The Myth of Filial Piety as a Pillar for Care of Older Adults among Chinese Populations

Filial piety has been touted as the Chinese answer to long term care of older people, supported by legislations in Singapore as well as the People’s Republic of China. In reality, increasing numbers of older people live alone in both developing and developed economies while their children live and work elsewhere. This phenomenon is particularly prevalent among rural communities in China, where working age adults migrate to work in cities, leaving their parents to look after their own children in many cases. There exists a huge social problem when the elderly developed health problems and cannot look after themselves or their grandchildren, contributing to neglect and suicides. This paper argues that filial piety as a feature of Confucianism is a fact of history, and may not be applicable to care of older people in modern economies. Literature show that the strongest levels of senior derogation was observed in East Asia, compared with South and Southeast Asia; in non-Anglophone Europe, compared with North American and Anglophone Western Europe. At a country level, recent rises in population ageing predict negative attitudes; while cultural individualism predicts positive attitudes. The underlying mechanisms behind cultural differences in ageing attitudes are likely to be due to higher levels if industrialization and economic progress as well as intergenerational conflict with rising numbers of older people exerting a negative impact.