'He Is He, and I Am I': Individual and Collective among China's Rural Elderly

Thøgersen, Stig; Anru, Ni

doi:10.1163/156805808x333901

Cited by 17 publications

(14 citation statements)

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“…Only the childless elderly are eligible for state‐provided “five guarantees” benefits, which cover the basic livelihood needs of food, housing, clothing, and health care as well as burial costs; which are provided at the lowest subsistence level (Thogersen & Ni, , p. 13). Most rural elderly receive neither pensions nor health benefits, and so are forced to rely on their adult children for financial support when they lose their ability to earn an income.…”

Section: Absence Of Social Welfare System and The Persistence Of Intementioning

confidence: 99%

“…Health care has become an issue for many elderly since their medical costs are only partially covered due to work place reforms as a result of withdrawal or reduction of state subsidies since 1990s (Ikels, , p. 312). Moreover, both urban and rural elderly people are left with no option but to rely on their family for care when they become physically dependent (Liang & Gu, ; Thogersen & Ni, , p. 31; Whyte, ). An online survey conducted in early October 2012 found that “about 90 percent of the public was seriously concerned about their quality of life in old age” (Yan, , p. A7).…”

Section: Absence Of Social Welfare System and The Persistence Of Intementioning

confidence: 99%

“…Family obligation to provide support for the elderly has survived and continues to play an important role through political‐constitutional, social and economic changes. Chinese elderly people have never had any inclination from a perspective of citizen's rights (Thogersen & Ni, , p. 35) to demand support from the government. Neither do adult children have a perspective from which they can envisage a governmental role in or responsibility for their parents' old age care.…”

Section: Continuity and Changementioning

confidence: 99%

“…Such residential patterns no longer threaten to attract the charge that non‐cohabitation indicates a parents' failure to raise filial sons or a son's disgrace for behaving unfilially. Parents increasingly keep an open mind about the choice to live independently as it is easier “to maintain intergenerational harmony by reducing the children's burdens to a minimum” (Thogersen & Ni, , p. 29). In this way the “conciliatory” behaviour of parents toward their married children can be seen as part of a strategy in which obstacles are reduced for the aging parents to either co‐habit with or live close by their adult children at a later time, when they are too frail to look after themselves (Yan, , pp.…”

Section: Continuity and Changementioning

confidence: 99%

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Filial Obligation in Contemporary China: Evolution of the Culture‐System

2014

J Theory Soc Behav

111

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Family obligation, which has an exceptionally high salience in traditional Chinese society, continues to be significant in contemporary China. In family relations in particular sentiments and practices morphologically similar to those associated with xiao (filial piety) remains intact in so far as an enduring set of expectations concerning age-based obligation continues to structure behavior toward others. Researchers pursuing the theme of "individualization" in Chinese society, on the other hand, argue that family obligations and filial sentiments have substantially weakened. The present paper will show that under conditions of cultural and social change in China filial behavior through family obligation continues to play an important role even though the conventions associated with the relevant expectations, attitudes and emotions have undergone significant change. The paper argues that the culture-system develops not merely through an internal dynamic and that family obligation must be understood in terms of the social and material context in which it operates and the nature of the motivations and imagery of the people that practice it. Journal for the Theory of Social Behaviour Filial Obligation in Contemporary China: Evolution of the Culture-SystemXiaoying Qi Abstract Family obligation, which has an exceptionally high salience in traditional Chinese society, continues to be significant in contemporary China. In family relations in particular sentiments and practices morphologically similar to those associated with xiao (filial piety) remains intact in so far as an enduring set of expectations concerning age-based obligation continues to structure behavior toward others. Researchers pursuing the theme of "individualization" in Chinese society, on the other hand, argue that family obligations and filial sentiments have substantially weakened. The present paper will show that under conditions of cultural and social change in China filial behavior through family obligation continues to play an important role even though the conventions associated with the relevant expectations, attitudes and emotions have undergone significant change. The paper argues that the culture-system develops not merely through an internal dynamic and that family obligation must be understood in terms of the social and material context in which it operates and the nature of the motivations and imagery of the people that practice it.

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Section: Absence Of Social Welfare System and The Persistence Of Intementioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Absence Of Social Welfare System and The Persistence Of Intementioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Continuity and Changementioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Continuity and Changementioning

confidence: 99%

See 2 more Smart Citations

Filial Obligation in Contemporary China: Evolution of the Culture‐System

2014

J Theory Soc Behav

111

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“…For the elderly, cultural values of work are disappearing, so that they are becoming "useless" persons. Some rural elderly actively restructure their social and civic ties for arranging independent daily life as long as they can still afford, in articulating the role of individual choice and personal freedom (Zhang 2004;Thøgersen and Ni 2008), while others claim support provisions on the basis of pursuing fairness. In fact, they are the two sides of the same coin.…”

Section: Fairness and Insecuritymentioning

confidence: 99%

Brotherhood Considered – Responsibility and Tensions Concerning Elderly Support in North China

Wu¹

2010

Sociologus

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The culture of the Han-Chinese designates brotherhood as a valuable form of alliance. Codes of behaviour towards one's brother(s) are ascribed in cultural norms. However, within the concept and practices of kinship, ambiguous borderlines of hierarchy and egalitarianism among brothers leave certain areas free for contesting individual interests. This article takes an extended case study of conflict between two brothers in their old age over their elderly support provisions to analyse how notions of brotherhood are re-shaped as Chinese peasants are confronted with serious social insecurity due to lower incomes and insufficient institutional arrangements for elderly support; how conventional concepts of hierarchy, equality, and fairness have been mobilised, interpreted in different ways to justify their own rights and rightness before the civil judgements of other villagers and the verdicts of the juridical system. This case study directs the reader's attention to the different facets of societal transformation in the last three decades, which impact kinship arrangements, and accordingly caused immense individual anxiety. Brotherhood Considered -Responsibility and Tensions Concerning Elderly Support in North ChinaBy X i u j i e W u SummaryThe culture of the Han-Chinese designates brotherhood as a valuable form of alliance. Codes of behaviour towards one's brother(s) are ascribed in cultural norms. However, within the concept and practices of kinship, ambiguous borderlines of hierarchy and egalitarianism among brothers leave certain areas free for contesting individual interests. This article takes an extended case study of conflict between two brothers in their old age over their elderly support provisions to analyse how notions of brotherhood are re-shaped as Chinese peasants are confronted with serious social insecurity due to lower incomes and insufficient institutional arrangements for elderly support; how conventional concepts of hierarchy, equality, and fairness have been mobilised, interpreted in different ways to justify their own rights and rightness before the civil judgements of other villagers and the verdicts of the juridical system. This case study directs the reader's attention to the different facets of societal transformation in the last three decades, which impact kinship arrangements, and accordingly caused immense individual anxiety.

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Introduction

Constantin

2024

Life Course Research and Social Policies

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This book examines the dynamics of individualization in post-collectivist China through the life-course of two emblematic birth cohorts amid socioeconomic and institutional transformations. The analyses rely on original longitudinal data, both qualitative and quantitative, collected in Beijing among urban and rural populations. Structured into three parts, the book traces the evolution of individualization, explores its impact on social policies and the transition to adulthood. How, in such a short period of time, young adults and their families have managed to navigate from a relatively egalitarian society to one of the most unequal? What impact these drastic changes, initiated by the State, have on the transition to adulthood?

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'He Is He, and I Am I': Individual and Collective among China's Rural Elderly

Cited by 17 publications

References 0 publications

Filial Obligation in Contemporary China: Evolution of the Culture‐System

Filial Obligation in Contemporary China: Evolution of the Culture‐System

Brotherhood Considered – Responsibility and Tensions Concerning Elderly Support in North China

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