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Ted
Ruhig:
Modern China Can Look to Western Countries for Models on Elderly Care
I
am very interested in China. My granddaughter Malia majored in Chinese
in college. She became very fluent in Mandarin — in part because
her language instruction included tutoring by native Chinese speakers.
Malia later worked and studied in China, living there for over two years. Her
interest in China was passed on to other family members, including me. Many of
us have visited China, and we continue to follow the country’s modern development
with great interest.
So when National Geographic released what they called a “special issue,” devoted
to a look inside modern China, I paid close attention. The magazine was called “China:
Inside the Dragon, Forbidden City Revealed.”
And it’s a fascinating issue. There is a discussion on archeology representing
China’s long history. As Beijing prepares for the Olympics, its Olympic
sites have yielded some major archeological finds, including hundreds of homes,
tombs and artifacts. The oldest findings are from the Han dynasty, some 2000
years ago.
A new state-financed museum is supposed to display the findings. Strange that
something so old is linked with something so new.
By honoring the past, the Chinese are learning to live with it, too.
As one Chinese student stated in the National Geographic article: “My parents
were born in poor farmers’ families. They told me they had eaten bark,
grass and such things … Grandpa and Grandma had no open minds and didn’t
allow my mother to go to school because she was a girl.”
Modernization is becoming tougher on families in China. And I’m not talking
about the Olympic Games. Instead I’m referring to the evolving new patterns
of family relationships in China.
The very act of family caregiving — grandparents and parents — completely
offsets the one-child family policy of the government in a disturbing way.
This one-child policy has created a generation of children that numbers only
90 million. China has no social security system, and most families end up taking
on too much responsibility for their elderly parents and grandparents. Bluntly
stated, they cannot support themselves.
Three in 10 Chinese families have grandparents living in the same household.
And the number of China’s elderly is rapidly ballooning thanks to improvements
in medicine and sanitation.
National Geographic reports that by 2050 close to one-third of China’s
citizens will be over 60 — three times the current rate. With few pensions
to help ease the burden, China’s only children will have to support two
parents (and in many cases four grandparents) apiece — a heavy load indeed.
One family profiled in the National Geographic article came up with a solution.
They put a grandfather into a nursing home. It was a painful decision, said a
member of the family. In a traditional Chinese family, caring for aged parents
is an ironclad responsibility.
The daughter of the family announced that one day she would put her parents in
the best nursing home.
The father acknowledged his daughter’s statement by saying: “We don’t
want to be a burden on her. When we are old, we’ll sell the house, take
a trip and see the world. Then we’ll enter the nursing home and live a
quiet life there. This is the education my daughter gives me.”
This current generation of parents is almost resigned to the fact that their
children will eventually abandon them even as they strive to help their children
achieve middle class success.
“Right now is the hardest time,” observed a sociologist in the National
Geographic article. “In my generation we have both traditional and new
ideas. But inside us, the two worlds are at war.”
How this war will be won is tough to define. Read the National Geographic story.
What comes to mind is a sense of unease at the rapid pace of social change.
“Across Chinese society, parents appear completely at ease when it comes
to raising their children,” said one of the story’s authors.
And Chinese children do not have faith in the world of adults. A short-term answer
for both when it comes to care of the elderly is to put them in the best nursing
homes available. Because of a middle class abundance, this short-term solution
is actually possible for some.
Yet in looking at the China described by the National Geographic authors, one
thing is clear: China is strictly business.
And therein lays its greatest challenge. Westerners tend to focus on the dramatic
changes: dissidents and censorship, but it’s really a lack of institutions
that actually hurts the Chinese people most. Families are left to fend for themselves.
There are no independent unions and no free press.
There are very few community groups to address problems such as care of the elderly.
Through sheer willpower, though, problems will eventually get solved, but the “wasted
potential is staggering.”
The next necessary step for China is to learn methods to use this wealth in aiding
all citizens, including the elderly. Here, the U.S. and other western countries
can serve as models. If such challenges are to be managed, learning from each
other will be crucial.
Ted Ruhig may be contacted via e-mail at: ted.ruhig@yahoo.com.
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