A glance at everyday life of New Elder Group in China: A case study of Xiamen, China

Abstract: This thesis targeted a new group in the transitioning Chinese society---the New Elder Group (NEG) --- at the private level, focusing on their everyday life. NEG refers to retired people who are relatively young (55-80), financially independent, and in good health. Their primary desires in everyday life is to “live a good every day”. This thesis demonstrates the need to pay more attention to the diversity of older people and their diverse values and desires. Besides, the philosophy of “living a good every day” relates to the desires which vary from individual to individual. It requires a qualitative in-depth interview method to collect and critically analyze data. The data was collected from eight NEGs. This study used a time-geographic approach to visualize the everyday life path and life course theory to analyze the results. This thesis finds that NEG feel satisfied and happy with their everyday life, sometimes bored but seldom lonely. Public facilities for older people’s creation activities need to be expanded, only parks mentioned for all NEG. They engaged in their retired everyday life activities with different life goals driven by their self-identities of “being a free man” and “being a part of a family” at three time periods, which is influenced tightly by the specific sociocultural context of China. With the priority of family interest, NEG would choose to become LaoPiaoZu (LPZ) with the transition event of the new arrival of the grandchild in the family. LPZ refers to older people who relocate to new cities for taking care of their children’s families. It alters self-identities and life’s goal from “living a good every day” to “taking good care of grandchildren”, leading to the limited activity spaces and lack of social connections. This thesis doubts the trend of making the same choice of becoming LPZ for generations of NEG in the future.