Problemas Específicos

Because the Miao are an ethnic minority, they do not need to abide by China’s one child policy. The 36 participants had an average of four children and five grandchildren. Most (n=19) had between six and 19 grandchildren and five had great grandchildren.

In accordance with Chinese tradition, most participants (34) lived with sons and their families. Because adult male siblings often seek to share the care of their parents, two older couples lived separately - the husbands lived with the oldest sons, and the wives lived with the younger sons. One 85-year-old man (M19) in such an arrangement commented that: “It is convenient. She is almost blind and I visit her often during the day. ”

Although they lived under the same roof with their sons’ families, three couples ate separately from them. This suggests that the generations did not share the same standard of living. For example, couple M13 and M14 have four sons. Their tiled-roof house has been divided into four parts. They live with their youngest son in one section while the other three sons live in other rooms with their families. According to M14:

Older Miao People and Rural Health Policy in China Lin Yuan, University of Sydney, 2012

Every day we only cook one small bowl of rice and that is enough for our meals during the day. We never eat with our sons and daughters-in-law because our schedule of eating and rest never matches theirs. It is convenient to separate [these activities].

Similarly, couple M1 and M2 live in the same house with their daughter-in-law and grandchildren following the death of their son “but we eat separately.”

The tiny minority who lived alone were not without family support. Participant M34, a 75-year-old widow, used to live with her youngest son but he had left the mountains to seek casual work six years ago and had not returned. A niece who lived nearby visited her on a regular basis.

Some elderly Miao assumed responsibility for the care of their grandchildren. One couple (M1 and M2), for example, helped their daughter-in-law to raise her children after their son died. A 13-year-old grandson of participant M16 reported that he and his little sister grew up with their grandparents and their father because their mother ran away from their impoverished family. The abandonment of family is, in fact, common in poor rural areas (Wang, L.G., 2008; Zhou and Liu, 2009). In this study, participants reported that it often occurred in their villages, with men leaving to seek work and women “running away”, never to return. For instance, participant M35 described how: “My husband and sons go out of the mountains for casual jobs in the big towns and cities. They seldom give me a call. My husband has never come back in six years.”

Older Miao People and Rural Health Policy in China Lin Yuan, University of Sydney, 2012

Access to child care was a major problem for the Miao community. Recent government policy had seen the merging of villages and the number of kindergartens had been reduced. This caused difficulties for parents, some of whom were obliged to walk three hours each day accompanying their children to kindergarten in the early mornings and picking them up at midday. A large number of older Miao participants complained that their grandchildren were not cared for adequately at kindergartens.

They reported that children in kindergartens were only given two lollies each for lunch. There is no government financial support for kindergartens, and teachers depend on tuition fees collected from parents for their salaries and to buy toys. The tuition fee for each child ranges from about 110 Chinese Yuan to 140 Chinese Yuan per term of three to four months. Some parents were forced to withdraw their children from kindergarten because the time spent in travel reduced their time for work.

Housing

Accommodation for elderly Miao people has been greatly improved in recent years.

The vast majority (31) of the elderly participants were living in new brick houses with their families. The remainder lived in older, traditional tiled-roof houses and huts.

These housing developments are the direct result of government action, as participant M4 reported:

Before 2003, older Miao people lived in huts. The government plan was [called]

‘Destroy Huts’ and this plan subsidised peasants 4000 CNY per household to build new brick houses. Now 70 to 80 per cent of houses here are made of brick.

Older Miao People and Rural Health Policy in China Lin Yuan, University of Sydney, 2012

The subsidies, however, did not extend to furniture. Thus participant M4 and his wife lived with one of his sons, daughter-in-law and two grandsons in a new brick house they had built but it contained no furniture. He said: “We still have some debts from building this new house. When we pay off all the debts, we will buy furniture.”

I lived in this house for a few days during fieldwork. Their old tiled-roof house remained next door and was used for raising livestock (pigs, cows, chickens, ducks, etc.) The downstairs rooms in the new brick house were used for cooking, storing seeds and tools, praying and dining. There was a stove for warmth in winter which was also used for drying clothes. The new-style stove had a filter that reduced the smell of burning coal, but the fumes were still strong enough to induce headaches.

They had no mop and the bamboo broom used by the son to clean the house was ineffective in removing the mud and dust they brought in after working in the fields.

While there was a toilet upstairs, it was dirty and smelly because there was not enough water to flush it, and there was no toilet paper holder. Because the toilet was a squat style, it was difficult for elderly people to use. (Nonetheless it was a significant improvement on the condition of toilets in the older tiled-roof houses.) There was no room for a shower. In winter time, they warmed the water in the same wok used to cook food and poured the hot water into another basin for washing face, hair and feet.

They seldom showered in winter time but in summer adults always used a basin of hot water to shower in their upstairs bathroom. Their children always used cold water drawn from the mountains through bamboo or plastic pipes to have a shower in their front or back yard.

Older Miao People and Rural Health Policy in China Lin Yuan, University of Sydney, 2012

A few older Miao still lived in the tiled-roof houses scattered in the mountains.

Comprised of a single storey, they have mud floors and very limited ventilation. It is extremely humid in wet weather and dim at night. These houses contain some minimal furniture (bamboo chairs and wooden benches) but toilet facilities are primitive. They are typically located where pigs are kept. Participant M19, an 85-year-old man who lived in a tiled-roof house, commented that one of his greatest difficulties was the absence of a toilet in his house. The old style houses also lack a proper shower room: showering takes place in a room that has a round hole along the wall to allow the water to flow outside. Alternatively, people carry a big basin of warm water with a small piece of towelling on their shoulder for a shower in their

“toilet”.

Two elderly Miao participants (M30 & M35) still lived in huts deep in the mountains.

The ceilings were made of old straw and the walls of mud and bamboo. The huts had two small bedrooms and one small kitchen. There was no toilet or bathroom, nor any windows. The doors were made of pieces of old clothing or plastic. It was very dim at night and the ditches surrounding the tiny huts were smelly.

By living among the Miao people, I was able to observe the adequacy of participants’

living conditions. In all types of housing (brick, tiled-roof or hut), few bedrooms had proper windows. Some had only window frames, allowing wind and insects to enter the rooms. Others had plastic on the window frames and some had no windows at all.

Older Miao People and Rural Health Policy in China Lin Yuan, University of Sydney, 2012

For example, participant M20, a 64-year-old woman, lived with her son in a new brick house that had no doors and windows that only had frames. Since there were no wardrobes in most of the houses, the elderly Miao used plastic fertiliser bags for storing clothes. Most slept in beds which were dirty and damp.

Every family of older Miao people had one large steel mug or several small steel mugs for drinking tea. There were no teapots and the Miao used thermoses to make and keep tea. Family members and guests shared their tea out of the same big mug.

Family members and guests also shared the same wooden basin and hot water to wash their feet at night, putting a brush used to clean dirty shoes in a face-washing basin. In the kitchens of elderly Miao, there were always two large woks. They were used for cooking different types of food, both for humans and for pigs, and for warming water for showers. Chopsticks and bowls were seldom cleaned properly or disinfected after use.