Pre-modern or traditional Chinese society placed elderly people on a pedestal. They were valued for their accumulated knowledge, their position within the extended family, and the sense of history and identity which they helped the family to develop. Respect for elderly people was an integral part of Confucian doctrine, especially for the family patriarch.
That position has not changed much. China’s future is charted, and kept on course by the Politburo, a core group of powerful party leaders. Seven out of nine members of the Politburo are above 63. Even retired members of the Politburo and the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) retain great power by serving as members of shadow advisory bodies.
The CCP itself has a tradition of elderly active within its power structures, and its great leaders, Mao Zedong, Zhou Enlai and Deng Xiaoping, worked to a very great age, into their eighties. Citizens refer to the more approachable of the Chinese leaders, Prime Minister Wen Jiabao, as Grandpa Wen, a sobriquet he lived up to when he personally supervised the rescue efforts during the Sichuan earthquake
The bulk of China’s industrial landscape continues to be led and shaped by those at the helm of state-owned enterprises. Path-breaking entrepreneurs such as Haier’s Zhang Ruiming and Lenovo’s Liu Chuanzhi are above 55 and continue to play powerful roles in their organizations, indeed, their industry. In the private sector, even as the second generation gradually takes charge, the founders of the companies remain influential, using their contacts, influence and power to swing decisions. These are the people who have, in the era of Opening Up, have shaped China. And they haven’t been forgotten.
This group also believes in looking after their ilk. It was once part of the filial duties imposed by Confucianism to care for one’s parents when they were old, so that when you too were old your children would in turn care for you.
In the new China, that old order and sense of duty is breaking down…
To read more, see ‘Embracing Change, Realizing Dreams‘ by Ogilvy & Mather Greater China.
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