Meaningful Ageing for China’s Older Adults

Background

The challenges presented by the ageing of China’s population are vast and complex. Not only does ageing have major impacts on labor supply, savings, economic growth and social and family relationships, ageing also necessitates re-imagining social systems—such as healthcare, eldercare, pension and housing—in order to sustainably support the elderly population in ageing well and living a meaningful life in China. The government has made confronting these challenges a national priority, as seen in the 14th Five-Year Plan, Healthy China 2030, and other high-level policy documents. The prominence of ageing in these policy planning blueprints and the issue’s inclusion in subsequent talks by senior policymakers signify its importance for ensuring sustainable economic and social development into the future.

Objectives

  1. Advance policy-relevant and practical knowledge that moves China towards a population-based health system, enabling it to better meet the health needs of its ageing population.
  2. Apply global experience related to at-home and community-based eldercare models to the Chinese context.
  3. Define and measure the well-being of older adults in China to promote meaningful ageing and improved well-being for this demographic.

Research

  • A list of ageing-related research projects conducted in collaboration with HCHP partners is available here.
  • Dr. Winnie Yip outlined a new project comparing eldercare systems in China and India at the “Symposium on Social Technology for Eldercare in China and Global Aging” available here.

Publications

  • Kleinman, Arthur, Hongtu Chen, Sue E. Levkoff, Ann Forsyth, David E. Bloom, Winnie Yip, Tarun Khanna, Conor J. Walsh, David Perry, Ellen W. Seely, Anne S. Kleinman, Yan Zhang, Yuan Wang, Jun Jing, Tianshu Pan, Ning An, Zhenggang Bai, Jiexiu Wang, Qing Liu, and Fawwaz Habbal. 2021. “Social Technology: An Interdisciplinary Approach to Improving Care for Older Adults.” Frontiers in Public Health 9:729149. doi: 10.3389/fpubh.2021.729149.

Events

  • Information on our “Roundtable on Meaningful Ageing in China” is available here.
  • Information on our event “Labor Participation, Retirement, Pension and Long-term Care Insurance” is available here.
  • Information on the event “Population Aging, Pension System, and Retirement Income Security in China” co-hosted with the Fairbank Center for Chinese Studies is available here.
  • Information on the event “Healthy Ageing: Societal and Medical Support for the Elderly Population in China” is available here.
  • Information on our event “Meaningful Dying and End of Life Care in China” is available here.