Family support for old people in rural China

In China the family is still the major welfare provider for old people in r ural areas. Although the implementation of this role has varied significant ly, in different historical periods, owing to social and economic changes i n the rural environment, the core functions of the family have remained the same, that is, the provision of welfare for dependants, particular for the aged. In the more traditional China, providing care for the aged was indee d assumed to be a paramount function of the family. Whereas, following the founding of the PRC in 1949, the welfare function of the family was reduced , as a result of the collectivization of the rural economy, which meant a p art of family responsibilities being shared by collective organizations. Ho wever, after more than twenty-years' experience of agricultural collectiviz ation, China embarked on a course of further rural economic reform in the e arly 1980s, replacing the commune system with one of private production bas ed on the family unit. As a result, rural welfare responsibilities were shi fted back from the commune to the family, which became solely responsible f or providing support far its dependent members. This paper attempts to set out the real situation with regard to family support for rural old people i n China. The first section offers a brief introduction to the declining fam ily status of rural old people as a consequence of socio-economic change. T he second section reviews the implications of rural economic reform for the (declining) status of old people with regard to family support,focusing on patterns of rural old age dependency and the changing roles of family care givers. Lastly, cares of family support disputes and community responses ar e presented, drawing on findings from fieldwork conducted by the author bet ween 1995 and 1996 in three rural localities in China.