Healthy ageing in urban China: Governing the ageing population

The Chinese government has promoted the concept of “healthy ageing” to meet the goals of Healthy China 2030. Thus, achieving healthy ageing has become the principal motivation behind community eldercare organisations’ activities and services for the elderly in Chinese cities. The principles of healthy ageing encourage older adults to participate in activities, conduct volunteer labour, and strive to improve or at least maintain their physical health. Based on six months of ethnographic fieldwork, this paper examines the discourses and practices surrounding the “healthy ageing” paradigm in urban China and its role in governing the ageing population. This paper argues that the concept of healthy ageing requires older adults to set health as their primary goal, which also entails their embodiment of the healthy ageing paradigm. This paper bridges the literature on governmentality and critical and cultural gerontology while also contributing to the understanding of population governance in China.