[행사보고] 제 79회 글로벌 엑설런스 세미나: "Tasteful Old Age: The Identity of the Aged Middle-Class, Nursing Home Tours, and Marketized Eldercare in China"

[행사보고] 제 79회 글로벌 엑설런스 세미나 "Tasteful Old Age: The Identity of the Aged Middle-Class, Nursing Home Tours, and Marketized Eldercare in China"   강의명: Tasteful Old Age: The Identity of the Aged Middle-Class, Nursing Home Tours, and Marketized Eldercare in China 일시: 2024년 11월 29일 (금) 오후 12시-13시30분 장소: 서울대학교 국제대학원 140-1동 201호 Global Strategy Room 발표: 박여리 연구교수 (서울시립대학교 도시인문학연구소) 사회: 박지환 교수 (서울대학교 국제대학원) 언어: 한국      The Seoul National University Institute of International Affairs held the “79th Global Excellence Seminar” on November 29, 2024 in the Global Strategy Room (Bldg. 140-1, Room 201). Seoul National University Graduate School of International Studies (SNU GSIS) Professor Jeehwan Park moderated the seminar, and University of Seoul Institute for Urban Humanities Research Professor Yeori Park gave a presentation entitled “Tasteful Old Age: The Identity of the Aged Middle-Class, Nursing Home Tours, and Marketized Eldercare in China.” An abstract of Dr. Park’s presentation is provided below.   [Abstract]  This study explores the ways in which middle-class identity of older adults is shaped through modern Chinese history. To this end, this research project analyzes China’s nursing home tours, care consumption practices, and the life histories of older adults living in a retirement home. Those who can afford high-end nursing homes identify themselves as “middle class intellectuals” and distinguish themselves from others by living in a gated community and consuming care services. Although many of today’s middle-class older adults lost their economic capital during China’s Communist Revolution and period of political oppression, they retained the cultural and social capital inherited from their highly educated families. After China’s economic reform, many previously middle-class individuals returned to professional positions that utilized their prior skills, thus quietly maintaining a cryptic middle-class identity.   China’s middle-class older adults lived through the Communist period when the state determined the trajectory of people’s lives. This experience made it hard for them to plan for the future, including retirement, given China’s rapidly changing political context. However, unlike today’s younger generation, middle-class older adults, when they were younger, could look forward to receiving a stable pension. This security alleviated their worries about the future and distinguishes their lives today from those of poor rural seniors or other blue-collar retirees who did not receive an adequate pension. Older middle-class adults have reinvented their class identity by choosing to live in newer, more expensive private retirement homes, differentiating themselves from their poor, rural counterparts. Furthermore, these similarly situated people have gathered to form a middle-class community. Tour groups visit retirement homes to witness and bask in middle-class life. Participating in such tours and selecting one’s form of assisted living are cultural phenomena that inspire middle-class seniors dream of tasteful old age. This imagined tasteful lifestyle is shaped by care-consuming practices of elderly residents in these retirement communities. Living independently (i.e., without children’s support in old age) by consuming care services is an enactment of class identity. In this way, they differentiate themselves from those who opt for conventional eldercare provided by their children based on filial piety. It is also a strategic choice to survive the unstable life stage of old age in a context where it is difficult for the state and even children to care for seniors because of China’s one-child policy and the reckless growth of commercial eldercare. Although they are identified as a privileged demographic in Chinese society, in reality they are often living precarious and unstable lives, in contrast to the tasteful old age they had imagined.   

2024-11-29

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