“孝而难养”:重思农村留守老人的养老困境

“Unable to be a Filial Son”:Rethinking on the Wellbeing of Rural Left-behind Elderly

在劳动力乡城流动的背景下,作为一种价值观的“孝”并未消失,但子代尽孝的能力却因城乡时空的阻隔、子代家庭自身的再生产困境等原因而受到了削弱。尤其是当子代家庭面临经济压力、债务危机等多重压力时,留守老人往往被置于家庭资源分配的最末端和提供照料的最前端,成为了城市劳动力市场风险和经济发展代价的最终承受者。在家庭代际资源、城乡资源分配失衡的情况下,农村的“孝”道不再要求“孝心”和“孝行”的统一,而是被留守老人和乡村社区赋予了新的内涵。因此,当我们关注孝道衰落的同时,还应该从政治经济学的视角看到农民工家庭“孝而难养”的一面,进而考察留守老人养老问题背后所体现的政治、经济、文化等方面的结构不平等。

In the context of a large flow of rural-urban labor migration,‘filial piety’,as a shared value in the rural communities,doesn t vanish,but the capacity to be a‘filial son’is weakened due to the rural-urban geographical segregation and predicament of its family reproduction.Especially when the younger generation is encountered with economic pressure,financial crisis and other problems,the left-behind elderly are placed into the least significant end in terms of resource allocation and the very first for caregiving of the children,being the ultimate cost bearer of the urban labor market risks and economic development.Due to the unbalanced intergenerational and rural-urban resource allocation,‘filial piety’in contemporary rural China doesn t require the consistency of‘filial piety’in an emotional sense and‘filial conducts’in practical sense,but is bestowed with new connotations by rural left-behind elderly and the rural communities.We argue that we should not just accuse the migrant generations of being unfilial,but also be concerned about their situations as being‘unable to be a filial son from the political economy perspective,as well as the structural inequality in terms of political,economic,cultural aspects behind the wellbeing of rural left-behind elderly.