China’s Indigenous Social Rural Pension: Building Ground Work for Future Research

Abstract

China has the largest elderly population in the world, while its overall population has been
unprecedentedly growing for quite some time now. The aging population is particularly
concerning in China where the ‘family is traditionally responsible for taking care of their elders
as there is no established, sustainable social security system’ especially in rural areas. Worse
still, the one child policy and the rapid urbanisation processes resulting in younger adults
leaving rural areas for better jobs and lifestyles since the 1990s have put greater pressures on
rural families who have fewer younger people to depend on for taking care of their elderlies.
Against this background, there is an urgent need to build ground work for future research which
can shed more light on social organisations for the rural elderly in China, giving particular
attention to indigenous features in the Chinese context – a contribution this paper offers to
make.