‘Aging without growing old’: Identity reconstruction and individualization among rural older adults in China

The specific nature of China's path toward greater individualization often places rural older adults in a dual predicament, in which traditional family caregiving responsibilities are eroding, while the socialized care system for older adults remains inadequately resourced. Drawing on both observational and semi-structured interview methods, this study examines how rural older adults navigate these challenges in their everyday lives and the strategies they employ to adapt. The findings indicate that the erosion of older adults' authority within families and the transition from a caregiving model based on filial obligation to a reciprocity-based care model have become widely recognized realities. In response to these transformations, older adults actively endeavor to sustain their status within the family by redistributing relational resources through both market and household labor and by seeking opportunities for reciprocal exchanges. Moreover, they redefine their perceptions of 'support' and adjust their identities through practices such as 'digital inclusion'. The study contributes to theories of individualization and aging by revealing a dual mode of agency-both instrumental and moral-through which rural older adults not only manage structural precarity but in doing so, reconstruct dignity, identity and meaning in later life.