on Nov 6th, 2006Chinese Elderly Abandoned by Migrating Children
There came a time in America when the whole idea of working in the city and living in the country made sense. It was all about contrast. The stress of the city life could be relieved by a jaunt to the country. The stress of the daily commute aside, there wasn’t much thought about how this impulse might lead to a pattern of living that brings its own set of problems — namely things like segregation, the separation of the rich from the poor, excess consumption of gas, etc.
In China, the economic boom of the last couple of years has created a migration problem that at first looked acceptable. The desire for a better life pushed children to move to the cities where they were sure to earn higher wages than in the poor countryside. The problem, however, is that once they took off for the city, they never returned, thus leaving behind aging parents, who quite often, were left to raise their grandchildren. Welcome to the 21st Century…
Long Lives: Chinese Elderly and the Communist Revolution
by Deborah Davis-Friedmann
China is a rapidly aging society, but in villages like this, more than anything else the abrupt shift toward a preponderance of old people is driven by migration. Since the era of economic reforms got under way a little more than a quarter century ago, hundreds of millions of people have been on the march, most of them peasants looking for better economic opportunities in the urbanized east.
“The reality of China today is that the needs of the elderly cannot be taken care of by the social system,” said Zhai Yuhe, a member of the Heilongjiang Provincial People’s Congress. “Most of them must rely on younger people, but today’s young people pay attention to their own children, and not to their elders.”
Rush for Wealth in China’s Cities Shatters the Ancient Assurance of Care in Old Age
By HOWARD W. FRENCH
New York Times, November 3, 2006