Introduction
This chapter discusses the changing perception of older people towards family care. Family care in this study refers to the care provided to older people by their own children and not including other kin. My research from the older people’s point of view, being supplemented by the stakeholders, shows that the current generation of older people have shifted from relying on the family for their well-being to the desire for independence and autonomy in the choice of their life arrangements, assuming a greater role for their own welfare. Yet, fieldwork findings suggest that their choices or desire for independence from the family will not be realised unless there is policy to support their independent living in the community.
The first section illustrates the circumstances which make the traditional family support function well from the perspectives of the interviewees. This provides the background for the discussion on the constraints of the current care-giving mode under the impact of socio- economic and demographic challenges in section two. The third section discusses the changing perception of the rights and responsibilities in contemporary family care. This section evaluates the effectiveness of the revised Welfare Law on the Protection of the Rights and Interests of Older People mentioned in Chapter 2 which is supposed to enhance older people’s legal rights to family care. Revealing the underlying intention of this revised law may show that the state still regards the family, despite its declining capacity, as the ultimate responsibility in the care of older people. The older people’s adjusted expectation of filial responsibilities illustrates that they can expect very limited family support though they still value the family life with their children. On the other hand, they still consider themselves to have a role in enhancing the welfare of their children’s family without expecting the reciprocity of care from them. How older people develop their resilience to cope with the changes in family care and their perception towards a good retirement will be discussed in the fourth section. In the fifth section, as an alternative to family support, the older people’s consideration of other care options reveals the service gaps in their support if they do not wish to put the care responsibility on their children. This calls for a greater role of the state to
113 improve the service. The last section will discuss the policy implications based on the findings of this research.
Rights and responsibilities in traditional family care
In the traditional Chinese society, older people were cared for by their children in the multi- generational households. Confucian teachings stress filial piety which requires the younger generation to have responsibility for the welfare of older people who have strong expectation to be cared for by their children (Laidlaw et al., 2010). This is based on the reciprocal relationship that the children have to repay the sacrifices their parents have made for them when they were young (Tao, 2004). As such, older people have taken it for granted that their children would look after them in their old age. Above all, the family members living together in the traditional multi-generational households provides an environment to facilitate the care of older people. The following section explains how the rights and responsibilities in the care of older people by the family are constructed under the traditional Chinese norms in the eyes of the interviewees under study.
As noted by an older person, Ms Ouyang from Guangzhou, traditional culture had a role in promoting the care of older people in the past. She explained that under Confucian doctrines, children were socialised with values such as filial piety and respect for older people who expected care from their children when they themselves became old. This point was echoed by another older person, Ms Feng from Guangzhou, that under the influence of traditional culture, older people naturally looked upon the family for support in old age when by that time, they had a big family with many children as ample source of support. Therefore, taking care of older people was not a big problem in the past:
If older people had mobility or self-care difficulties, traditionally, they had many children to take care of them…Basically, older people relied on their children who accompanied them till the end of their lives.
Apart from the traditional culture which laid the foundations of family ethics and established the rights and responsibilities in the care of older people, the mutual reliance of both the older and younger generations also explained why the family members would stay together
114 or close to one another. Relying on younger people for farm labour was the reason for the family to live under the same roof, as recounted by Mr Fan from Guangzhou:
In an agrarian society, it was natural that they (the children) were (living) with older people…for pooling farm labour. Even if they didn’t, they would have lived in the same village or beside their parents’ house.
On the other hand, the life constraints such as the lack of financial capacity and the reliance on older people for child care in the past rendered younger people no choice but to live with their parents, thus perpetuating the co-residence living arrangement, as noted by Ms Guo from Guangzhou:
In the past, we lived with the older generation because we didn’t have the necessary conditions to lead an independent living. (If living apart), no one was available for child care. How could we afford to hire a helper to take care of the children?...Now younger people have more choices. If they don’t, they still have to live together (with the older people)…It’s like that sometimes, under constraint.
Moreover, a majority of the interviewees raised the point that the big family size with several children allowed the sharing of care responsibilities. Ms Liu from Guangzhou was one of the older people who found this factor significant, as it made possible for the care of older people in a big family in the past:
We are different from the previous generation…They have six children, or at least four…Their children can share the responsibilities…take turns to look after their parents. They only need to be on duty once every five or six days.
Professor Sun, China Youth University of Political Studies, Beijing, also remarked that those older people who were now 80 or over, usually had four or more children. Therefore, it is common for those who are now in their 60s to look after their 80- or 90-year-old parents:
Just like my sister, who is in her 60s now, she has retired and is looking after our parents who are 84 and 85... A majority of the older people are still looked
115 after by their families at present. However, for my generation, we only have one child. Ageing is going to be a very serious problem; the people don’t seem to have much hope in their future.
Though the traditional values laid the foundations for the rights and responsibilities in family care, the family size with several children provided a condition for making the reciprocal nature of care possible. The older people’s recollection of family care reflects that they still cherish the old days when the family had the capacity to provide support to older people. As witnessed by Ms Chen from Guangzhou, the transition from a young society to an ageing one implied that the external support from the service organisations was necessary to meet the increasing needs of older people:
In the past, we didn’t have so many organisations providing services for older people…The society is ageing. When we were small, the society was youthful, older people were just a minority. But now walking down the street, we can see older people in the majority.
Confucian teachings have provided a moral foundation for the practice of filial piety and intergenerational reciprocity. These family values were reinforced by practical reasons such as dependence of the older generation on the young for farm labour and reliance of younger people on older people for subsistence. The reciprocal nature of the rights and responsibilities in family care established by the traditional values can be maintained when a large family size can encourage the sharing of care responsibilities and when the older population size is not too big with care duties beyond the family capacity. The above findings, apart from showing how the older people interviewed interpret the conditions for the rights and responsibilities in traditional family care, also illustrate the transition from a society with a young population to an ageing one, from multi-generational families to small families mainly with a single child, and the shift from a traditional society with life constraints and limited alternatives to the contemporary one with increased choices. The challenges facing the current family care for older people that have surfaced are apparent, which renders the pre- conditions for the rights and responsibilities for the traditional family care become
116 increasingly incompatible with contemporary society. The next section is a discussion on the socio-economic and demographic impacts upon the current family care of older people.