In Singapore, Grandmothers Dive Into Aging With a Splash
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Last year, I came across an article in Rice Media, a news outlet based in Singapore, with the headline ''I'll Play Till I Die': The Rowdy Ah Mas Confronting Mortality Through Water Polo.'
In the article, Michele Pek wrote that her grandmother was one of the first members of the Ah Ma Flippa Ball team, a group of women mostly in their 60s, 70s and 80s who started playing flippa ball — a version of water polo that does not require treading water — in Singapore in 2016. 'Ah ma' means grandmother in several Chinese dialects.
It was 'the first time I've seen an 80-year-old lady dive headfirst for a ball,' Ms. Pek wrote.
I was born and raised in Singapore, one of the world's most rapidly aging countries. For years, I kept track of the government's various initiatives to engage older residents. The National Silver Academy, for example, offered courses teaching them how to use TikTok. This month, two 'silver generation ambassadors' — volunteers who help Singapore's government connect with seniors — visited my 83-year-old mother to ask about her chronic diseases and if she had friends. They encouraged her to exercise and told her that she could play Rummy-O with other seniors. And recently, the city-state hosted the World Aging Festival, which featured a cheerleading squad made up of seniors.
I have always been interested in how seniors live. I previously covered demographics in China, where I was based for a decade. There, I wrote about people in their 70s and 80s who went to parks to find love.
When I started covering Southeast Asia in late 2021, I was keen to continue that focus. I am always searching for new ways to tell the story of demographic shifts in the region. I knew that the story of the Ah Ma Flippa Ball team presented an opportunity to highlight Singapore's dynamic, aging population.
So I contacted the coach, Ting Kum Luen, and asked if I could watch the team play at the Yio Chu Kang Swimming Complex. Mr. Ting told me how skeptical he was when an official from Sport Singapore, a government agency, asked him in 2016 to try to teach flippa ball to seniors.
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