BEIJING — The hit play this season is about a community of retirees who struggle to adjust to the loneliness and alienation of old age in a high-rise apartment. "Candied Haw Apple"--featuring a cast in their 60s and 70s--has hit a nerve in a society that long has taken pride in its veneration of age and care of the elderly.
In one scene, a bewildered father confronts cellular-telephone-afflicted offspring who worry more about business deals than about him. In another, a lonely widower places a personal ad seeking a mate. "Are you still walking alone on the road of life?" he asks.
By the turn of the century, China will have 130 million people older than 60, an elderly population exceeding by far that of any other nation. By 2020, one-fourth of the world's aged will live in this country.
The prolonging of life spans is one of the main successes of the Communist era. Advances in health care have boosted life expectancy from 52 years in 1950 to almost 70.
But the rapid graying of China also contributes to its immense problem of overpopulation and negates many gains made through a rigorous, controversial birth-control program. The overall population growth rate stands at 1.19%. But in 1995, the growth rate of the 60-and-older population was nearly three times higher at 3.37%.
"Since 1949," said Zhang Wenfan, director of the National Committee on Aging, "China has evolved from a high-birthrate and high-mortality country to a low-birthrate, low-mortality country." Moreover, said Zhang, because the majority of the country's aging population is in its 60s, "China's old people are younger than those in the rest of the world."
Much international attention has been given to the graying population of Japan, which remains one of the most rapidly aging societies in the world. But there is a huge difference in scale between the countries. By 2020, when Japan is expected to have 33 million people older than 65, China will have 179 million--more than Japan's entire population. And Japan, with a per capita income 20 times greater than China's, is in a much better position to care for its seniors.
Until now, the phenomenon of lowered birthrates and prolonged life spans generally was limited to developed countries with per capita annual incomes of more than $10,000. But when China reaches the status of a "graying country"--when more than 10% of the population is older than 65, as is expected in 2000--its per capita income is expected to be about $1,000.
