With millions of elderly Chinese now living alone, it’s incumbent upon the state to give them a better lifeBy Lu HuaFor centuries in China, the phrase “four generations under one roof” was synonymous with the ideal family. In just a few short words, it encapsulated the dreams of fertility, longevity, and harmony to which hundreds of millions of Chinese aspired.Today, however, the country’s traditional, tight-knit family unit is under siege from a combination of declining birth rates, delayed marriages, and domestic migration. No demographic has been harder-hit by these changes than the 240 million Chinese over the age of 60. A recently published report estimates that as of 2016, the number of elderly Chinese living apart from their children had ballooned to 118 million. And as China’s population continues to age — and its family configurations continue to evolve
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