崩れゆく中国の家族制度-1 [海外]
The kin and I
The state is unprepared for rising numbers of old people living alone
The Economist | International | Aug 28th
「中国は増大する一人暮らしの高齢者に十分な準備が出来ていない」という内容のエコノミストの記事を紹介します。
「リュー・カイビンさん(70歳)は元数学の教師で、去年夫が亡くなってからは西安の西の方にある町に住んでいる。ラジオが彼女の忠実な友となっている。視力は衰えてきて外出することはほとんどない。町の多くの住民と同様、以前彼女の近くに住んでいた人たちもちりぢりになり、2人の娘たちも遠く離れた所に住んでいる。自分で身の回りのことが出来なくなれば、施設に入るとリュー・カイビンさんは話しているが、リュー・カイビンさんのような生き方が出来る中国人は極めてまれである。そうした状況が中国が抱えている問題点を浮き彫りにしている。中国は急速に進む高齢化社会と増え続ける独居高齢者の対応に苦慮している。
国家は家族の集合体
家族はこの2000年もの間ずっと中国人の価値観の中核をなしてきており、国家というものは家族を大きくしたものだと見られてきた。親孝行は儒教の助け合いの精神のほぼ根幹をなしていて、家族とは何世代にわたって一つ屋根の下で暮らす広範囲にわたる集合体なのだ。それを端的に表現したことわざに、「老後のために子供を育てろ」というのがある。
今日でも数世代にわたる家族はいまだにふつうに見られる。65歳以上の3/5の人はほとんどが子供と一緒に暮らしている。世界の富裕国と比べてもその比率は高い。しかしながら、事態は急速に変化している。子供と離れて暮らす両親が増えてきて、リンさんのように連れ合いが亡くなると一人暮らしをするケースが多くなる。中国では一人暮らしをしている5人に1人は65歳以上の高齢者だ。一人暮らしをする中国の若者とは対照的に、自らの意志で一人暮らしをしている高齢者はほとんどいない。一人暮らしをしている高齢者の多くは十分な教育を受けてはいない。男性よりも女性の独居高齢者が目立って多い。というのも女性の方が夫よりも長く生きる傾向にあるから。
高齢者の面倒を見るのは国ではなくて家族
高齢者の大半が独り暮らしをしているという結果に対して中国では十分な準備が出来ていない。家族はみんな一緒に暮らしてお年寄りや自分で身の回りのことが出来ない人を養うべきだという考えを政府は尊重している。
年金制度やその他の社会福祉制度の拡充をしているにもかかわらず、高齢者対応策は大幅に後れを取っている。子供たちが年老いた両親や病人の面倒を見るものだと国が考えているからなのだ。独居高齢者を支援する福祉制度は不十分である。
この１０年で国による経済支援は増大してきたのだが、高齢の何百万人という中国人は年金の支給や退職金は受給されてはいない。健康保険は急速に広がりを見せてはきているが、基本的なことしか取り扱っていない。田舎は都会に比べて高齢者の年金や健康保険の普及でははるかに遅れている。」
The kin and I
The state is unprepared for rising numbers of old people living alone
The Economist | International | Aug 28th
LIU CAIPING is a former maths teacher, now 71, who has lived alone in the western city of Xi’an since her husband died last year. The radio is her steadfast companion. Her eyesight is failing and she rarely goes out. Like many city residents, her former neighbours have scattered, and her two daughters are far away. When she can no longer cope on her own she will go to a nursing home, she says. That option remains extremely rare for old Chinese. And that highlights the problem: China is struggling to cope with a rapidly ageing society and a rising number of elderly people living by themselves.
For most of the past two millennia the family has been central to how Chinese have seen themselves—and the state has been seen as a family writ large. Filial piety was somewhere near the heart of a Confucian order regulating society, and the family was an extended, stable unit of several generations under one roof. A very common saying encapsulated it all: yang er fang lao—“raise children for your old age”.
Today multi-generation families are still the norm. Almost three-fifths of people over 65 live with their children, a higher proportion than in most rich countries. Yet things are changing fast. Increasingly, parents are living apart from their children—and when one spouse dies, as with Ms Liu, the other often lives alone. A fifth of all single-person households in China are made up of over-65-year-olds. In contrast to younger Chinese living alone, few elderly do so by choice. Many are poorly educated. Women predominate, because they tend to outlive their husbands.
China is unprepared for the consequences of solo dwelling among the elderly. Government policy enshrines the idea that families should live together and provide for the old and others unable to look after themselves. Despite efforts to extend pensions and other social protection, provisions fall far short because the state assumes offspring will help the old and sick. The welfare system is ill-equipped to help the elderly living alone.
State financial support has improved in the past decade, but many millions of elderly Chinese still have no pension or retirement income. Health insurance is increasingly widespread, but usually covers only the basics. Rural areas lag far behind cities in the provision of pensions and health care for the old.
By 2025 nearly one in four Chinese will be over 60. China’s one-child policy has made a mockery of yang er fang lao—fewer among the younger generation are around for the old to move in with, a trend reinforced by starting families later. By 2050 there are likely to be just 2.5 working-age adults for every person over 65, down from eight today. Chinese born in the boondocks who migrate to far-off cities in search of work cannot easily take older family members with them even if they want to.
Despite the challenges, many in China still regard responsibility towards their family as a defining feature of their culture. Not much difference with other countries there. But the expectation of filial piety means that those who are not recipients of it often feel ashamed or isolated, says Jean Wei-Jun Yeung of the National University of Singapore. Many are reluctant to seek the help of neighbours when they need it, for instance. A study of old people in Shanghai by Yu Chen of Fudan University found that 84% rarely or never attended social activities.
The government acknowledges the problem. When it relaxed the one-child policy somewhat in 2013, one reason it cited was a growing number of elderly singletons. Some enterprising local governments have introduced schemes aimed at the lonely old. Young trainee doctors in Hangzhou in eastern China can have free board with old people living alone in return for companionship and basic medical care. Several cities encourage “time banks”, a model borrowed from America and Japan, where over-60s help those, say, over 80, building up credits to call in years later. Yet a control-freak state remains nervous about initiatives it does not closely oversee.
With a weak social-safety net, little support is in place for when families fail to help those living alone. A study in 2013 by Na Yu of the Beijing Institute of Technology found almost no neighbourhood communities in the capital offering the full range of basic services elderly people needed. Elsewhere, cities offer social activities but little personal care. Because of a lack of doctors in the community, old people with chronic conditions tend to linger in hospital. Social workers are in short supply, underpaid and overworked and have minimal training. Residential care is growing but still scant. China has 5.8m beds (enough for nearly 3% of over-60s), but there are often long waiting lists.
This is the background to a rise in the suicide rate among China’s elderly, even as that for other age groups is falling. In 2009-11 people over 65 accounted for just under half of all suicides, and more in rural areas: living alone in old age can be harsh anywhere, but in China it may be particularly isolating, given that so many young Chinese have left their villages, and parents, in search of work. The government has tried to enforce filial piety, passing a law in 2013 that threatens fines or jail if people fail to visit parents and feed their “spiritual needs”. It is a futile response. In a rapidly changing China, much greater state provision is needed.
The state is unprepared for rising numbers of old people living alone
The Economist | International | Aug 28th
「中国は増大する一人暮らしの高齢者に十分な準備が出来ていない」という内容のエコノミストの記事を紹介します。
「リュー・カイビンさん(70歳)は元数学の教師で、去年夫が亡くなってからは西安の西の方にある町に住んでいる。ラジオが彼女の忠実な友となっている。視力は衰えてきて外出することはほとんどない。町の多くの住民と同様、以前彼女の近くに住んでいた人たちもちりぢりになり、2人の娘たちも遠く離れた所に住んでいる。自分で身の回りのことが出来なくなれば、施設に入るとリュー・カイビンさんは話しているが、リュー・カイビンさんのような生き方が出来る中国人は極めてまれである。そうした状況が中国が抱えている問題点を浮き彫りにしている。中国は急速に進む高齢化社会と増え続ける独居高齢者の対応に苦慮している。
国家は家族の集合体
家族はこの2000年もの間ずっと中国人の価値観の中核をなしてきており、国家というものは家族を大きくしたものだと見られてきた。親孝行は儒教の助け合いの精神のほぼ根幹をなしていて、家族とは何世代にわたって一つ屋根の下で暮らす広範囲にわたる集合体なのだ。それを端的に表現したことわざに、「老後のために子供を育てろ」というのがある。
今日でも数世代にわたる家族はいまだにふつうに見られる。65歳以上の3/5の人はほとんどが子供と一緒に暮らしている。世界の富裕国と比べてもその比率は高い。しかしながら、事態は急速に変化している。子供と離れて暮らす両親が増えてきて、リンさんのように連れ合いが亡くなると一人暮らしをするケースが多くなる。中国では一人暮らしをしている5人に1人は65歳以上の高齢者だ。一人暮らしをする中国の若者とは対照的に、自らの意志で一人暮らしをしている高齢者はほとんどいない。一人暮らしをしている高齢者の多くは十分な教育を受けてはいない。男性よりも女性の独居高齢者が目立って多い。というのも女性の方が夫よりも長く生きる傾向にあるから。
高齢者の面倒を見るのは国ではなくて家族
高齢者の大半が独り暮らしをしているという結果に対して中国では十分な準備が出来ていない。家族はみんな一緒に暮らしてお年寄りや自分で身の回りのことが出来ない人を養うべきだという考えを政府は尊重している。
年金制度やその他の社会福祉制度の拡充をしているにもかかわらず、高齢者対応策は大幅に後れを取っている。子供たちが年老いた両親や病人の面倒を見るものだと国が考えているからなのだ。独居高齢者を支援する福祉制度は不十分である。
この１０年で国による経済支援は増大してきたのだが、高齢の何百万人という中国人は年金の支給や退職金は受給されてはいない。健康保険は急速に広がりを見せてはきているが、基本的なことしか取り扱っていない。田舎は都会に比べて高齢者の年金や健康保険の普及でははるかに遅れている。」
The kin and I
The state is unprepared for rising numbers of old people living alone
The Economist | International | Aug 28th
LIU CAIPING is a former maths teacher, now 71, who has lived alone in the western city of Xi’an since her husband died last year. The radio is her steadfast companion. Her eyesight is failing and she rarely goes out. Like many city residents, her former neighbours have scattered, and her two daughters are far away. When she can no longer cope on her own she will go to a nursing home, she says. That option remains extremely rare for old Chinese. And that highlights the problem: China is struggling to cope with a rapidly ageing society and a rising number of elderly people living by themselves.
For most of the past two millennia the family has been central to how Chinese have seen themselves—and the state has been seen as a family writ large. Filial piety was somewhere near the heart of a Confucian order regulating society, and the family was an extended, stable unit of several generations under one roof. A very common saying encapsulated it all: yang er fang lao—“raise children for your old age”.
Today multi-generation families are still the norm. Almost three-fifths of people over 65 live with their children, a higher proportion than in most rich countries. Yet things are changing fast. Increasingly, parents are living apart from their children—and when one spouse dies, as with Ms Liu, the other often lives alone. A fifth of all single-person households in China are made up of over-65-year-olds. In contrast to younger Chinese living alone, few elderly do so by choice. Many are poorly educated. Women predominate, because they tend to outlive their husbands.
China is unprepared for the consequences of solo dwelling among the elderly. Government policy enshrines the idea that families should live together and provide for the old and others unable to look after themselves. Despite efforts to extend pensions and other social protection, provisions fall far short because the state assumes offspring will help the old and sick. The welfare system is ill-equipped to help the elderly living alone.
State financial support has improved in the past decade, but many millions of elderly Chinese still have no pension or retirement income. Health insurance is increasingly widespread, but usually covers only the basics. Rural areas lag far behind cities in the provision of pensions and health care for the old.
By 2025 nearly one in four Chinese will be over 60. China’s one-child policy has made a mockery of yang er fang lao—fewer among the younger generation are around for the old to move in with, a trend reinforced by starting families later. By 2050 there are likely to be just 2.5 working-age adults for every person over 65, down from eight today. Chinese born in the boondocks who migrate to far-off cities in search of work cannot easily take older family members with them even if they want to.
Despite the challenges, many in China still regard responsibility towards their family as a defining feature of their culture. Not much difference with other countries there. But the expectation of filial piety means that those who are not recipients of it often feel ashamed or isolated, says Jean Wei-Jun Yeung of the National University of Singapore. Many are reluctant to seek the help of neighbours when they need it, for instance. A study of old people in Shanghai by Yu Chen of Fudan University found that 84% rarely or never attended social activities.
The government acknowledges the problem. When it relaxed the one-child policy somewhat in 2013, one reason it cited was a growing number of elderly singletons. Some enterprising local governments have introduced schemes aimed at the lonely old. Young trainee doctors in Hangzhou in eastern China can have free board with old people living alone in return for companionship and basic medical care. Several cities encourage “time banks”, a model borrowed from America and Japan, where over-60s help those, say, over 80, building up credits to call in years later. Yet a control-freak state remains nervous about initiatives it does not closely oversee.
With a weak social-safety net, little support is in place for when families fail to help those living alone. A study in 2013 by Na Yu of the Beijing Institute of Technology found almost no neighbourhood communities in the capital offering the full range of basic services elderly people needed. Elsewhere, cities offer social activities but little personal care. Because of a lack of doctors in the community, old people with chronic conditions tend to linger in hospital. Social workers are in short supply, underpaid and overworked and have minimal training. Residential care is growing but still scant. China has 5.8m beds (enough for nearly 3% of over-60s), but there are often long waiting lists.
This is the background to a rise in the suicide rate among China’s elderly, even as that for other age groups is falling. In 2009-11 people over 65 accounted for just under half of all suicides, and more in rural areas: living alone in old age can be harsh anywhere, but in China it may be particularly isolating, given that so many young Chinese have left their villages, and parents, in search of work. The government has tried to enforce filial piety, passing a law in 2013 that threatens fines or jail if people fail to visit parents and feed their “spiritual needs”. It is a futile response. In a rapidly changing China, much greater state provision is needed.
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