Zhang Shuxian, 85, eyes learning English to be a spiritual pillar in retirement.“I will live my life to the the fullest, day-by-day," said the chubby granny with a red face and curly hair. 

She views keeping busy as a matter of life and death. 

Zhang made her remarks at the cultural activity center at Beijing's Tuanjiehu Park. Through the window, the afternoon sunshine cast a warm light on the gray-and-white hair of about 30 students in the classroom, mostly of which speak Russian as a second foreign language due to the close and cordial Sino-Russian relationship in the 1950s. 

"You listen you forget, you write you remember, you read you know, you speak you learn," the students said, repeating after a teacher several decades their junior. 

Zhang used to sing and do square dance, and also treated patients for years after retiring as a senior obstetrician-gynecologist at the age of 65. Now she has turned to learning English to seek inner peace after being diagnosed with lung cancer four years ago. 

"Concentrating on studying something new can stop me from worrying about my disease," Zhang said, surprising her classmates with her energetic manner. 

It is not just a love of studying that has kept Zhang toiling away at every week's class, rain or shine. She said she is certain that if she stopped working or studying entirely, she would literally die not long after. 

A May 2013 report published by the London-based Institute of Economic Affairs found that retirement increased the chances of mentally deterioration by 40 percent, and increased the probability of having at least one diagnosed physical ailment by about 60 percent.

The granny is fully supported by her husband, an 81-year-old retired engineer, who cooks for Zhang every time she returns from class. Her husband suffers from Parkinson's, coronary heart disease, diabetes, and the most importantly, is deaf, which restrains him from accompanying her to class. "Just go, don't be afraid, I stand behind you," Zhang quoted her husband as saying. "He can sense my happiness every time I finish studying." 

"Elderly people should never slide into the depths of self-pity and feel depressed. Go to the outside world, stop being anxious about your kids and learn something fabulous to reinforce social interactions," Zhang said, noting that studying English has provided her much more convenience in comminution during visits with her daughter in Chicago. The skill in English has equipped her with confidence and a sense of identity.  

Some people are old at 18 and some are young at 90. Time is a concept that humans have created. 

Watch the video and hear stories about the "un-retirees."

 (Written by Shan Xin, Video edited by Liang Peiyu, Yan Yiqiao)