Quantifying the Future: Crisis Narratives and the Making of the Ageing Imagination in China

Crisis narratives describing the ageing or rapidly ageing population are frequently used by journalists, politicians, and scholars to frame the issue of ageing. While scholars have been cautious about employing such metaphors as part of popular discourse, the role that crisis narratives play within ageing scholarship itself has received comparatively less attention. Drawing on an analysis of academic articles published in Chinese on the topic of population ageing, this article examines the scholarly use of crisis narratives, particularly in relation to labour shortages, delayed agricultural development, inadequate care facilities, pension challenges, and similar concerns. I argue that crisis narratives foster particular geographic imaginations in China, which often run counter to otherwise nuanced theorisations of ageing and care. In response, I call for writing practices that contextualise ageing within the intertwined frameworks of political economy, biopolitics, and care.