Chinese seniors delight in Eastside programs

By Lauren Graf
Seattle Times Eastside bureau

JAMES BRANAMAN / THE SEATTLE TIMES After their weekly gathering for tai chi, Kirkland Senior Center clients listen and sing along with Cheng Kun Huang on the erhu.

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Wearing a strand of pearls, diamond earrings and a rhinestone brooch, an older Chinese woman shuffled in to join the weekly tai chi practice.

Watching from the wings, Catherine Wong, 27, who has been conducting programs for Chinese seniors on the Eastside for four years, smiled. "It's the only day of the week she gets out of the house."

Such opportunities can be difficult to find for many of the Eastside's older Chinese residents. Even though Chinese Americans have been moving to the Eastside in record numbers over the past decade or so, many Chinese seniors are finding themselves geographically and culturally isolated from traditional Asian residential hubs in Seattle such as Beacon Hill and the Chinatown International District.

"They can basically become shut-ins," said Connie So, a lecturer in American Ethnic Studies at the University of Washington.

In response, the Seattle-based Chinese Information and Service Center (CISC) in the past four years has opened six programs for Chinese seniors across the lake, including this one at the Kirkland Senior Center. Other programs are offered in north and south Bellevue, Factoria, Issaquah and, as of last month, in Redmond.

"Every week, I wait for Tuesday to come," said Dering Yang Lin, 78, a widow who lives alone in Kirkland.

Programs for Chinese seniors The Chinese Information and Service Center holds programs for seniors at six Eastside locations: • North Bellevue Senior Center, 4063 148th Ave. N.E., Bellevue • Newport Covenant Church, 12800 S.E. Coal Creek Parkway, Bellevue • South Bellevue Senior Center, 5225 119th Ave. S.E., Bellevue • Kirkland Senior Center, 352 Kirkland Ave., Kirkland • Issaquah Valley Senior Center, 105 2nd Ave. N.E., Issaquah • Redmond Senior Center, 8703 160th Ave. N.E., Redmond For program schedules or more information, call Catherine Wong at 206-624-5633, ext. 123.

After tai chi practice, the seniors gather in a classroom to sing Chinese songs, gossip about their families, play bingo in Mandarin and take English classes.

Some of Wong's clients walk for an hour and a half to get to the senior center. Many Chinese seniors don't drive, and often are reluctant to take buses because their English is poor, according to So.

Loneliness can lead to depression, which So says is a problem few Chinese seniors address because of a stigma attached to mental-health issues.

"What ends up occurring is a slow disintegration of self-care, socialization and physical functioning," said Alaric Bien, executive director of CISC.

CISC, a social-services agency for Chinese that runs on grants and federal and local government money, now counts about 500 of its 3,500 clients as Eastside residents.

With Microsoft and good public education as a draw, the Eastside Chinese population increased about 170 percent between 1990 and 2000, from about 6,500 to about 17,500, according to U.S. Census figures.

And that has meant more Chinese seniors are following their adult children to the suburbs. Yet without good English skills, many Chinese seniors require help with basics such as doctor visits, grocery shopping and bill paying. And when the language difficulties are combined with the sprawl of the Eastside, it makes it hard for some Chinese seniors to do much but stay at home, So said.

But it's Tuesday at the senior center in Kirkland, and Yang Feng Jun is one of the most popular seniors in his group. He is a tall, bespectacled man whose energetic smile and dyed-black hair defy his 68 years. Yang moved to the Eastside from China seven years ago, when his son got a job at Microsoft.

In China, Yang had been a professor of psychology at Wuhan University, and he had close relationships with many students. But when his son moved to the U.S., he said, he knew that he and his wife would follow. He felt a responsibility to take care of his grandchildren. Yang's son bought him and his wife a home of their own in Bellevue. Still, he felt isolated.

Now every Tuesday, he leaves the grandkids home with his wife. At the Kirkland Senior Center, Yang is known for spontaneous trips to the front of the room, assuming a familiar, professorial position in front of a white board. He offers advice on family issues to other Chinese seniors. He said he has helped fellow group members iron out household issues.

On this recent Tuesday, someone brought in an erhu, a traditional Chinese instrument that sounds like a violin. The seniors decided to forgo their weekly Mandarin bingo to sing along. Some sang louder than others, proudly demonstrating their knowledge of traditional Chinese songs.

Yang was one of them, making his way to the front of the classroom, where he sang a rousing off-the-cuff solo to the rhythmic clapping and nodding of his peers, smiling broadly and rocking back and forth in his white tennis shoes.

The door ajar, Wong peeked into the classroom and grinned.

"I have heard him sing this song at least 10 times," she said.

Seattle Times researcher Gene Balk contributed to this report.

Lauren Graf: 206-464-8345 or lgraf@seattletimes.com

Copyright © 2004 The Seattle Times Company

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