This story was written by Yushan, who is a User Experience Researcher at Incus. She wrote it in Chinese, and it was translated into English by Incus.
Grandma Is My Best Friend
Everyone says we inherit our traits from the previous generation. But I am more like my grandmother than my mother is.
My grandmother took care of me when I was a child. She handled my basic needs and taught me to be independent and self-reliant.
We often talk heartily about anything from astronomy or geography to entertainment or gossip. There is no news or current affairs that my grandma doesn’t know about, and there is no hot topic on the internet that my grandma isn’t familiar with.
She encourages me to move onwards when I make major decisions or feel down.
My grandmother was born in a society where women were relatively disadvantaged. Raised in poverty, she almost lost the opportunity to receive an education.
So she warned me: “Without an education, it is difficult to achieve economic independence through own efforts.”
She has also said:
“Seize every opportunity to learn."
"Once we set a goal, we must go all out.”
These words of encouragement accompanied me while pursuing further studies abroad, entering society, moving to Shenzhen, China alone and joining Incus.
I’m Growing Up And Grandma Is Getting Old
While I was studying abroad, my grandmother and I often talked on the phone. Gradually, I found that some sentences needed repeating before she could reply. I asked my mother and learned that my grandmother’s hearing had been declining and that she had been advised to wear hearing aids.
My grandmother was unwilling to spend tens of thousands of Chinese yuan to buy a hearing aid from a foreign brand.
However, the Chinese domestic hearing aids (sound amplifiers) costing several hundred Chinese yuan were unsatisfactory.
For a long time, grandma, who has always been like the head of the family, could not hear clearly. It affected her temper and communication, and she became a bit withdrawn.
Working In the Hearing Device Industry Is My Way of Being Filial
I studied psychology in Europe. Through school projects, I got in touch with some senior citizens with Alzheimer’s disease and gained a deeper understanding of the psychology of seniors. I understand that seniors are a vulnerable group and that their quality of life and needs are largely unresolved and unrecognized, even in developed countries.
With a sense of mission, I entered the hearing device industry.
After Kite 2 came out, I gave it to my grandma for trial. From being reluctant to try at first, she admitted it is really good after a month of use.
The Chinese population is ageing, and due to physical and environmental factors, more and more middle-aged and senior citizens are losing their hearing. Our seniors have overcome hard times and built the foundations of the lives we now enjoy. But in the current era of abundance, seniors with untreated hearing loss cannot enjoy life fully.
I hope that I can devote myself to improving the lives of seniors.
