Daily Care Practice Of Elderly In Local Moral World

China is "graying" as a result of fundamental changes in population structure. Providing care for such a huge dependent group of elderly will be one of the greatest challenges Chinese society has ever faced. This thesis explores the impact of the unprecedented aging process on long-term care for China’s elderly from an ethnographic perspective. Drawing upon analytical insights from medical anthropology and related fields, this thesis examines in detail the actual care-giving practices in Bund neighborhood, one of the rapidly aging communities in Shanghai. With a focus on the discrepancy between the goals of well-intended state sponsored programs aimed at improving the welfare of the targeted elderly population and the expectations of household-based care-givers, this thesis seeks to provide fresh insights on the strategic choices made by care-givers and the moral underpinnings as well as the role of local wisdom. By way of integrating top-down and bottom-up approaches during ethnographically grounded research, the thesis attempts to fill the gap of knowledge in community and family based care-giving practices and make its due contribution to a reformulated China model in elderly care.