“No Wasting” and “Empty Nesters”: “Old Age” in Beijing

Abstract

This paper explores the meaning of “old age” in reform-era Beijing from complementary perspectives. Based on extensive, multi-sited anthropological fieldwork and document analysis, it contrasts the experiences of older people in Beijing with a critical investigation of public debates about “old age”. The paper examines older people's narratives about their gains and losses in the reform era and analyses several of their strategies to deal with rapid social change. It is argued that current debates about “old age” in Beijing tend to view older people as a collective, quantitative threat to the social structure or as pitiful recipients of rapid social change. Older people as active agents of social change are largely absent from these debates. It is suggested that the tension between public portrayals of “old age” by younger and middle-aged people and the experiences of older people is indicative of different, generation-based judgements of continuity and change in the reform era.

Notes

 1 To gain a better understanding of the specificity of my research findings in Beijing I made brief research visits to other Chinese cities (Anyang, Dalian, Shanghai and Shenyang) between 2002 and 2005. These, and conversations with scholars working on similar issues, convinced me that the overall themes present in my data would also have emerged in data collected in other large cities in China. The difference seems to be one of degree rather than substance.

 2 However, I visited three retirement homes, for retired old cadres, well-off retirees and non-privileged older people, respectively, as well as two large new residential developments on the outskirts designed for older residents.

 3 All names are pseudonyms.

 4 The lixiu-status is a reward for support of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) before 1949. To qualify for the tangible lixiu-benefits, which include a higher pension, free health care and access to better hospitals, free entry to parks and museums and free public transport, one needs to have joined the Red Army or the workforce supporting the CCP without getting a salary prior to 1 October 1949.

 5 The exchange rate was 100 RMB to 6.98 GBP in October 2005 and 6.74 GBP in November 2006.

 6 Many other former workers were even less fortunate than her and were laid off (xiagang) or forced to retire prematurely (neitui) in their mid- and late forties. The official retirement age for female workers is 50, for other women it is 55 years of age. Men are expected to retire at 60 but many are also forced to retire early.

 7 These menial jobs are offered to young female migrants from the countryside instead.

 8 A number of letter writers did not reveal their gender, age or occupational status before retirement. In some cases this information could be inferred from their name or the contents of their letter. These conspicuous absences might be an indication of the self-perception of those who sent me these letters; it is possible that these external indicators, especially age and former profession, were deemed of no particular importance in the construction of the old person's self.

 9 Kuai is the informal word for yuan, the mainland Chinese currency which is also referred to as RMB (renminbi).

10 Public transport is cheap and efficient, with tickets ranging from 1 to 5 RMB depending on the length of the distance travelled.

11 Several of my younger friends complained about their parents' habit of buying fruit and vegetables in such large quantities that they could not be consumed before beginning to rot.

12 Based on their occupational status and working years, I estimate that these men's monthly pensions are likely to be between 800 and 1500 RMB. An average bicycle costs between 200 and 350 RMB.

13 The article about my research in the Beijing Evening News (Beijing Wanbao), 13 February 2004, said that I was hoping to “share the happy life of Beijing's old people with Oxford and the world”. Many of the letters I received were written in a very positive way, only a small number mentioned problems that old people in Beijing face in old age.

14 Some of the values and strategies discussed might remind readers of older people's narratives and practices in other social and cultural settings. As different as these settings may be, it is important to remember that people who grew up in North America, Western or Eastern Europe in the first four decades of the last century experienced similar shortages and later unprecedented economic growth with the concomitant rise in consumption and living standards. Also, older people in many societies seek to preserve their health and avoid dependency on others for as long as possible. However, the specific expressions such shared needs and desires have in every setting depend on the particular mix of a number of factors such as the political, economic and social arrangements present at a given moment in time. For this reason, older people's life-worlds in Beijing in the early 2000s do differ from those of their contemporaries in Taipei, Berlin, Bournemouth or Florida.

15 Jeanne Shea (2005) analysed the media debate dealing with romance, sex and marriage in later life and contrasted it with survey responses of urban and rural women. She arrived at the conclusion that the discourse is based on flawed assumptions about the homogeneity and sexual inactivity of women over 40 years of age.

16 Deborah Davis, personal communication, December 2004.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Anna Boermel

My deepest gratitude goes to the older and younger people in Beijing who shared their private and professional lives with me. I thank Roger Goodman, Sarah Harper, Frank Pieke, Istvan Praet, Katharine Thoday, Linda Wong and the two anonymous reviewers for their helpful comments on various drafts of this article. I benefited greatly from conversations with Guo Yuhua, Li Hanlin, Luo Hongguang, Xia Chuanling and Zhang Yi in Beijing. Earlier versions of this article were presented at the Institute for Chinese Studies and the Institute of Social and Cultural Anthropology, Oxford, the Urban China Research Network conference ‘Cities in China: The Next Generation of Urban Research’ held at Hong Kong Baptist University in December 2004, the Second Annual Graduate Seminar on China held at the Chinese University of Hong Kong in January 2006 and the Postgraduate Research Summer School ‘China in the World’ held in Nanjing in July 2006. I thank the organizers of the two conferences and the Summer School for awarding grants to me which enabled me to attend. I am grateful for the suggestions and questions posed by Marcus Banks, Flemming Christiansen, Glen Dudbridge, Deborah Davis, Tao Tao Liu, Vivienne Shue, Dorothy Solinger and other audience members at these meetings. The research and writing process for this article was funded by grants from the Economic and Social Science Research Council, the Urban China Research Network, the Beijing office of the British Council, the British Federation of Women Graduates, the Chiang Ching-kuo Foundation, the Davis Fund from the Institute for Chinese Studies, Oxford, the George Hogg Memorial Fund and the Pollard Fund from Wadham College, Oxford, and the Bagby Fund from the Institute of Social and Cultural Anthropology, Oxford.