SUPPORT NETWORK OF THE LANDLESS RURAL ELDERLY IN POST-REFORM CHINA: CASE STUDY IN JIANGSU PROVINCE ZHOU WEI (MasterofSociology) A THESIS SUBMITTED FOR THE DEGREE OF Ph.D. OF SOCIOLOGY DEPARTMENT OF SOCIOLOGY NATIONAL UNIVERSITY OF SINGAPORE 2010 Acknowledgements First, I would like to express my sincere appreciation to the department of Sociology and Asia Research Institution at the National University of Singapore who awarded me a research scholarship between 2005 and 2009. And I am enormously grateful for the patient guide and continuous support of my supervisor, Professor Gavin W. Jones, in my Ph.D. study. He was always helpful and gave advice, taught me how to put forward questions and structure my ideas logically, and encouraged me to focus the study upon the landless rural elderly. I would also like to thank the other three advisers who were my thesis committee members for their useful suggestions: A/P Angelique Chan, Dr. Richel Safman, and A/P Paulin Straughan. Thanks also to Dr Mika Toyota who gave me an opportunity to join the reading group of “Aging, Care and Globalization”, and discuss with experts in aging research. I also wish to thank Professor Chua Beng Huat and A/P Eric Thompson, Professor Bryan Tuner, A/P Ho Kong Chong, A/P Sinha Vineeta, Dr. Richel Safman, Professor Gavin W. Jones, for teaching me the courses ‘graduate research seminar’, ‘sociological theory and globalization’, ‘survey management & research methods’, ‘sociology of everyday life’, ‘qualitative data analysis’, and ‘independent study’ respectively. The administrative staff in the sociology department and in the Asia Research Institution, and technical support staff of the FASS, especially Ms Rajah, Ms Cecilia Sham, Ms Cheivi and Mr. Seow, were a great help. A special thank goes to my two former students from the Nanjing Normal University, Ms Chen Juan and Tang Jing, and their families who helped to locate in the fieldwork sites and fulfill it well. Let me also say “thank you” to all the people that have helped me to undertake the study. Last, I thank my family, for their endless love and inspiration. ii Table of Contents Acknowledgments ii Abstract iii List of Maps v List of Illustrations vi List of Tables viii Chapter I: Introduction: the Rural Elderly and Their Lives Chapter II: Landless Rural Villages and the Elderly 21 Chapter III: Research Design: from Abstract to Detail 53 Chapter VI: Two Landless Rural Villages and Basic Information on the Elderly in Post-Reform China 78 Chapter V: Functional Dimension of Support Network: The Elderly’s Perspective 111 Chapter VI: Structural Dimension of Support Network: The Elderly’s Perspective 135 Chapter VII: Support Network of the Elderly: Children’s Perspective 177 Chapter VIII: Support Network of the Landless Elderly: Discussion and Conclusion 219 Bibliography 249 Appendix A: Old Age Support Questionnaire for the Younger Generation 266 iii Summary Focus on the context of post-reform China that is facing the pressure of population aging under the process of massive social transformation, the study aims to exam the support network of the landless rural elderly in Jiangsu, a leading eastern coastal province of China. Through examining it from two different perspectives based on the fieldwork data: that of the elders and that of their adult children, I seek to achieve sociological and demographic understanding of the old-age support of the landless elderly and their well-being under the Chinese characteristic urbanization and modernization. Study targets in the study have some unique features: as the landless elders, they have experienced several stages of rural change during their lifetime: small holder family farm before 1950, collective farm pre-1978, de-collective household contract responsibility after 1978, and landless in the later years; but they were connected with the soil for the greater part of their life. Different from rural-urban migration, the studied adult children experience in situ occupational transition, which provides me an opportunity to examine the short-distance interaction between the aged parents and their adult children. The thesis is organized in eight chapters. Chapter One provides an overview of the thesis, discussing why I concentrated on landless rural villages in post-reform China, and why support networks of the landless rural elderly was chosen as the study topic. A brief study background of the landless elderly and their families, local villages and the broad society is also provided. Then the methodological issue is summarized: what kind of village is studied, what research approaches are used, and some perplexities in the study are addressed. Chapter Two is concerned with the social context of the study and the related literature is also discussed. The aim is to draw the outline of the changing context of rural China and family in the traditional past and post-reform context. Three dimensions as the landless rural village, family and individual’s life are emphasized. Related literature on Chinese family and generational relationship, social theory of aging, recent research on the elderly support are also presented. At the end of the chapter, I put forward the general study hypothesis: the iv support networks of the rural elderly in China have been changing due to modernization and urbanization. The detailed methodological issue and theoretical structure of the thesis are discussed in the following chapter. Study approaches, specific methods, study sites selection, detailed fieldwork plan, conceptualization and operationalization, fieldwork strategies and data analysis method are explained. Chapter Four provides the details of the two fieldwork villages: San Guanqiao and Qian Luoyang, and two ways of being landless are analyzed. General demographic information of the senior residents, such as different age cohorts, marriage and education, in the study sites is also provided. Based on the fieldwork data, the support network of the elderly from both the elderly’s perspective and adult children’s perspective are analyzed from Chapter Five to Seven. The premise of these three chapters is that the rural elderly and the younger generation have different life experiences, which affect the different behavior and motivation, interaction patterns. It causes the different understanding /formulate support network of the older generation. In the last chapter—Chapter Eight, discussion and conclusions are presented. I compare the result from the elderly’s and children’s perspectives to understand the expectation and obligation of the support system between two generations; try to demystify Confucian filial piety in contemporary China. And conclude that support networks of the landless elderly in post-reform China are changing but still keep some elements of tradition. v List of Maps Map 3.1 The location of Jiangsu Province 63 Map 3.2 Study sites in Rural Jiangsu 67 Map 4.1 A Sketch Map of San Guanqiao and Its Surrounding Area 80 Map 4.2 A sketch Map of Qian Luoyang and Its Surrounding Area 89 vi List of Tables Table 2.1 Percentage of Employed Persons by Three Industries 22 Table 2.2 Health Condition of the Elderly in China in Percentage (2005) 34 Table 2.3 Household Size in Chinese National Censuses 35 Table 2.4 Household Size by City, Town and County in China (2005) 35 Table 2.5 Family Structure by Percentage in 2005 36 Table 3.1 Annual Per Capital Income of Urban and Rural Households (Yan) 63 Table 3.2 The Elderly (60+) of the Nation and Jiangsu Province (%) 64 Table 4.1 General Demographic Information of San Guan and San Guanqiao 79 Table 4.2 General Demographic Information of Luo Yang and Qian Luyang 88 Table 4.3 The Interviewed Elderly in the Villages by Age Group and Gender 106 Table 4.4 Marital Status of the Elderly by Gender and Age Group 107 Table 4.5 Percentage Distribution of the Elderly by Educational Level 110 Table 5.1 Resources the Elderly Receive from Different Sources 113 Table 5.2 Annual Cash Income Level of the Elderly Per Person (Yuan) 120 Table 5.3 Main Income Source of the Elderly in the Villages (Number) 121 Table 5.4 Religious Belief of the Elderly in Villages by Gender 129 Table 6.1 Living Arrangement of the Elderly in the Villages 136 Table 6.2 Family Facilities of the Elderly in the Villages by Living Arrangement 144 Table 6.3 Number of Living Children of the Elderly 147 Table 6.4 Number of Living Sons of the Elderly 147 Table 6.5 Number of Living Daughters of the Elderly by Gender and Age Groups 148 Table 6.6 The Death of Adult child in the Villages 159 Table 7.1 Descriptive Characteristics of the Survey Respondents in the Two Villages 188 Table 7.2 Descriptive Characteristics of the Survey Respondents’ Elderly Parents 190 Table 7.3 Family and Living Arrangement of the Survey Respondents 193 Table 7.4 Living Arrangements of the Respondents’ Elderly Parents (%) 194 vii Table 7.5 Geographic Proximity between Elderly Parents and the Survey Respondents (%) 195 Table 7.6 Frequency of the Respondents’ Visiting the Elderly Parents (%) 196 Table 7.7 Intergenerational and Intra-generational Relationship 197 Table 7.8 Upward Resources Flow Providing by the Survey Respondents (%) 198 Table 7.9 Living Arrangement of the Elderly Parents and the Possibility for the Survey Responds to Provide Kinds of Resources (%) 200 Table 7.10 Percentage of Survey Respondents Able to Provide Various Kinds of Resources to their Parents, According to Occupation of Respondents (%) 201 Table 7.11 Downward Resource Flow Providing by Survey Respondents’ Elderly Parents in the Past Year (%) 203 Table 7.12 Downward Resource Flow and the Possibility of the Respondents to Provide Various Supports (%) 203 Table 7.13 Percentage of Survey Respondents Providing Economic Support to their Parents 204 Table 7.14 Provision of Economic Support by the Survey Respondents, According to Economic Condition of Parents (%) 205 Table 7.15 Possibility of Economic Support Provision from Survey Respondents, According to Income Level of Parents (%) 205 Table 7.16 Care Provision to their Parents by the Survey Respondents 206 Table 7.17 Possibility of Economic Support Provision from the Survey Respondents, According to Health Condition of Parents (%) 206 Table 7.18 Health Care Provision from Survey Respondents to the Elderly parents (%) 207 Table 7.19 Psychological Support to their Parents by the Survey Respondents 208 Table 7.20 Decision Making of the Respondents’ Elderly Parents (%) 209 Table 7.21 Decision Making of Survey Respondents (%) 209 Table 7.22 Survey Respondents’ Opinion about Old-age Support (%) 211 viii List of Illustrations Figure 3.1 From Research Question to Topic 56 Figure 3.2 Two Approaches in Theory Building 57 Figure 3.3 Inductive Approach Complemented by Deductive Approach in Theory Building 58 Figure 3.4 Fieldwork Plan 68 Figure 4.1 Some Information about San Guanqiao 78 Figure 4.2 Some Information about San Guanqiao 78 Figure 4.3 Local Recreation Centre for the Senior Citizens 81 Figure 4.4 Local Old People’s Welfare Home 81 Figure 4.5 Local Christian Church 82 Figure 4.6 Houses in San Guan 82 Figure 4.7 Houses in San Guan 83 Figure 4.8 Houses in San Guan 83 Figure 4.9 Life in Qian Luoyang 92 Figure 4.10 Life in Qian Luoyang 92 Figure 4.11 Life in Qian Luoyang 92 Figure 4.12 Under Constructing Ecological Park 93 Figure 4.13 Rented Farmland 94 Figure 4.14 Rented Pond 94 Figure 4.15 A Pig Pen after the Blue-Ear Epidemic 95 Figure 4.16 The Old Men in the Village Senior Recreation Centre 102 Figure 4.17 Morning Gathering at the Village Entrance 102 Figure 4.18 An Old Man in the Bazaar 103 Figure 4.19 Old women Sell Toufu in the Morning Market 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Farmer livestock-raising or aquaculture Factory employee Trader/Businessman Factory or company owner Others (Please specify) . 5. Who is the household head of your family? Yourself Your spouse Your father Your mother Other (Please specify) . 6. How long have you lived in this village? Less than one year 1~5 years 5-10 years 10~20 years More than 20 years Since I was born 266 7. If possible, can you tell me your annual income? 8. Do you join the old-age insurance? . (Yuan) Yes No Unclear 9. Do you join the health insurance? Yes No Unclear Section Two: In this section, you will be asked about your family life. Please kindly tick the appropriate response for each of the following questions. 10. Can you tell me your marital status? Never married Married Divorced Separated Widowed 11. If you have children, can you tell me how many children you have? . (Number) (Gender) 12. How many siblings you have? How many brothers you have How many sisters you have . (Number) . (Number) . (Number) 13. Who you live with? Live alone With spouse only With spouse and unmarried children With spouse and a married son With spouse and a married daughter With spouse and parents With spouse and parents-in-law others (Please specify) 14. Are both your parents still alive? Mother Father 15. Can you tell me the age of your parents? .Father’s age . Mother’s age 16. Do your parents have any old age pension or any cash assistance from government or local village? 267 Yes No Unclear 17. If possible, can you tell me the financial condition of your parents? Very bad Bad Neither good nor bad Good Very good Can you tell me your parents’ annual income? 18. How about their health? Very bad Bad Fair Good Very good 19. Can they the following activities independently? (You can tick as many as apply) Cooking Walking Toileting Eating Bathing Shopping Washing Other (Please specify) 20. Do your parents have any medical insurance or other medical assistance? Yes No Unclear 21. Did you give any help to your parents in the past 12 months? (You can tick as much as possible) Cash Goods Daily care Health care Mental consolation Other (Please specify) . 22. Do you get any help from your parents? Never Seldom Sometimes Often Always Can you specify? . . . . . . 268 If you live with your parents, please answer question 23 to 25 23. Usually, how many hours you spent with your parents per week? Zero 1~2 hours 2~ hours 4~ hours 6~ hours 8~10 hours More than 10 hours 24. Who make important decision in your family? Your parents Yourself Your spouse Your children Other (Please specify) . 25. Why you live with your parents? Minimizing living expenditure Living conditions Filial piety Inter-generational support and care Other (Please specify) . If you and your parents live separately, please answer question 21 to 23 26. Where they live? Same natural village Same administrative village Same town Same country Others (Please specify) . 27. Who they live with? Live alone With an unmarried brother With a married brother The elders’ home Other (Please specify) 28. Usually, how often you visit your parents? Never visit Several times per year Several times per month Several times per week Almost daily 29. How often you call or mail your parents Never Several times a year 269 Once or more a month Once or more a week Almost everyday 30. If you make any important decision in your life, you need to discuss with your parents? Never Seldom Sometimes Often Always Section Three: The following questions contribute to the relationship between generations. Please kindly tick the appropriate response for each of the following questions. 31. What is the relationship between you and your parents? Very bad Bad Fair Good Very good 32. What is the relationship between you and your siblings? Very bad Bad Fair Good Very good 33. Do you agree with the following statements: Strongly Disagree A Only when my siblings provide support to parents, I it B Only when parents support me, I will give a repayment C Raising children is to provide for old age support D Support old-age parents is Chinese tradition of filial piety E Children should live with old parents F Ideal living arrangement only includes me, my spouse and children Disagree Uncertain Agree Strongly Agree 270 G Old-age support is son’s obligation H Old-age support is government’s responsibility 34. What is your ideal living arrangement when you get old? Live alone Only with spouse With spouse and children The elder’s home Other (Please specify) . 271 [...]...Chapter One Introduction: the Rural Elderly and Their Lives Since the 1990s, I have had many opportunities to visit rural villages in Jiangsu, an eastern coastal province of China, usually during summer vacations or Chinese Lunar New Year To me, everything in villages was new and attractive I liked country life: went fishing, joined events, and chatted with local residents I was interested in family... are much alike in many ways in Chinese context, especially in regions with high percentage of Han Chinese; the similarities facilitate my study in doing comparison and generalization of the support networks of the rural elderly at a macro level from small scale study to a certain degree Being trained as a sociological scholar, I constantly remind myself the study targets are human beings; and I need... relationship, and a decline in old-age support obtaining from the married children? 13 My study focus is the support networks of the landless rural elderly, which is closely associated with their personal lives and belongs to the private domain Interestingly, the understanding of the terms ‘private’ and ‘public’ in Chinese and Western scenario are different In China, private space exists in comparison and... mobility, and integrate into other social classes China, a large agricultural country with the largest agricultural population in the world, has been at the edge of such vanishing since the last quarter of the 20th century, and its pace is accelerating in the beginning of the new millennium According to Chinese official statistics, the structure of employment has been changing greatly since 1978 when... efficient in studying rural China; and incorporated quantitative and qualitative approaches, using participant observation, in- depth interview, and small scale survey to explore the support network at the grassroots level Further, comparative approach is employed: doing historical comparison to examine how the support network works in different social stages; and doing horizontal comparison to examine the... scenario From the demographic aspect, China is at the beginning stage of an aging society in the new century During the past 60 years, China has experienced demographic transition from high fertility and mortality rate to low fertility and mortality rate China is a country in which government policy deeply affects population aging in an indirect way (Peng, 2000) In 1950, the elderly (65+) comprised only... thirty years in China, on the one hand; there are ideas and ideology from the overseas world and the understanding of Chinese society, especially about Communist China on the other hand As a native Chinese, I may take for granted something which attracts the attention of people from other cultures Indeed, the experience of studying overseas has 18 refreshed my understanding of Chinese society in depth,... pre-fieldwork in my hometown, visiting villages, interviewing the 16 elders and their adult children The purpose was to find proper aspects and approaches for fulfilling the study Through the fieldwork, I thought studying only from the elders’ perspective was not enough, the children’s perspective also needed to be included; since oldage support is not simply the elders’ business which reveals intergenerational... working in the agricultural sector has dropped markedly, nearly 30 percentage points from the year 1978 to 2006 at the national level; and the more dramatic decline has happened in Jiangsu province, about 40 percentage points; while the percentage of employment in the secondary and tertiary industries have risen rapidly 21 Table 2.1 Percentage of Employed Persons by Three Industries 1978 Primary Industry... Guangdong( 广 东 ) province the landless arose at the beginning stage of rural industrialization in the early 1980s, much earlier than in the middle and western regions In this area, some of the landless farmers have worked in factories or other non-agricultural units for almost thirty years Unlike industry-related lifestyle, the rhythm of farming life is based on seasonal farming and closely linked to the . to integrate into “urban” life in the Chinese scenario. From the demographic aspect, China is at the beginning stage of an aging society in the new century. During the past 60 years, China. excluding family support which is usually included in Western societies. When finishing the Ph.D. Qualification Examination, I found I needed to modify the thesis title once again. Since the study. One Introduction: the Rural Elderly and Their Lives Since the 1990s, I have had many opportunities to visit rural villages in Jiangsu, an eastern coastal province of China, usually during