Anomie and Order Return of the Family Support Tradition for the Elderly in Rural China

摘要

Traditional order of elderly support in rural China focuses on filial piety and support, with family support as the main form and manifestation of offspring's filial piety and support to their parents, which is called as family support for the elderly. However, nowadays, rural elderly support encounters the dilemma of separation of filial piety and support because of population flow and focus shift-down of intergenerational relationship caused by economic development. Meanwhile, the social and economic status of the aged has been weakened, which makes family support for the elderly increasingly tensional. Therefore, rural elderly support is eager to escape from control of traditional order. The only way that we can guarantee the later life of the rural elderly is to return to the root of family support for the elderly. We must build a perfect system of elderly support with health care for the elderly as a point of breakthrough, in order to let individual, family, community and state return to order ultimately.