Shanghai Street View: Senior Stress
The status of seniors in China has always been slightly puzzling to me, due to the many contradictions you often see between the way older people are supposed to be treated and what actually happens. Such contrasts aren’t exclusive to China, and the west has also had to deal with the issue of swelling populations of seniors created by rising living standards and longer life expectancies.
The classic image of reverence for the elderly in China has always felt like a bit of a myth to me, since it often seems like the younger generation treat this group with something more like indifference. Even so, I was still quite surprised to read recent reports about a big outcry that recently broke out over plans for a new nursing home in Yangpu District.
Outcry is really appropriate in this instance, as one banner posted by angry nearby residents referred to the project as a “dead people’s home”. What’s worse, some of the people opposed to the home were elderly themselves, with one 70-year-old quoted referring to the project’s new residents as “corpses”.
The west is famous for the “not in my backyard” mentality, which often sees homeowners unite to oppose projects like shopping malls or waste treatment facilities in their neighborhoods. But in all my years growing up in the US, I don’t ever recall this kind of opposition to a nursing home or other facility for the elderly.
That leads me to suppose that this extreme reaction in China may be due to the newness of this kind of facility, since such concentration of older people in specialty care facilities wasn’t very common just a decade ago. This kind of extreme reaction also probably stems from the more modern-day image of the elderly in China as lonely, neglected and often sickly individuals – hardly a group you’d want to have living in a building next door.
By comparison, seniors in the US enjoy an image as generally healthy and active people, who try to live independently and maintain their own interests and social activities. Such an image certainly didn’t evolve overnight. Instead it’s the result of decades of experimentation that has produced a wide array of products and services suited to the lifestyles of seniors, who often have ample money to spend on such items if they see good value in them.
The strange event that raised eyebrows in Shanghai occurred in a residential area on Zhoujiazui Road, at the site of a student dormitory slated for conversion to a 291-bed home for the elderly. Work began on the project in March and was set for completion by year-end. But the project was suspended just 2 months after it began due to local opposition, and it remains stalled to this day.
Unconvinced by Assurances
Despite assurances that the home won’t be a hospice for the dying, local nearby residents remained defiant in their opposition. In all fairness, this kind of distrust seems relatively common in China due to frequent lack of public consultation when major new projects are planned. So perhaps the conflict could have been avoided with some simple meetings to discuss the home and get local feedback during the planning stages.
Still, the actual reaction and reasons for the opposition seem somewhat extreme for a culture that is supposed to revere the elderly. Such respect almost certainly existed in a previous era, when living into one’s 70s was still relatively uncommon and the concept of “3 generations under one roof” was the ideal of the perfect family.
Fast forward to the present, where most people in big cities like Shanghai can expect to live into their 70s and quite possibly their 80s, meaning the elderly aren’t such a special class anymore. Adding to the issue is a culture that doesn’t really encourage older people to develop their own hobbies, with the result that they have too much idle time.
I used to be critical of young parents who let their own parents raise their children, since in the US most grandparents would consider such a task quite tiring and outside their responsibility. But at some point I realized that many of these retirees enjoy the task of raising their grandchildren, since it gives them something to do with all of their free time and a way to feel productive.
All that brings us back to the nursing home in Yangpu, and why it’s receiving such stiff opposition. Perhaps it’s mostly distrust, and nearby residents honestly don’t believe that their new neighbors will really be healthy, older people. Or perhaps they’re worried about a big new wave of any elderly people coming into the area, who will inevitably bring a big new dose of the idleness that is increasingly associated with the elderly in China today, and the indifference they seem to receive from the rest of society.
