals aged 60 and above, with 220 million aged 65 and older, representing 22 percent and 15.6 percent of the total population, respectively, according to data from the National Bureau of Statistics.

Jin Li, vice-president of the Southern University of Science and Technology and a member of the 14th National Committee of the CPPCC - the country's top political advisory body - said that by 2035, the market size of China's silver economy could potentially reach 30 trillion yuan ($4 trillion), injecting momentum into China's economic landscape.

He highlighted that the needs of China's aging population are evolving from mere survival necessities to a focus on personal growth.

"This shift encompasses not only essentials like clothing, food, shelter and transportation but also services for healthcare and elderly care, as well as emerging desires for leisure, entertainment and exploration. The silver economy offers extensive opportunities on both the supply and demand fronts," Jin said.

In terms of how to develop the silver economy, Jin said that it necessitates a dual approach focusing on both government safety net measures and industrial maturity. To achieve this, macroeconomic policy coordination is essential to encourage social engagement in the silver economy and foster the growth of quality elderly care businesses.

"However, many enterprises in this field currently face profitability challenges, hindering new entrants," said Jin, who suggested that the government introduce supportive policies such as tax incentives to relevant businesses to better align governmental and market forces.

The government has already ramped up efforts supporting the elderly care industry in recent years. Last year, the State Council, China's Cabinet, issued a document with opinions on developing the silver economy to enhance the well-being of the elderly, advocating for accelerated scaling, standardization, clustering and branding of involved businesses. It also put forward 26 specific measures.

This year's Government Work Report, unveiled during the two sessions, also emphasized the importance of addressing population aging, enhancing policies and mechanisms related to elderly care and actively promoting the silver economy.

"How can we better integrate the power of the government and the market? When addressing the financial challenges of elderly individuals with relatively lower incomes, the government safety net may necessitate a more substantial role in providing support. As for middle- to high-income brackets with varying and complex needs, shouldn't we leverage market dynamics to tailor services more effectively to their demands?" Jin said.

"Here's another concern. In many places, many older people are unwilling to leave their children to live in nursing homes, and such actions are even considered unfilial by some seniors. In this environment, how can we activate market vitality, make elderly people willing to engage with nursing homes, willing to consume, and encourage nursing homes to offer more high-quality, cost-effective services, creating a virtuous cycle?"

Jin pointed out that currently in China, 90 percent of elderly care is provided at home, 7 percent in the community and less than 3 percent choose institutional care. Compared to Western countries, the institutional participation rate is very low.

"To develop the silver economy, it is necessary to adapt to this characteristic from both the supply and demand sides, for example, setting up elderly care stations in communities to provide home-based elderly care services such as cleaning, assistance with mobility and meal delivery," Jin said.

"Although we have only recently entered the aging era, we must also consider future trends. The elderly population will continue to increase, the average age will rise and a higher proportion will face disabilities and cognitive issues. For severely ill or disabled elderly individuals, their family members may have to quit their jobs or retire early to care for them, or they may have to pay high prices and still not be able to find good care.

"At this point, the intervention of institutions and the leveraging of concentrated resources to provide quality and cost-effective services are crucial. I suggested corresponding tax incentives and other favorable measures to support the early development of commercial nursing homes," Jin said.

In line with the current mainstream trends of home-based and community-based elderly care, Zhang Yunquan, a CPPCC National Committee member and a researcher at the Institute of Computing Technology affiliated with the Chinese Academy of Sciences, suggested that policies should support businesses and actively leverage technology for more efficient services.

Zhang said that after going through various stages of product exploration, functional improvement and AI empowerment, elderly care robots are gradually maturing. Currently, elderly care robots are generally divided into three categories: nursing, rehabilitation and companionship.

Nursing robots are usually designed for disabled elderly individuals, rehabilitation robots primarily target semi-disabled elderly individuals and companionship robots cater to elderly individuals with emotional communication needs.

The researcher highlighted the issues facing the current development of elderly care robots. "On one hand, elderly care demands high service refinement, personalization, product safety and convenience, which leads to high research and development costs for robots and subsequently higher sales prices.

"Some families find it difficult to afford these services, which in turn hinders in-depth technological research and development," Zhang said. "On the other hand, elderly care robots are complex technological systems that require breakthroughs in achieving a closed loop of 'perception-decision-execution-feedback', particularly requiring extensive data coverage, sufficient computing power and intelligent algorithms that combine AI with human collaboration."

The use of technology in elder care has also received policy support. In a document released by the State Council last year, further efforts were called for accelerating the development and application of elderly care technology.

Liu Qingfeng, chairman of iFlytek and a deputy to the NPC, the country's legislative body, showcased the application scenario of an AI elderly care assistant during the two sessions. When the smart bracelet of a 90-year-old elderly person living alone detects an abnormal heart rate, the system immediately alerts a community doctor to visit. The AI voice assistant can also chat with the elderly person, remind him to take medication and even simulate the voice of a deceased loved one to narrate stories about old photos.

In Liu's view, the current AI technology can to some extent meet the diverse medical and health service needs of the elderly. However, there are still many obstacles in its development process such as digital gap and inadequate service supply.

Liu suggested establishing a standard system for digital health services for the elderly and promoting the coverage of medical insurance for intelligent elderly care and rehabilitation services.

Wang Jianjun, a CPPCC National Committee member and former head of the China National Committee on Aging, called for strengthening national-level planning for the development of intelligent healthcare for the elderly, promoting the improvement of policies in the field of intelligent elderly care, focusing on the integration of intelligent devices such as wearable devices and service robots in elderly care service scenarios, enhancing product development and enabling technology to better serve the elderly.

"Some community-based elderly meal assistance projects have successfully achieved precise matching of supply and demand through intelligent information platforms, effectively solving the dining problems faced by elderly people during home-based elderly care," Wang said.

Dining was a prominent issue for elderly people living alone. Many elderly people "cook a meal at home and eat it for a day or two", while dining out poses practical problems such as high prices, unsuitable tastes and hygiene concerns.

Wang Shuhui, a CPPCC National Committee member and the general manager of Xi'an Good Breakfast Project Co, identified existing bottlenecks in elderly dining services. These challenges encompass supply and demand imbalances, institutional operations, service models and supportive policies.

"The pressing need to expedite the enhancement of an elderly care service system that aligns with the aging population process is increasingly evident," she said.

In light of this, Wang proposed the creation of a "elderly care service circle" by setting up elderly dining service centers and improving delivery services.

She said this initiative would operate under a "government-guided, enterprise-operated" framework. The government would establish community meal distribution centers through policy support, while businesses would operate associated convenience restaurants.

Jin mentioned that the development of the silver economy will also bring more opportunities for young people.

"The elderly have specialized needs for clothing, food, housing, transportation and healthcare, as well as new demands for leisure, entertainment and exploration. Conservatively estimating, by 2050, the silver economy will provide at least 100 million job opportunities," he said.

Guan Weijiang, who has been doing business in children's toys in Yiwu, Zhejiang province, for 10 years, has intuitively felt the consumption potential in the elderly sector. He stated that over the past year, his online store has seen a surge in orders. Many elderly consumers prefer fitness and educational toys, with users over 50 years old accounting for 30 percent of the store's customer base.

Guan said that the search and order volume for toys among consumers aged 55 and above are gradually increasing, with particularly rapid growth in transactions for fitness toys that promote light exercise.

"This may become an extremely promising new track," he said.

According to e-commerce platform Taobao, over the past year, searches for elderly toys on Taobao have increased by 121 percent year-on-year, with transaction volumes increasing by over 70 percent year-on-year. The proportion of consumers aged 55 and above is gradually increasing, and the transaction speed continues to accelerate. More toy industry merchants have also sensed the business opportunities in elderly toys and entered the market.

Traveling is another major part of leisure for elderly people. In recent years, various themed and content-rich tourist trains carrying elderly tourists traveled across the country, allowing elderly travelers to enjoy magnificent landscapes.

On Feb 11, the Ministry of Commerce and eight other departments released the action plan for increasing silver tourism trains to promote service consumption development, proposing various specific measures around increasing the service supply of silver tourism, strengthening the guarantee of age-appropriate facilities, enhancing the service level of trains specialized for silver-tourism, among others.

Riding on the policy tailwind, various regions have launched trains specially designed for silver tourism. Last month, a train departed from Liuzhou station in the Guangxi Zhuang autonomous region with 270 middle-aged and elderly passengers, embarking on a four-day leisure trip along the coast of western Guangdong.

A travel agency affiliated with China Railway said that in March, it will launch a 12-day spring trip project traveling to Jiangxi, Guangdong and Hunan provinces. China Railway said that by 2027, it will design more than 100 high-quality silver tourism railway routes, create 160 sets of silver tourism trains with specialized elderly care, and expand the scale of silver tourism trains to over 2,500.

The China Tourism Academy said silver tourism is becoming one of the fastest-growing sectors in the silver economy. Among them, the travel booking volume for people aged 50 and above continues to grow, and the silver population accounts for approximately 64 percent of weekday travelers, significantly higher than other age groups.