Bored at home? New Zaobao video series aims to get seniors on their feet

SINGAPORE - Seniors can look forward to a video series starting on Zaobao's website on Monday (March 16) featuring fitness, cooking and singing courses to keep them active during the coronavirus outbreak.

Platforms including Lianhe Zaobao, Lianhe Wanbao, Shin Min Daily News and 96.3 Hao FM will provide details on navigating the website in coming days.

"With the recent suspension of senior-centric activities by government agencies until Mar 24, we are collaborating with zaobao.sg to engage our seniors so that they can continue to stay active," said Ms Soffy Hariyanti, director of the campaigns and production department at the Ministry of Communications and Information.

The programmes will also have information for seniors on protecting themselves and their loved ones during the outbreak, she added.

They will be live-streamed from 7am on zaobao.sg from Mondays to Fridays, March 16 to 27, with three main segments daily, each conducted by People's Association (PA) trainers.

The first programme is a 45-minute fitness segment called Come 'n Exercise @ zaobao.sg, featuring targeted workout sessions for senior citizens and conducted by fitness trainers Kelvin Toh and Chua Sock Ling.

Mr Toh is a former South East Asian Games representative for dance sport in 2005, while Ms Chua has been teaching group exercise classes, conducting mass workout and choreographing fitness and dance routines for PA since 2005.

The second segment at 10am is the live-cooking Come 'n Cook @ zaobao.sg, helmed by chefs Pang Nyuk Yoon and Loo Tiong Bin, who specialise in restaurant-style Chinese cooking.

Traditional Chinese Medicine physician Kwek Mei Ling will talk about the ingredients used to cook the dishes and their health benefits.

The final segment at 3pm is Come 'n Sing @ zaobao.sg, which teaches the audience singing techniques through a mix of Mandarin and Hokkien songs.

Featured trainers include Mr David Chia Kim Cheok and Ms Irene Kalmen Lim. Mr Chia boasts more than 40 years of singing and performing experience, while Ms Lim graduated in music from the University of Southern California and has been teaching singing since 2004.

And local playwright Han Laoda has pre-recorded a series of educational videos to teach Chinese idioms, phrases and origin of Chinese words using the Covid-19 situation as background.

"We need to change our lifestyle to cope with the current Covid-19 situation," said Ms Lee Huay Leng, head of Chinese media group, Singapore Press Holdings.

"We can look at it positively as we can switch to using digital platforms like handphones and tablets to learn cooking, exercise or even language skills.

"We hope that our digital offerings will be able to enrich the lives of our readers and listeners in such troubling times."