Abstract
The aging population is China’s most daunting challenge of the coming decades and has brought about profound consequences for Chinese society. Drawing upon the ethnographic work conducted in Guangzhou city from 2020 to 2023, the present study aims to show some most recent development regarding intergenerational reciprocity among older adults’ aging experience in urban China. The ethnographic accounts reveal the emergence of a concept termed “self-reliant elders” (省心老人), which represents a departure from traditional cultural norms that emphasize grandchild care as the primary source of psychological and economic well-being for the elderly. Instead, these individuals prioritize independence in their later years and actively seek alternatives to family care, such as engaging in social activities and pursuing employment, to maintain a sense of being cared for and to uphold their self-worth. Concurrently, they also invest efforts in fostering harmonious relationships with younger generations through family-oriented activities and online communication. As China faces the challenges posed by its aging population, it becomes crucial to implement practical measures that enhance access to elderly care resources and support the self-reliance of older adults in order to address the emerging trend of aging.
Plain language summary
This study sheds light on the emergence of a new type of elderhood in China. Traditionally, the ideal image of elderhood in Chinese society emphasized the role of grandparents in providing care for grandchildren as a means of intergenerational reciprocity and obtaining psychological and economic well-being, rooted in the cultural value of filial piety. However, a shift towards ìf “self-reliant elders” is becoming increasingly apparent. Middle-class elderly individuals in major cities are increasingly hesitant to rely on their adult children for support through childcare. Instead, they prioritize self-interest and self-reliance as key factors in their pursuit of good aging. This shift is facilitated by the availability of social resources in urban areas, such as pensions, opportunities for re-employment, and engaging in leisure activities designed for the elderly. These resources provide viable alternatives to traditional family support. Despite this emphasis on self-reliance, the value placed on maintaining amicable intergenerational relationships remains. Elderly individuals still cherish opportunities for family gatherings and maintain family intimacy through online communication. The importance of filial piety, which emphasizes family harmony, continues to influence their actions and attitudes. The outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic and the subsequent implementation of home isolation policies have further impacted the pursuit of self-interest and family harmony among the elderly. These circumstances have led to an increased demand for independent living due to family conflicts, as well as a strong desire to maintain social connections and family intimacy in light of the fear of illness and the potential limitations of engaging in enjoyable activities.
Introduction
Over the past four decades, attending to the needs of adult children’s families has become a dominant constituent of Chinese elders’ aging life as the result of the changing family structure and culture (Burnette et al., 2013; Chang et al., 2020; Hoang & Kirby, 2020; Ko & Hank, 2014; Shea et al., 2020; Yan, 2018; Yang & Du, 2021; C. Zhang et al., 2019). Since the early 1980s, China has experienced the most significant rural-to-urban migration flows in history (Chan & Zhang, 1999). As millions of young laborers migrate to urban areas in search of livelihood, elderly parents remain in rural areas, shouldering the responsibility of raising their left-behind grandchildren (Silverstein et al., 2006; J. Sun, 2013). Meanwhile, many urban elders actively offer support to adult children’s families on a regular basis regarding childrearing and caring. For instance, more than 60%of children in Shanghai are co-parented by grandparents and parents (Y. Sun & Jiang, 2017). Recent ethnographic studies have further documented that older adults are moving to cities and/or abroad to help their adult children care for the third generation (Zhang, 2020; Newendorp, 2017) . During this process, the arrangement of grandchild care work often follows gendered patterns, where maternal grandmothers are considered the primary choice and are expected to assume a greater share of caregiving responsibilities (C. Zhang et al., 2019).
Existing studies on grandparental childcare provide insightful explanations for its prevalence in China. The significant involvement of Chinese elders in grandchild care is closely linked to economic considerations. Due to sparse coverage of social security systems and limited healthcare resources, elderly people rely heavily on their children for financial and instrumental support, forcing the trade-off between grandparents taking care of grandchildren and children providing such support (Zimmer & Kwong, 2004). Cong and Silverstein (2008, p. 7) coined the term “time-for-money exchanges” to describe the mutual support between older parents and their children, where the investment in providing childcare is repaid by cash payment. The economic concern is even more intensified in rural areas, where inadequate public services often compel aged parents to depend on adult children as their sole source of financial support (Silverstein et al., 2006; Whyte, 1997; Zimmer & Kwong, 2004). As a matter of fact, recent studies have found that grandparents in rural areas are less enthusiastic about providing grandchild care in exchange for financial support after obtaining pensions as a guaranteed income in old age (Y. He, 2021, cited in Luo & Cui, 2023). In a reverse manner, such cases highlighted the significance of the financial aspect of grandparents’ involvement in grandchild care.
Culturally, grandparents’ participation in raising grandchildren has long been regarded as a vital component of an ideal elderly life in Chinese society. According to the Confucian explanation of filial piety, parents raise their children until they mature and build their own families; in return, the children are expected to provide both financial and emotional support to repay their parents’ investment, thus fostering intergenerational reciprocity (Dong et al., 2012, p. 22; C. Peng et al., 2019; Tu, 1989). This belief establishes a cultural foundation for the interdependence between grandchild rearing and elderly care. First, it bonds individuals’ duties and welfare throughout the life course together with the family, advocating prioritizing familial welfare over self-interest (L. He & van Heugten, 2020, p. 1757). Grandparents thereby are expected to assist adult children in childrearing as a manifestation of their parental obligation (Dong et al., 2012; Goh, 2009; Ikels, 2004). Second, filial piety also involves a critical aspect known as “maintaining the family line” (传宗接代) (Q. P. Liu, 2003; Low & Goh, 2015, p. 304), which aims to ensure the continuation of the patrilineal lineage. Having grandchildren to care for signifies the actualization of a fulfilling life in old age, encompassing the promising continuation of the patrilineal lineage and harmonious family existence. Thus, grandchild care is not just a matter of babysitting; it is both a strategy to secure elderly support and a moral imperative, which could concomitantly bring direct psychological well-being to aging parents (Chang et al., 2020; Hoang & Kirby, 2020; Low & Goh, 2015).
In practice, grandparents’ extensive involvement in grandchild care often causes inter-generational tensions. Although the number of grandparents raising their grandchildren is increasing, many begin to voice their fatigue and tiredness from excessive housekeeping and childcare tasks (Ren et al., 2022; Zhong & Peng, 2020). These negative feelings first point to the tension that grandparents experience between individualism and familism. Embedded within Confucianism, the concept of familism regards parents as the “backbone for children” (L. He & van Heugten, 2020, p. 1757), emphasizing the moral responsibility of parents to make sacrifices in order to support their children. Yet, devoting oneself to this responsibility leaves grandparents with limited time and space to address their individual needs (Zhong & Peng, 2020, p. 41). Fulfilling parental duties at the expense of personal well-being thus can evoke both a sense of happiness and a feeling of exploitation for grandparents (Goh, 2009; Ren et al., 2022; Zhong & Peng, 2020). Second, intergenerational conflicts over childrearing practice are frequently observed. Rather than just performing menial tasks like feeding and watching, Chinese grandparents are traditionally regarded as moral models and share supreme authority in co-parenting, which in practice often leads to conflict regarding parenting roles and authority (C. Zhang et al., 2022). Young parents often accuse grandparents’ teaching methods of either spoiling their grandchildren (Hoang & Kirby, 2020, p. 611) or being overly strict, such as “always finding fault” and using physical punishment (Goh, 2011, p. 47). Young mothers often strive to express their opinions and navigate parenting authority within their families, while grandparents may feel powerless for their efforts being unrecognized (Goh, 2011; Hoang & Kirby, 2020). As China has recently eased its birth control policy and introduced a “two-child policy” to encourage childbirth, scholarly work has revealed that grandparents exhibit reluctance to provide care for a second child (Zhong & Peng, 2020), and they engage in re-negotiating the responsibility of rearing the second child between maternal and paternal grandparents, resulting in decreased effort investment (Lin & Mao, 2022).
Hence, existing literature reveals that grandchild care holds multifaceted significance for grandparents. Moreover, there seems to be a shift in the mindset of Chinese elders regarding assuming the role of primary care provider for grandchild rearing, even when they continue to participate in such care. Building on these insightful observations, this study regards grandchild rearing as a crucial site for examining the understanding of good aging among urban elders in China. Specifically, it draws upon ethnographic work conducted in Guangzhou city in south China between 2020 and 2023 and explores how a group of middle-class older adults depart from the traditional cultural expectation of grandchild care and instead strive to become “self-reliant” elders.
The broader objective of the present study is to explore elderly people’s understanding of good aging associated with intergenerational reciprocity in the context of cultural, social, and economic transformations. Scholarly discussions of good aging can be traced back to the early 1960s when Havighurst (2008) first employed the indicator “inner satisfaction” to bridge a link between elders’ physical behavior and psychological satisfaction. Along the line, studies in later decades further utilized psychological (Kalleberg & Loscocco, 1983), cognitive, and mental factors to evaluate the status of aging (Rowe & Kahn, 1997). In recent years, scholars have started to question the “Western bias” (Conkova & Lindenberg, 2020; Lamb, 2019) of previous studies. Such scholarly work, rooted in the ideology of independence, tends to exclusively emphasize individual effort in maintaining “self-care” (Lamb, 2019, p. 268) and promotes the use of individual agency to resist the aging process. It also overlooks how wider social structures, culture, and historical background shapes the aging process (Stowe & Cooney, 2015). Following this framework, aging is not solely a process of self-care; rather, it is highly interpersonal (Hagestad & Settersten, 2017) and is profoundly influenced by cultural, moral, medical, and political-economic factors (Lamb, 2019).
Mindful of contextualized good aging, this paper goes further by examining the changing interpretation and practice of “good aging” associated with grandchild care within the specific context of China, a country that is grappling with the grave concerns of population aging amidst profound socio-cultural-economic transformations.
In what follows, we first give an overview of the recent background of getting old in the context of social-cultural-economic transformations in urban China, followed by a brief sketch of research settings and methods. We then depict how older adults in Guangzhou actively explore good aging in domestic, workplace, and social spheres during their post-retirement stage. In the subsequent section, we further contextualize their efforts to become “self-reliant elders” in China’s unique socio-cultural conditions, highlighting the changing dynamics of intergenerational reciprocity among middle-class elders in urban China. The conclusion section discusses the empirical and theoretical implications of this study.
Context: Getting Old in Contemporary China
The Chinese society is aging. Affected by the increasing life expectancy and the declining fertility rate, the share of the population aged above 65 keeps growing and is expected to double between 2010 and 2030 (Wong & Yuan, 2020). Changes in age structure pose a formidable challenge to economic growth and the social security system. Population aging and the limited increases in fertility rates resulted in the shrinking working-age population and concerns over the quantity of the labor force and the cost of employment. The old-age dependency ratio in China has been rising since 2006 and reached 17.8%in 2020, which means one older person requires support from six people (Xu, 2020). The growing population of retirees may further worsen the challenges faced by the national pension system’s sustainability (H. Fang & Feng, 2018, p. 3). Framed within the active aging society strategy, the state council has initiated a series of major policies, such as raising the retirement age and pension reform so as to tackle the looming issues in its Fourteenth Five-Year Plan period (2021–25; Xu, 2020).
As the nation grapples with population aging, China’s older adults experience changes and challenges during their aging process. First, a prominent aspect is the widespread prevalence of grandchild care. As aforementioned, intergenerational support has traditionally been the dominant cultural norm in Chinese society. In an ideal late life, elderly people often actively assist with adult children’s household chores as much as they can while adult children fulfill their filial duty. Over the past 40 years, with the economic development and shrinking household size associated with the family planning policy, families are now increasingly dedicated to caring for their children since they are valued greatly (Goh, 2011). The shifting focus of familial obligations from older generations to grandchildren results in the emergence of “neo-familism” (Yan, 2018), a new normative practice that prioritizes sacrificing one’s time and resources for the benefit of grandchildren. As a result, young parents extensively engage in children’s rearing and education, while grandparents act as pillars of emotional support to relieve rearing stress (C. Zhang et al., 2022).
Second, the aging experience of Chinese elders has been impacted by the retirement policy, which carries significant implications for the employment prospects of older individuals. Compared with many middle-income countries, China has set up a rather young retirement age. The legal retirement age, established by the state council in 1951 and still in effect (Zhang, 2018), is 55 for female cadres and 50 for female workers. For men, the retirement age is 60 across the board. This contrasts with most OECD countries, where the settings of retirement age are well above sixty (OECD, 2019). Such mandatory retirement at a young age prevents individuals in their late fifties and early sixties from continuing to work, causing a waste of human capital (Xu, 2020) and further exacerbating the fiscal affordability concerns faced by the social security system (Zhao, 2015). Meanwhile, a gender gap exists in retirement policy, where women can retire 5 to 10 years earlier than men. As female retirees have longer spare time, they are frequently allocated to more caregiving duties and household chores. In light of the prevailing challenges, policymakers are currently contemplating the possibility of increasing the retirement age (Zhang, 2018; M. Liu, 2021).
Third, the daily lives of Chinese elders have seen a growing influence of the family-oriented elderly support policy. During the Maoist period (1949–1977), institutional elderly support, including pensions and subsidies, was limited to urban employees in state-owned enterprises and severe welfare recipients, such as individuals with severe disabilities or those without family support. As a result, the majority of the population relied on familial caregivers and aged in their own homes (Feng et al., 2020). Since the post-Mao period (1978–present), the introduction of a market economy and the redesigning of social welfare to be more cost-effective (Connelly et al., 2018) have reinforced the responsibility of individuals and their families for elderly support. This shift is evident in the official guidelines issued in 2006, which emphasize the importance of “home-based care as the main component” of elderly care (J. Liu & Cook, 2020, p. 381). However, the sustainability of family-oriented support has faced challenges due to the rapidly expanding aging population, changing household structures (Connelly et al., 2018), and the rise of individualistic values (Feng et al., 2020). Consequently, new approaches to elderly support that integrate family, market, and institutional aid are being explored in recent years. For instance, the pilot scheme of “9073” long-term care in several urban cities aims to have 90% of elderly people receiving care in their homes, 7% in community support, and 3% in institutional care (Li & Otani, 2018, p. 483). Recent discussions have highlighted the importance of “bringing the family back” in the design of the welfare system (Z. Su et al., 2017, p. 352), emphasizing the need to provide additional resources and incentives to encourage familial elderly support. As such, despite the efforts to involve family, community, and institutions in elderly support, families in China continue to bear the primary responsibility for elderly support.
Fourth, the rural-urban divide in pension and social resources leads to a stratified aging experience for elders in China. On one hand, the current pension system in China is influenced by the rural-urban hukou (household registration) system, which creates disparities in access and benefits. Since 1951, only individuals with urban hukou have been eligible for the Enterprise Employee Basic Pension (referred to as Pillar Two in official documents) (K. Zhang, 2021, p. 14). It was until 2009 that rural residents started to be covered by the Urban-Rural Resident Social Pension (also known as Pillar One) on a large scale (Zhu & Walker, 2018). The pension benefits vary significantly across different schemes depending on the fiscal capacity of local governments, with rural areas often receiving lower benefits due to unfavorable economic conditions. As a result, urban elders are less reliant on their children for financial support, given the advantages associated with urban hukou and the availability of pensions (Wu, 2022). On the other hand, the rural-urban divide in social resources significantly impacts the quality of life in old age. Recent research indicates that urban elders, in comparison to their rural counterparts, have access to a range of social support systems, including friends, family, and governmental programs, which can help mitigate the negative psychological effects of aging stereotypes (J. Liu & Cook, 2020). The availability of social and economic resources also enables urban elders to pursue leisure activities that align with their individual interests, such as participating in university programs for the aged, joining recreational groups, and traveling (B. Su et al., 2006). With the availability of more generous pension benefits, urban elders are able to attain a higher level of financial independence. As a result, the expectations surrounding elderly support shift from solely financial support to the cultivation of family intimacy, which includes regular visits and interactions (Hsu & Madsen, 2019) and the provision of respect (Dong et al., 2012). In contrast, rural elders often find themselves predominantly responsible for caring for their grandchildren, as they heavily rely on support from their adult children (B. Su et al., 2006), which can sometimes contribute to feelings of depression (D. Liu et al., 2020).
Thus far, much ink has been spilled over the aging issue in China. However, few studies have been conducted to consider seniors who live in major cities, especially those with affluent means. This paper is designed to fill this lacuna by exploring how this particular demographic group subjectively approaches aging with respect to intergenerational reciprocity. Specifically, it investigates how middle-class elders in China’s first-tiered city navigate the social expectations of grandchild care and individual fulfillment in their post-retirement stage.
Research Setting and Methods
This study is based on ethnographic fieldwork conducted in a senior choir in the city of Guangzhou, an economic powerhouse and capital of south China’s Guangdong Province. Listed as one of China’s four largest cities, Guangzhou serves as a major economic engine for the entire country. In 2021, its total GDP reached approximately 2.8 trillion CNY, ranking it fourth in China (Interesse, 2022); the average yearly employee salary was 144,288 CNY, ranking in the top 10 in China (Guangzhou Municipal Bureau of Statistics, 2022). The city has well-developed infrastructure and public facilities, such as full coverage of the elderly healthcare system at the community level (Guangzhou Municipality, 2023). Like most major cities in China, Guangzhou is facing severe challenges in relation to its aging population. By the end of 2019, Guangzhou had 1.75 million people aged 60 or above, accounting for 18.4% of its registered population (Health & Family Planning Commission of Guangzhou Municipality, 2020). This shift raises concerns about the sustainability of healthcare and the pension system (Han et al., 2020).
Named the “World Chorus Capital” (China News, 2012), Guangzhou is well-known for the popularity of mass choruses. In 2018, there were nearly 2,000 elderly amateur art groups in Guangzhou, involving approximately 50,000 older adults (Health & Family Planning Commission of Guangzhou Municipality, 2019). Among them, the Guangzhou Pearl River Chorus has enjoyed great fame in southern China. Sponsored by the Guangzhou Chorus Association, this amateur choir maintains its size at sixty members and recruits members from all walks of life every year. Its members differ in age and career, ranging from 22-year-old undergraduate students to seventy-two-year-old retirees. At present, there are nearly 20 retirees in this chorus. Although they are distinct in terms of occupations and family backgrounds, they generally possess a good socioeconomic status.
The authors conducted two rounds of fieldwork between 2020 and 2023. The primary fieldwork took place in the summer of 2020, and the second round occurred in April of 2023 with a specific focus on the impact of the COVID-19 lockdown. During the first round of fieldwork, we carried out in-depth interviews and extensive participant observation in and beyond the Guangzhou Pearl River Chorus. We were first introduced to the chorus members by a university alumnus and then started to get familiar with other chorus members. We observed their regular rehearsals and performances, and hang out with some interlocuters when they did workout or met with friends, with the aim of examining how the understanding of good aging is interwoven into daily practice.
We used snowball and purposive sampling and carried out in-depth interviews with 10 elderly choir members and their relatives. Our interviews focused on informants’ feelings about taking care of their grandchildren, their relationships with family members and friends, their everyday activities, and their ideal image of aging. Each interview lasted from 1 to 3 hr, and each informant underwent multiple in-depth interviews. The interviews were conducted in Chinese, either in Mandarin or Cantonese.
Our key informants are active members of the chorus and were retired with a pension, falling into the category of young-old (aged between 61 and 75) (detailed demographic information is listed in Table 1). Their retirement duration typically ranges from 5 to 15 years. Half of these key informants possess a bachelor’s degree or higher, and they come from diverse occupational backgrounds including medicine, scientific technology, civil service, performing arts, and finance. Four informants have pension incomes exceeding 3,000 CNY, which is significantly higher than the basic pension income of 237 CNY set in the Urban-Rural Resident Social Pension (Guangzhou Municipal Bureau of Human Resources and Social Security, 2021). All informants also own residential properties in Guangzhou city. These financial holdings indicate they are in a middle to upper-middle-class bracket. They are not dependent on their children for elderly support due to their favorable financial situation. Additionally, seven informants were already grandparents and the rest of them were in the process of becoming grandparents.
Summary of Informant Demographics.
From 2020 to 2023, we have been staying in touch with these key informants. Due to the pandemic, we were not able to carry out participant observation. Nonetheless, we managed to stay in touch with them through social media, where we updated ourselves on their latest experience and conducted online interviews. In April 2023, after China had loosened its lockdown policy, we conducted a second round of face-to-face interviews to gain insight into any changes in people’s understanding of good aging in association with the impact of COVID-19. The interview questions focused on the impact of the pandemic on grandparents providing childcare, the changes in intergenerational relationships resulting from shifts in communication patterns, and the evolving methods through which elderly individuals seek emotional support.
As such, despite the small sampling of this study, we were able to intensively explore whether taking care of grandchildren still plays a key role for middle-class elders in perceiving good aging. The combination of participant observation and in-depth interview enables us to develop a nuanced understanding of good aging by exploring living experience and the meanings attributed by interlocuters, thus contributing to an “intense immersion” (Aspers & Corte, 2019, p. 148) of contextualized understanding of good aging.
What Urban Elders Do After Retirement: Findings
Over the course of our fieldwork, we particularly focused on the daily experiences of urban elders’ post-retirement life. Specifically, what do they usually do after retiring? What is their ideal way of getting old? What are their attitudes toward conducting grandchild caring for intergenerational reciprocity? The findings from the fieldwork and interview data indicate that older adults in urban areas engage in various social activities, such as joining sports clubs and community choirs, and often seek re-employment in their previous professional roles, such as doctors being rehired by hospitals to utilize their expertise. This suggests that they prioritize optimizing their own experiences rather than solely focusing on grandchild care. In terms of their perception of good aging, the role of grandchild care in fulfilling seniors’ self-worth appears to have diminished. This stands sharply apart from the previous studies of elderly people in China, where caring for grandchildren has been considered a way to enact familial obligations (Goh, 2011; Low & Goh, 2015; Silverstein et al., 2006), manifesting self-worth (C. Peng et al., 2019; Zhang, 2020) and reciprocating support from the next generation (Dong et al., 2012; Wang et al., 2009). Instead, gaining financial self-dependence and building multiple social networks through social participation have become valuable sources to achieve happiness and compensation for declining family support.
The Reluctance of Caring for Grandchildren
As depicted in many previous studies, it has almost become a new norm for Chinese elders to take up the responsibility of grandchild care (Zhang, 2020; Chen & Liu, 2012; Cong & Silverstein, 2012; Xiao, 2014). This was clearly reflected in our interviews. When asked what people usually do after retirement, our respondents immediately raised the idea of attending to the needs of adult children’s families. Many of them pointedly commented, “What else can you do [when you retire] at such an early age?” Interestingly, regardless of whether they were grandparents or not, our respondents usually described grandchild care duty as a “trouble” or “burden.” Some of them also confessed that they were reluctant to act as a caregiver for the benefit of the whole family. Oftentimes, they emphasized their pursuit of aging independently, which meant reducing participation in caregiving for their children’s families.
Mrs. Ping, a retired engineer who used to work in a foreign company, has been living separately from her husband and now shares an apartment with her 27-year-old son. She depicted a frosty image of her relationship with her family. Her son was usually occupied with video games in his room and rarely spoke with Mrs. Ping. Indeed, she usually plays badminton alone with her fellow choir members. Once, she managed to persuade her son to join her. Although Mrs. Ping was apparently overjoyed with her son’s participation, her son seemed impatient and barely spoke with Mrs. Ping’s friends. Later, when we asked about Mrs. Ping’s retirement life, her son could not think of anything except housework.
Mrs. Ping has longed for her son to get married and have a child. However, her attitude toward grandchildren changed after she heard about some friends’ post-retirement life. According to Mrs. Ping, once those friends became grandparents, their roles shifted from “selves” to “grandparents,” and their daily life has been contained within the domestic sphere, which echoed many researchers’ observations (Zhang, 2020; Xiao, 2014). Mrs. Ping used to expect to become a caregiver as that was what people her age were supposed to do. After witnessing her colleagues’ experiences, however, Mrs. Ping started to rethink her expectations. She would not be able to bear life without abundant social activities such as attending the chorus. She is also dreadful about being devalued as a sole caregiver, even though she understands that people of her age mostly spend time providing grandchild care.
Concerns about role transition and self-worth erosion did not occur to just Mrs. Ping. Chorus members in their early sixties frequently mentioned their demand for independence and opportunities to live as “me,” not as “someone’s grandparent.”
It doesn’t matter how nice the house you buy for your parents is. What parents care about is living independently and freely. (Mr. Kuang) The younger generation shouldn’t rely heavily on their parents. We are getting old and need independent space to relax. So I asked my son not to live with me. And I won’t take care of his child in the future. (Mrs. Bing)
As reflected in these accounts, although widely recognized, the elders we interviewed no longer consider grandchild care as an inevitable component of their aging life. Admittedly, this view sometimes puts these elders into an awkward position. Female workers usually retire at the age of 55, which makes them ideal candidates for grandchild care. Ms. Fang, who used to be a professional, often quarrels with her daughter about who should take care of her grandchild and how. Ms. Fang believes that her parenting duties should have ended when her daughter grew up, and decisions about how to spend her retirement life should be up to her own desires. In her view, grandchild care should not become an inevitable component, but extra assistance to relieve her daughter’s child-caring burden. However, Ms. Fang’s view is challenged by some of her neighbors, who believe that it is a moral obligation for older people to take care of grandchildren. Still, Ms. Fang never hesitates to defend her viewpoint, and sometimes their exchanges become confrontational.
Actively Seeking Reemployment
In line with their reluctance to take on the role of grandchild care, many of our respondents actively seek reemployment after retirement. Over the course of our fieldwork, “feeling lonely” (觉得孤单) and “having nothing to do” (没事做) are two of the most frequent terms used to describe their feelings about post-retirement life. Some believe that continuing to work in old age will relieve their loneliness and isolation after retirement; some choose to work to make extra money to secure an independent life in their old age.
Mr. Wu is a leading expert of heart disease in China who was once rewarded a national allowance. Now 72 years old, he still provides medical service more than 24 hr a week. His friends sometimes tease him for his “desire to make money.” Mr. Wu smiled while providing every answer. He explained that his motivation is not the money, but recognition as a respected doctor. He also highlighted his patients’ trust, some of whom he had been treating for years. Some patients in despair had come to him because of his good reputation, hoping Mr. Wu could cure them. Inspired by the respect from patients and successful cases, he has maintained a very positive view of aging.
Mr. Wu is not a rare case. Affluent elders in Guangzhou, who have the financial means to support themselves in their later years without the need to work, often choose to accept rehiring primarily driven by the pursuit of personal happiness and self-fulfillment. As we mentioned earlier, elders with limited resources, particularly in rural areas, exclusively rely on providing childcare for their adult children’s family in exchange for financial support, known as intergenerational reciprocity (Cong & Silverstein, 2008; Dong et al., 2012; Wang et al., 2009). In comparison, our respondents chose to get reemployed to relieve adult children’s financial pressure and achieve self-accomplishment rather than caring for grandchildren. In Mr. Wu’s case, instead of taking care of his grandchildren, he regarded reemployment as an effective strategy to maintain his self-worth. In this process, the discourse of active aging also makes people eager to find ways to demonstrate the value of the aged.
However, the motivations for seeking reemployment after retirement vary among individuals with different socioeconomic backgrounds. For elders facing financial constraints, the modest pension and rising living costs in the city create a necessity to pursue additional income. According to the National Bureau of Statistics in 2021, the Consumer Price Index of Guangzhou city witnessed a 2.6% increase throughout 2020. Additionally, the saving gap among Chinese retirees expands by 7% annually (World Economic Forum, 2020), highlighting further economic stratification in post-retirement. Consequently, many urban residents are discovering that their pension savings are inadequate to meet the escalating cost of living, leading to financial constraints for the elderly and hindering their ability to age well economically. Subjected to pervasive ageism, retired blue-collar workers often face significant disadvantages when attempting to reenter the labor market. This ageism has resulted in the construction of negative aging stereotypes, which further marginalize this group of individuals. In this regard, affluent elders are the elders privileged from the usual challenges encountered by elderly job seekers. In the retirement regulations promulgated in 1983, senior experts in science, education, culture, and health were provided with an institutional guarantee to extend their retirement age (The State Council, 1983). After retirement, their age became an advantage, which is positively linked with work experience and social capital and generates a positive return. The situation has been called “the older the better” (越老越吃香), which is particularly common among doctors, teachers, and other occupations. Upon reaching retirement age, elders of this category often continue to work, which means they are successfully able to maintain self-worth in their old age.
As previously mentioned, this study was specifically designed to examine the perception of successful aging among urban middle-class elders. Therefore, our respondents were purposefully selected from this specific category. Indeed, most informants admitted that they were lucky enough to finance themselves independently, but they were also aware of the dilemma faced by friends who could not finance themselves and were striving to retain their jobs. Although we did not directly interview individuals from lower socioeconomic backgrounds, our interlocutors shared relevant cases with which they were familiar. Mr. Lui mentioned that his classmate in Hong Kong drove a taxi at the age of 72 because he needed the income to support the whole family. Mr. Zhang, who used to be a factory worker, expressed his understanding of the fear of retirement for blue-collar workers. With insufficient savings and pensions to support their families, these people find it hard to age well. Mr. Zhang shared the story of his former colleague, who lamented why he was still alive without the money to live. Mr. Zhang then claimed that such people live in uncertainty and pain, so they had to get to work.
As reflected in Mr. Lui’s and Mr. Zhang’s accounts, financial condition imposes a significant impact on the aging experience and results in a great disparity among urban elderly people’s aging experiences with different occupations. Reemployment can be a path for middle-class workers to achieve self-accomplishment in positive aging, or it can be a strategy for low-income groups to struggle with negative events associated with aging. Yet both tendencies have suggested similarity in terms of their perception toward moral obligation—namely, intergenerational support has weakened and prioritizes self-accomplishment over grandchild care.
Expanding Non-relative Network
The important role of social participation in enhancing older adults’ well-being has been discussed in many previous studies on active aging (Cheng et al., 2009; Ellwardt et al., 2017; Heo et al., 2014; Larson et al., 1986). Social activities, especially those with active pursuits (e.g., hobbies, volunteering, sports and fitness, education), have been suggested to have a positive impact on seniors’ psychological well-being (Victorino & Gauthier, 2005). When speaking of their post-retirement life, our informants frequently mentioned the importance of leisure activities. Notably, instead of hanging out with family members, they paid a lot of attention to building their non-kin network.
Although frequently speaking of loneliness, our informants do not turn to family for help. In fact, our interview results suggest that the emotional bonds between old and young generations are not very robust. Even if living in the same city, family gatherings do not frequently happen. Although the relationship with their spouse has become increasingly important for Chinese people (Yan, 2003), the emotional connection between elderly spouses does not appear to be particularly strong. Instead of spending time with their spouses, elders in Guangzhou tend to befriend people they newly meet at social activities.
In contrast to the lack of support from family members and immediate kin, our respondents repeatedly mentioned the importance of their non-kin networks, especially friends of the same age, in boosting their emotional status. Many of our respondents mentioned how important it was to have close friends to navigate from their work to non-work status, especially the initial transition in the early stages of retirement. After retirement, the power and prestige brought by work gradually decline, and the empty-nest life intensifies the negative emotion.
A noteworthy case is Mr. Lui, a 69-year-old retired deputy director of a bureau in Guangzhou with high social status. According to Mr. Lui, he continuously participated in activities held in his former workplace, which allowed him “to extend the prestige after retirement.” But Mr. Lui was hit by waves of powerlessness after he saw young staff achieving career prospects without his advice. It took Mr. Lui quite a while to accept the reality that his prestige would inevitably decline after retirement. Moreover, he lives alone, and family members rarely come to visit, even though they live in the same city. To deal with the loneliness, Mr. Lui turned to his friends in the chorus and took on an active role in the chorus rehearsal.
During the COVID-19 pandemic, China implemented a drastic Zero-COVID strategy that involved social isolation measures such as home quarantine and restricted movement of people, causing psychological strain on isolated people (Z. Peng et al., 2023). To reduce the anxiety they feel when isolated at home, some informants turn to online activities. For instance, Mrs. Ping took the initiative to create a WeChat group, a popular smartphone app in China, where she and her friends discussed strategies for maximizing discounts on various grocery shopping applications. Within a single day, thousands of messages were exchanged in the group chat. Video calls also became a crucial means for maintaining social connections, and Mrs. Ping revealed that she spent most of her time during the lockdown engaging in these calls from home. When we attempted to interview Mrs. Ping in April 2023, we had to reschedule three times due to her busy schedule, filled with visiting friends, dining out, traveling, and participating in interest groups. Throughout the pandemic, Mrs. Ping experienced the loss of friends and relatives but was unable to attend their funerals. Since the end of the lockdown policy in December 2022, she has made it a priority to visit those who have lost loved ones, providing in-person comfort and support. These losses have deepened Mrs. Ping’s appreciation for her social network, inspiring her to become more actively involved in social activities. She now fears falling ill and missing out on these valuable experiences, which drives her to make the most of her time with friends. These experiences highlight how the pandemic has underscored the need for emotional support from non-kin networks due to the unpredictable nature of individual health.
Our observations indicate that active leisure occupies a significant portion of informants’ daily lives, so the interactions with the non-kin network are promoted. Such findings clearly resonate with the empirical studies carried out in other parts of urban China. Cheng and colleagues compared whether family networks or non-kin networks are more supportive when embedded with the dynamics between collectivism and individualism in China (Cheng et al., 2009). Their results indicate that there are few differences in promoting subjective well-being between friend-focused networks and family networks. Moreover, distant kin is even less supportive because of fewer contacts. Leisure activities with friends, especially active leisure participation, contribute more to elders’ well-being than family support (Heo et al., 2014). Older adults develop social networks mainly in recreational groups, such as joining a chorus, doing exercise, and playing mahjong with friends. In addition, they consciously adjust the elderly role they display. They try to resist age stereotypes by being energetic, like speaking in high spirits or laughing. Such behaviors, as explained by Mrs. Ping and her friends, could create a “noisy” atmosphere, and show an energetic, healthy, and cheerful image against those negative labels associated with the elderly people.
Becoming a Self-Reliant Elder: Analysis
In the 2021 Spring Festival Gala (春节联欢晚会), one of the most-watched annual spectacles in China, a mini comedy sketch attracted lots of discussions. A gregarious, energetic 57-year-old thought she had cancer because of a miscommunication with her doctor. She immediately turned to her circle of friends to share the sad news and sought comfort. Eventually, after the misunderstanding was explained, the mother was relieved and told her friends that it was crucial for elderly people to take care of themselves.
What is noteworthy in this mini melodrama is that, although this lady relied on her daughter to collect the test results, she naturally turned to her friends for emotional support. Yet it would not be such a surprise after all when we relate it to our informants’ accounts. As reflected in the previous section, affluent elders are increasingly reluctant to provide grandchild care, and they actively expanded their non-kin network and sought reemployment to secure their financial independence. This change can only be understood when framed within China’s changing socioeconomic and moral landscapes, especially the tension between familism and individualism.
Impact of Individualism
Older adults’ active pursuit of self-worth cannot be separated from their ongoing individualization in contemporary Chinese society. After 40 of social and economic reforms, individual Chinese increasingly act as independent subjects and begin to pursue personal interests. Compared with the traditional culture that underscored public ownership and collective responsibility, the purpose of “living your own life” has become a powerful value. Take the domestic sphere as an example. Family in contemporary Chinese society is no longer a homogeneous unit where self-worth and well-being are associated with collective family goals, but a haven where individuals find legitimacy in pursuing their own interests (Yan, 2003). Striving for individual interests has gained more cultural legitimacy and become morally accepted, which has provoked serious challenges to the legitimacy of intergenerational reciprocity. As previously mentioned, filial piety is still fulfilled by younger generations through intergenerational reciprocity but is increasingly combined with the pursuit of self-interest, such as exchanges among social resources, caregiving, and remittance. Not only do young generations want to alleviate the restraint from filial piety, but older people are also starting to pursue their own happiness instead of being devoted to family harmony, as before.
Within this landscape, being acutely aware of the cultural expectation to provide grandchild care, elderly people have begun to feel dissatisfied with a lifestyle characterized by the confinement to the domestic sphere and have queried the rationality of their responsibility for grandchild rearing. They are also prone to prioritizing their own well-being and hope to live a more productive life to achieve self-worth apart from parenting duties. As reflected in our respondents’ accounts, affluent elders in Guangzhou have begun to prioritize personal happiness over the benefit of subsequent generations. In the domestic sphere, few of the elders we interviewed expressed enthusiasm for providing the grandchild care they are expected to practice. Even if they long for affection from subsequent generations, what comes to mind is the weariness, busyness, and conflicts surrounding caregiving practices.
What is more telling is that our elderly respondents frequently emphasized living independently to achieve happiness in old age. The pandemic lockdown resulted in an increase in the amount of time family members spent together, but it also gave rise to new conflicts. In the case of Mrs. Ping, her house was once considered a personal space because her son would leave for work in the morning and return late at night, leaving behind an empty and tranquil environment for her. She could enjoy undisturbed sleep until 8 a.m. However, remote work during the pandemic brought numerous online meetings and calls, generating noise at home that disturbed Mrs. Ping and made her feel as if her personal space was being invaded. Consequently, Ping chose to either temporarily move to her husband’s house or find other places to spend time when her son was attending online meetings. According to a recent study, living without children did not significantly impact the psychological well-being of urban elders, as living independently became a new concern in assessing their quality of life (Wu, 2022). Similarly, rather than viewing family gatherings as a source of happiness, Mrs. Ping believed that having a personal space where she wouldn’t be disturbed was the ideal concept of “home.”
Besides, independence is also revealed from reemployment. Securing a new job after retirement appears to be crucial for older adults to prove their self-worth and gain respect and self-esteem beyond the familial domain. The case of Mr. Wu also suggests that the interpretation of good aging can be understood in ways other than what traditional familism expects, such as by focusing on professional goals. As for social participation, the absence of emotional support within the familial domain is not enough to support elders in the process of adapting to the empty-nesting period and role-shifting. As a result, the non-kin network formed in the entertainment group has become compensation for family involvement.
Structural Factors
Older adults’ pursuit of independence is significantly influenced by the structural strains within economic, social, and cultural transformations. The advent of market economy reforms has fostered individualistic values within the family unit (E. F. Fang et al., 2020). Meanwhile, the implementation of the one-child policy has led to the prevalence of the “4-2-1” family structure in urban areas, wherein four grandparents are available to collectively care for a single grandchild (K. Zhang, 2021, p. 19). Consequently, a phenomenon known as “neo-familism” (Yan, 2018) has emerged, representing a new normative practice that prioritizes the dedication of one’s time and resources for the well-being of grandchildren. This practice necessitates a renegotiation with the cultural tradition of unconditional obedience to familial responsibilities (Hsu & Madsen, 2019).
Elders are put into such situations filled with uncertainties in terms of intergenerational reciprocity and social well-being. As the focus of the family shifts from ancestors to grandchildren (Goh, 2011), there are growing disparities in attitudes and behaviors toward familial obligations across generations. This structural change erodes the authority and esteem of the elderly, who no longer plays a pivotal role in offering guidance to younger generations. No longer under the protection of old traditions, elderly people are frequently labeled as a “burden” who occupy a weak position in terms of health and finances (Angus & Reeve, 2006). It is hard for unconditional obedience from younger to older generations and intergenerational reciprocity driven by filial piety.
Meanwhile, the act of supporting the elderly is restrained by urban living conditions. With the rising cost of living in urban areas, adult children striving in cities have become increasingly anxious about how to support their families in raising children, paying off housing debt, and supporting their aging parents (Hsu & Madsen, 2019). In terms of emotional support, situated in a competitive workplace, adult children often found themselves lacking the necessary time and energy to care for their parents. Instead, their priorities revolve around pursuing career ambitions and earning enough money to support their elderly parents, resulting in a significant decrease in intergenerational interaction. This reduced level of care from adult children also fails to meet the psychological needs of parents, such as seeking comfort and relaxation (Cheng & Chan, 2006). The family’s emotional absence triggers the elderly to expand their non-kin network and stress social participation.
Moreover, the increase in empty nesters, combined with the loneliness associated with early retirement, drives elderly people to adapt to the more limited connection with immediate family members and instead engage in leisure activities, such as fitness, education, and other entertainment (Heo et al., 2014). As reflected in their reluctant perception of caring for their grandchildren and their unwillingness to rely on their adult children’s support, affluent elders now expect to be self-sufficient both emotionally and financially as they get old. When asked to define good aging, nearly all respondents expressed an unwillingness to rely on intergenerational reciprocity and a desire to pursue financial independence out of a fear of being regarded as a burden. Mrs. Ping explained the significance of saving money because she worried that her children would not have sufficient time or money to take care of her.
The perfect relationship is to have enough pension to support myself and to pay for the nursing home without bothering my children. Children are busy making a living, especially those with poor financial conditions. They are under great pressure to pay their mortgage, raise their children, and provide support for their ailing parents. So when getting old, you can’t count on them to support you. This will only increase their burden. And you’d better not bother your children when you’re old. You have to save some money [when you are young]. I don’t want to become a burden. (Mrs. Ping)
As this reflection indicates, the elderly understand that adult children are under great pressure in their career development and childrearing—a situation they themselves never experienced at an early age. Yet sufficient financial savings and a solid non-kin support network jointly guarantee a possibility of good aging. The case of Mrs. Ping reveals a pattern of maintaining an amiable family relationship without fulfilling the mutual obligation of filial piety, from which independence and individual happiness can be attained. Pension saving and non-kin networks become the substitution for financial and emotional support. Nevertheless, even with the exploration of alternative arrangements, there persists an underlying expectation for adult children to offer emotional care for their aging parents. This expectation stems from the continuation of the Confucian doctrine of filial piety, and fulfilling it is linked to the happiness and pride of both the elderly parents (Wang et al., 2009) and their children (L. He & van Heugten, 2020). Recent ethnographic research conducted in various Chinese cities on the anxiety of fulfilling filial piety among young adults has revealed that some individuals “felt bad if their parents were unhappy” (Hsu & Madsen, 2019, p. 43). The term “unhappy” implies that their parents were dissatisfied with their children’s perceived failure to fulfill the obligatory duty of filial piety. Consequently, many young adults find themselves in a challenging predicament, torn between pursuing their career ambitions and fulfilling their parental caregiving responsibilities.
To achieve self-reliance, older adults are mainly concerned with two factors. The first factor is financial independence, which directly affects elderly people’s status in the family. Elders’ economic vulnerability often leads to a reliance on adult children and correspondingly a sense of powerlessness in their old age. But financial self-reliance can provide a sense of security and maintain the family status for the elderly. It can also relieve adult children’s pressure from offering support. The second factor is multiple social support networks, especially non-kin networks, such as amateur groups. In the case of Mr. Lui, the former administrative staff found it difficult to adapt to retirement, and he began to actively participate in choir gatherings, which provided him with comfort and helped him maintain an energetic, healthy, and cheerful image. In this process, middle-class elders form an effective substitute network for emotional support. Yet social networks cannot completely replace emotional support from the family, where filial piety is still expected to be practiced. Emotional support, mainly comfort and respect, has gained priority in the expectation of filial piety in addition to tangible support. Therefore, amicable intergenerational relationships still play a salient role in aging well.
More importantly, our ethnographic accounts suggest that a new elderhood has begun to emerge in this process. When elderly individuals find it hard to meet the expectation of intergenerational reciprocity, they are forced to construct a strategy for good aging—namely, “self-reliant elders.” They have increasingly stayed away from the expectation of caring for their grandchildren and instead proved their self-worth in various ways while forming their own social networks.
It presents the possibility to age well without counting on intergenerational reciprocity. Pension, social networks, and elderly care facilities are allocated for the elderly welfare, acting as possible alternatives of compensation for the absence of family support and helping address the erosion of filial piety and its obligations in an individualized society. Admittedly, families continue to play a significant role in the provision of elderly care, given the limited health resources and insufficient elderly facilities for long-term care (Li & Otani, 2018). Individuals are driven by individualism in the pursuit of self-worth while being embedded in institutional restraints. In this sense, urban elders usually occupy more resources and enjoy more financial independence, which makes it possible to explore unique aging experiences. Departing from the intergenerational reciprocity, respondents in this study show their uncertainty toward this exchange. Such reciprocity has increasingly become less essential for the aging experience of the urban middle class. The self-reliant elder (省心老人) is constructed by urban elders’ active exploration of the aging experience using the advantaged resources they possess, from which they attempt to undermine the moral obligation of grandchild care.
Admittedly, although independence is stressed, they long for the emotional support of their family and hope to retain contact. Where individuals stand between the nation and the market, the family becomes the only source of protection and belongingness (Yan, 2018). Thus, intergenerational intimacy is highly cherished, even if elderly people claim they are self-reliant in psychological comfort by exploring a non-kin network. Elderly people who claim to be independent have encountered dilemmas in elderhood practice and intergenerational relationships. In this sense, the intergenerational support in cities is driven less by moral obligation and is instead prone to rely on emotional bonds.
Discussion and Conclusion
This study ethnographically investigates a group of middle-class elders’ changing perceptions of good aging in relation to intergenerational reciprocity in cosmopolitan China. The ethnographic accounts suggest that China’s urban middle-class elders juxtapose self-reliance and intergenerational ties amid China’s socio-cultural-economic transformations. Firstly, the crucial significance role of grandchild care in defining good aging is diminishing in importance; secondly, pursuing self-reliance by staying financially and emotionally independent becomes the key element in their understanding of good aging; thirdly, building an intergenerational relationship is still expected to underscore filial piety that remains significant. The COVID-19 pandemic has further heightened the importance of cherishing friendships and cultivating personal fulfillment as urban middle-class elders grapple with health concerns and the fear of being unable to enjoy life.
Theoretical Implications
In addition to offering a detailed account of the changing understanding of good aging among China’s urban middle-class elders—a demographic group that has yet to be studied in existing scholarly work—this study further engages in contemporary discussions about the complex meaning of good aging in culturally and historically specific contexts.
First, this study reveals a new type of elderhood that just started to emerge in China. Previous literature has shown that, rooted in filial piety, the ideal image of elderhood in Chinese society places high value on grandparents taking care of grandchildren to engage in intergenerational reciprocity and obtain psychological and economic well-being (Chang et al., 2020; Cong & Silverstein, 2008; Hoang & Kirby, 2020; Ikels, 2004; Low & Goh, 2015; Whyte, 1997). In contrast, the “self-reliant elders” underlines an emerging trend of departing from this cultural normative practice. On the one hand, middle-class elderly people increasingly show reluctance to rely on exchanging adult children’s support through providing childcare. Self-interest and self-reliance become the new core in the explanation of good aging. This new pursuit can be realized through fruitful social resources in urban cities, such as pensions, re-employed chances, and elderly-based leisure activities, which serve as possible alternatives to family support. On the other hand, elderly people still value maintaining amicable intergenerational relationships, cherishing the chances of family gatherings and online communication to cultivate family intimacy. In this sense, the impact of filial piety regarding valuing family harmony continues. The outbreak of COVID-19 and the implementation of home isolation policies have had a profound impact on the pursuit of self-interest and family harmony. These circumstances have led to an increased demand for independent living as a result of family conflicts, as well as a strong desire to maintain social connections and family intimacy due to the fear of illness and the potential inability to engage in enjoyable activities.
Second, at a broader level, an ethnographic examination of China’s “self-reliant elders” provides a particularly rich site for the discussion about good aging and intergeneration reciprocity in culturally and historically specific contexts. The aging population has been increasing significantly worldwide, underscoring the need for global attention on how to age well (O’Reilly & Caro, 1995; Rowe & Kahn, 1987; WHO, 2020). Recent discussion has increasingly shifted toward exploring the relational dimension of good aging within sociocultural contexts beyond Western countries (Angus & Reeve, 2006; Conkova & Lindenberg, 2020; Hagestad & Settersten, 2017; Lamb, 2019; Stowe & Cooney, 2015). The ethnographic accounts of this study suggest that older adults’ understanding of good aging has seen a complicated relation to intergenerational reciprocity amidst China’s sociocultural and economic transformations. It is safe to suggest that the understanding of good aging among urban elders, which was previously underpinned by intergenerational reciprocity as a cultural-moral practice of filial piety, is now shifting towards a heightened emphasis on pursuing self-interest and cultivating family intimacy.
Empirical Implications
The findings provide practical implications for policymakers in addressing the emerging trend of self-reliant elderhood. First, policymakers should acknowledge the reluctance of grandparents to assume childcare responsibilities and instead focus on supporting young parents. This can be achieved through the implementation of family-friendly policies, such as extending maternity leave, providing childcare subsidies, and expanding public childcare facilities like nurseries and after-school care services. These measures would reduce the dependency on grandparental care for young parents while allowing grandparents to have more leisure time to pursue their personal interests.
Second, considering the aspirations of elderly individuals for re-employment, it is imperative to implement schemes and regulations that raise the retirement age, expand opportunities for re-employment, incorporate anti-ageism measures into legal systems, and safeguard the rights of older employees in the labor market. By establishing an environment that values the employment aspirations of older adults, policymakers can alleviate fiscal burdens on social security at a macro level while fulfilling the individual’s desire for self-esteem and purpose through sustained employment.
Third, our research findings underscore the significance of active social participation among elderly individuals, emphasizing the importance of enhancing recreational opportunities for this demographic. Collaborative efforts between the public and private sectors can be undertaken to develop projects in the field of elderly education. This could involve establishing universities specifically tailored for older adults, offering a range of courses, as well as organizing workshops and creating learning groups within the community. Such initiatives would not only provide valuable information but also serve as platforms for elderly individuals to expand their social networks and explore new interests.
By implementing these practical measures, policymakers can effectively support the trend of self-reliant elderhood in China. As the country grapples with the significant challenges posed by an aging population, it is essential to understand and embrace the evolving needs of elderly support during this period of social transformation. This includes prioritizing independence and the pursuit of self-interest among older adults. By acknowledging and addressing these needs in policymaking, there is the potential to enhance the psychological well-being and overall quality of life for elderly individuals, while also fostering harmonious intergenerational relations. Over time, these efforts can establish a solid political and social foundation for a positive aging experience and create an environment conducive to older adults’ well-being.
Limitation
There are several limitations that should be acknowledged in this study. Firstly, the analysis is based on a small sample size. The research focuses on urban affluent elders’ understanding of grandparental childrearing, a demographic group that has received limited attention in existing scholarly discussions. Previous studies have primarily focused on elderly individuals in socio-economically vulnerable families or general nationwide samples. By utilizing qualitative methods, including fieldwork and in-depth interviews, we aimed to provide context-specific insights and fill this gap in the literature. To gain a deeper understanding of this emerging trend, it is important to conduct follow-up studies with larger sample sizes that encompass similar socioeconomic backgrounds in China’s other major cities. This would allow for a more comprehensive examination of the experiences and perspectives of urban affluent elders in different contexts, contributing to a more nuanced understanding of self-reliant elderhood. By expanding the scope of research to include a broader range of participants, we can enhance the generalizability of findings and capture a more representative picture of the trend across various urban settings in China.
Secondly, the COVID-19 pandemic and subsequent lockdown posed a challenge to our research. After completing the first-round fieldwork in 2020, we were unable to conduct in-person interviews or observe the informants’ everyday lives due to the lockdown. Nevertheless, we maintained communication with the informants through social media to stay updated on their experiences. Once the lockdown restrictions eased, the second-round fieldwork was conducted in 2023, allowing us to capture the challenges posed by the pandemic in maintaining the self-reliance of the elderly. As the impacts of the pandemic continue, further observation is warranted in the future.
Thirdly, it is important to note that we did not examine elderly individuals from other demographic backgrounds, such as those living in rural areas, skipped-generation families, or those experiencing widowhood. Our study specifically focused on elderly individuals with good health, cognitive abilities, financial stability, and marital conditions. Their emphasis on self-reliance is influenced by a combination of traditional cultural norms, ongoing social changes, and individual-level attributes. To gain a comprehensive understanding of the prevalence of this “self-reliant” shift in good aging, future studies should include diverse demographic groups.
Footnotes
Declaration of Conflicting Interests
The author(s) declared no potential conflicts of interest with respect to the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article.
Funding
The author(s) disclosed receipt of the following financial support for the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article: The Fundamental Research Funds for the Central Universities [2021JCXK06].
Ethical Approval
Not applicable.
Data Availability Statement
Data supporting this study are not publicly available due to privacy concern.