Buying Identification: The Consumption Of Health Care Products In The Elderly Living In The “Lao Xin Cun”

This thesis,taking “When the elderly buy health care products,what are they buying?” as the research question and the elderly who buy health care products in the workers' new village in a town in South Jiangsu as the research object,attempts to reflect on the formed stereotypes of “the elderly buying health care products” and to investigate how the marginalized elderly establish their self-identity and reorganize their life experience.“The elderly buying health care products”,as a social hot topic,has aroused extensive discussion from all walks of life.For the issue of “What are the elderly buying when they indulge in buying health care products?”,this thesis investigates the daily life of the elderly who buy health care products and analyses from three angles,namely,“health”,“companionship” and “security”.This thesis further points out that the consciousness of “health” replaces the rules and regulations at work and becomes a tool for the elderly to “control” and “manage” themselves.Therefore,the understanding of “health” has become the standard of their organization and self-measurement.And the health market,whose main product is health care products,comes at the right time,caters to the old people's imagination of living conditions and meets the emotional needs of them.The salesperson of health care products targeting elderly people can widely permeate into daily life of the old people through daily sales activities,and the similar “big family” system constructed by health care products company provides the meaning and value for the old people,so that they can gain a sense of belongingness during the participation of such organization.Attracting the elderly is not only the value of health products as a commodity,but also the fictionalized commercialized emotions and illusory social significance of the elderly health products business.In this case,the needs of the elderly will never be met,and they can only fall into an endless cycle of unable to stop buying health products.