“Building Senior-Friendly Societies in Asia: Harnessing Social Technology for Global Aging” Training Program

Call for Applications

HYI – TSU TRAINING WORKSHOP

Building Senior-Friendly Societies in Asia: Harnessing Social Technology for Global Aging

May 29 to June 1, 2025, Beijing, China

Rationale:

Population aging in Asia, particularly in Greater China, presents unique and pressing challenges for individuals, families, society, healthcare, and economies. With rapidly aging populations across the region, an urgent need arises to build age-friendly communities that support the well-being and dignity of senior citizens. By 2050, Asia is projected to have 1.3 billion people aged 60, with a significant portion of the seniors being 65 years and above. In Greater China, the aging trend is particularly pronounced, with mainland China, Taiwan, Hong Kong, and Macao already experiencing one of the fastest aging processes in the world as measured by the doubling time of the proportion of seniors in a society’s total population. As the aging trend continues, the strain on family caregivers, inadequate healthcare resources, and the need for social inclusion become more complex and challenging. Furthermore, Greater China and Chinese communities in Asia have witnessed an unprecedented degree of end-of-life care in clinical settings. Taiwan, Hong Kong, Macao, and Singapore, as well as mainland China, have designed in the last decade policies to promote advance care planning (ACP) and palliative care. The varying outcomes of these policies, however, deserve comparative studies. At the same time, other Asian countries are also facing challenges related to population aging. These typically include the departure of young people from rural communities, the impact of structural changes in family relations, and the economic barriers to the provision of adequate care for the elderly. In response, local, national, and regional efforts have been made to increase labor force participation, reform pension system, promote healthy aging through health education, invest in eldercare services, and develop senior-friendly technologies. In the progression of these efforts, the call for senior-friendly cities, senior-friendly communities and senior-friendly health systems has become increasingly urgent, requiring coordinated actions across all levels of society to ensure the sustainability and quality of life for aging populations throughout Asia. This is the background for us to call for applications from younger scholars to participate in the upcoming workshop under the joint sponsorship by the Harvard-Yenching Institute (HYI) and Tsinghua University (TSU) from May 29 to June 1, 2025.

An important partner for us to organize this training effort is the Social Technology for Global Aging Research Initiative (STGA) at Harvard University. STGA is a collaborative research project involving faculty and students from six Harvard schools as well as from Tsinghua, Fudan, Nanjing Post and Communications, and Minzu universities in mainland China. Hosted by the Department of Global Health and Social Medicine of Harvard Medical School, the STGA project is funded by the Jiangsu Industrial Technology Research Institute. The project’s foundational idea is to bring together anthropologists, sociologists, engineers, physicians, design experts, public health scholars, and business faculty in interdisciplinary research concerned with improving eldercare from planning and implementation through evaluation. Invited to the workshop as instructors will be Prof. Arthur Kleinman (Harvard Medical School), Prof. Fawwaz Habbal (Harvard School of Engineering & Applied Sciences), and Prof. CHEN Hongtu (Harvard Medical School). Along with other prominent Chinese scholars also serving as instructors will be Prof. JING Jun (medical sociologist, Tsinghua University) who has actively taken part in the STGA project from its inception since five years ago through a progression of online meetings and joint publications.

Objectives:

Drawing on the STGA project, the workshop aims to explore the role of socially appropriate technologies in developing senior-friendly societies. These are tailored to the cultural, economic, and social contexts of aging populations in specific regions and with global implications. About Greater China and broader Asia, we emphasize designing technologies that respect family dynamics, traditional values, and local infrastructures while promoting independence, social engagement, and access to care. For this reason, the workshop will bring together experts from multiple disciplines—including medical sciences, social sciences, technology and innovation, and design studies—to discuss how social technology can be harnessed to create age-friendly communities and societies. The workshop’s scheduled lectures and discussions will be integrated with trainee presentations to help the trainees develop greater sensitivity and a wider range of perspectives regarding the quality of life among older adults and the need for practical solutions.

Topics & Lecturers:

1. The Soul of Care (Arthur Kleinman)
2. Social Technology for Global Aging (Chen Hongtu)
3. Systems Thinking and Design Thinking in Social Technology (Fawwaz Habbal)
4. Designing Apartments for Urban Seniors (Zhou Yanmin)
5. Positive Psychology for the Elderly (Peng Kaiping)
6. Advance Care Planning (Jing Jun)
7. Delivering Palliative Care for Seniors (Lu Guijun)
8. Ophthalmology for the Elderly (Huang Tianyin)

* Arthur Kleinman is professor of medical anthropology in the Department of Global Health and Social Medicine and professor of psychiatry at Harvard Medical School. He is the Esther and Sidney Rabb professor of anthropology in the Department of Anthropology in the Faculty of Arts and Sciences (FAS), and was the director of Harvard University’s Asia Center from 2008 to 2016.

* Fawwaz Habbal is senior lecturer on applied physics and executive dean for education and research of the School of Engineering and Applied Sciences at Harvard University.

* Huang Tianyin is a physician-scientist at Tsinghua Medical School who won the 2023 Achievement Award from the World Association for Vision and Ophthalmology Research.

* Zhou Yanmin is professor of housing and community at Tsinghua School of Architecture where her lab specializes in designing senior-friendly apartments.

* Professor Peng Kaipin serves in the Department of Psychological and Cognitive Sciences at Tsinghua. He previously taught at the Department of Psychology at the University of California, Berkeley. He has chaired the International Conference of Positive Psychology since 2009.

* Professor Jing Jun, a Harvard-Yenching Institute fellow in 2005-2006, works in the Department of Sociology and heads the Center for Medical Sociology in the School of Social Sciences at Tsinghua.

* Dr. Lu Guijun is chief physician in the pain clinic of a Tsinghua’s Changgong Hospital where he brings a palliative care unit to the attention of national television and social media.

Date: May 29 to June 1, 2025

Venue: Haidian District, Beijing, China

Working Languages: Chinese and English

Application Deadline: April 15, 2025

Harvard-Yenching Institute Fellowship Opportunity:

At the workshop, the Harvard-Yenching Institute will give an information session for Asia-based trainees about how to apply for a one-year research stay at the Harvard-Yenching Institute under the HYI fellowship for the 2026-2027 academic year. It is important to note that only a very small number of applicants may be awarded the HYI fellowship.

Eligibility:

The workshop is open to up to 20 early-stage scholars, including junior faculty, post-doctoral fellows, and PhD candidates.

1. Fulfill one of these conditions:
a)junior faculty in an institution of higher education in Asia. A very small number of non-Asia-based PhD students and junior faculty members may be recruited to participate, but they will not be eligible for the Harvard-Yenching Institute fellowship opportunity;
b) junior with a PhD or an equivalent awarded not more than 7 years prior to June 2025;
c) student in an Asia-based institution of higher education for a PhD or an equivalent.

2. English proficiency for joining the workshop’s lectures, discussions and presentations

3. Research interest is closely connected with the workshop’s topics, including eldercare, medical social work, mental health, gerontology, senior-friendly designs, and palliative care.

Application Procedure:

Eligible applicants should submit applications to yenching2025@163.com before April 15, 2025.

Application packet should comprise the following:

1. Application Form
2. A Curriculum Vitae
3. A one-page application letter (single space)
4. A letter of recommendation from an academic advisor or a senior faculty member

Please note that all trainees are exempt from tuition fees. A daily lunch will be provided for all trainers and trainers. However, lodging, travel costs, insurance, visa application fees (if any), and other expenses are the responsibility of the trainees.