ABSTRACT
This chapter presents interviews with four of the residents of Jing Lao Yuan to describe the old people's sense of well-being and their impressions of the situation of the elderly in the pre- and post-revolutionary periods in Shenyang. In addition to interviewing old people in a variety of settings in Shenyang, it was important to understand how younger Chinese viewed the aged and the aging process. Attitudes toward the elderly interact with attitudes of the elderly and together they help shape the boundaries of a sense of well-being. Changing societal attitudes affect individual attitudes, lifestyles and support structures. For example, during the Cultural Revolution the elderly represented a world contrary to the political ideals of the era. As attitudes changed during this period, the well-being of the elderly—in both subjective and objective terms—took a plunge.
