Jiayu Zhang

Thesis

Thesis supervisors

Professor John Hudson

Dr Sabrina Chai

Thesis topic

Cultural change and long-term care in China: transition of the role of family for care provision.

Thesis summary

With the demographic and socio-economic shifts in contemporary China, the public are more open to receiving elderly care outside the family, although the deeply rooted family values continue to have a profound influence. Correspondingly, the family has been encouraged by policies emphasising family values to take more responsibility for elderly care provision in official discourse in recent years. In order to tackle the boosting care need of the frail elderly, China has also launched the long-term care scheme in pilot cities since 2016. However, the scheme prioritises developing formal care provided by the state and the market, which seems to conflict with the elderly’s needs of informal care and policies underlying the family’s importance. Therefore, based on the implementation of long-term care schemes in China, this thesis attempts to investigate the role of family in providing care with the consideration of the cultural changes, particularly in terms of the social attitudes towards the roles of the state and family for care provision.

Biography

I graduated from Sun Yat-sen University with a BA (Hons) in 2017 and completed a two year Masters program there in 2019. During my undergraduate and Masters degrees majoring in Public Administration, I participated in many research projects about elderly care, healthcare, and long-term care in China. I have gradually developed an interest in ageing issues, particularly the care policies supporting older adults. These experiences inspired me to further my study on related research topics. I started studying at the University of York in October 2019, and my ongoing PhD research project is about long-term care in China.

Research

General research interests

• Elderly care
• Long-term care
• Social policy analysis

Publications

Journal articles

• Chan, W. K., and Zhang, J. (2021). Can university qualification promote social mobility? A review of higher education expansion and graduate employment in China. International Journal of Educational Development, 84, 102423.

Teaching

Graduate teaching assistant (GTA) - Introducing Social Policy module, Research Design module.