An Empirical Research On Home-Community Of Retirement In Linyi, Shandong Province

In a time when the aging of population is such overwhelming, senior citizen's retirement issue appears especially prominent. In the process of caring for the retirees, family has been serving as a major support and playing a leading role due to traditional culture, uneven economic advancement as well as underdeveloped social welfare system in contemporary China. However, owing to the restructuring of modern family as well as the general transformation of people's everyday life styles, family is becoming less functional. Yet on the other hand, community that possesses both human and physical resources as well as region superiority is holding a stronger tie with people who live in it. Therefore the home community retirement pattern based on communities appears feasible. Meanwhile, China has been witnessing different wishes and requests from its senior citizens, thus communities that provide all-round retirement services of diversity based on their practical demands are more welcome.This is a case study which took Lanshan, Linyi in Shandong Province as its target. Combining the demographic census with the study of home-community retirement service, this research analyzed different retirement wishes and demands of senior citizens with different social backgrounds, based on which the deficiency of current home-community pattern was drawn. Then suggestions including collaboration between government and communities, integration of existing resources as well as establishment of supporting networks based on practical needs had been given subsequent to the study.This article is divided into five parts. The first part serves as an introduction which includes research background, aims and significance of the study, literature review, methodology and possible contribution. The second part elaborates on theories and practices in relation to retirement patterns. This part discusses concepts such as senior citizen and home-community retirement, theoretical framework and retirement experiences from home and abroad. The third part analyzes the necessity and feasibility of home-community retirement in small and medium-sized cities in China subsequent to the analysis of several major retirement patterns, features of our aging society as well as related problems that the concerned cities are confronting. The fourth part combines demographic census with the case study of home-community retirement service in Lanshan, Linyi in Shandong Province, probing into the current development of this pattern in this area. Deficiency has been revealed along with suggestions subsequently.