China into the era of living alone, living alone more than 58 million people?
According to the Voice of China's "CCTV Night News" report, a recent news article titled "Shanghai's 85-year-old couple opened a gas fire hand in hand to commit suicide" has sparked social concern. The number of "one-person" households in China has risen significantly, with the nation's population living alone rising from 6 percent in 1990 to 14 percent in 2010. According to the National Statistical Yearbook, the figure for 2013 was 14.6%; and in Shanghai, which has the highest proportion of "one-person households" in the country, there is one one-person household in every four. What is the current situation of people living alone? And what are the reasons for doubling the number of people living alone? This reporter investigated.
Family structure changes, the elderly living alone increased
According to the reporter, the sixth national census data show that in 2010, the proportion of elderly people, elderly couples living alone has tended to the overall half, compared with two decades ago, seventy percent of the elderly living with their children, the proportion of change is obvious. Six eastern cities, Liaoning, Shandong, Jiangsu, Guangdong, Shanghai and Zhejiang, have the largest number of elderly people over the age of 75 living alone.
The reporter interviewed Wu Jun, an elderly man living in Qinhuangdao, Hebei province. The reporter learned that he is 86 years old this year, several sons are abroad, but because the old man is not adapted to life abroad, has always insisted on living alone.
Wu Jun, the old man said: "Back I said, do not go, I'm not used to this person is not used to living there, of course, that place is also convenient transportation, the environment is also quite good, really good, but food, communication, language is not quite through."
It is understood that in his spare time, Wu Jun old man in addition to playing the erhu, singing opera, when he is alone but also writing calligraphy, writing, to arrange their own life colorful. However, due to work, the children can not come back every year. The old man doesn't know how to use a computer, so the telephone is their only means of contact. In the past few years, the old man's ears began to fail and communication on the phone became less smooth.
The old man in Qinhuangdao cousin nephew Gong Lei told reporters: "After all, the age of the old man, one day you say a sudden point of disease, in fact, quite worried, the old man some times also told us that they are actually quite lonely."
At present, population migration, cross-city work, the reduction of multi-generational families, the development of urbanization and so on have become the reason for the doubling of the number of people currently living alone in China. In the face of this situation, in many places began to actively think of ways to deal with the problem of "living alone elderly".
The reporter learned that Kaifeng belongs to the more serious aging area of Henan, the local civil affairs department is piloting the "home care service center" project to serve the community living alone elderly. The home care service center has a lounge, a painting and calligraphy room, a chess and card room, an opera room, and a community doctor on duty.
Kaifeng City Civil Affairs Bureau of aging section chief Zhang Limin said: "The elderly can come in the morning, the evening to go, but also here to eat, a meal 5 yuan, not enough to subsidize a little bit of our civil affairs, if the night, because the service center is located in the community, the emergence of any problem we can also be the first time to the scene. In fact, it is equivalent to an elderly nursery, through the trial effect is very good, we are ready to vigorously promote the city."
In addition to the "home elderly service center", many communities have also spontaneously launched a lot of activities to serve the elderly living alone. The "knock-knock" service of the oil mill community is very unique, and the community will arrange for staff to knock on the doors of the homes of the elderly living alone in the community every day to see if there is anyone answering the door. In addition, it has also set up a volunteer service team to address the needs of the elderly.
Kong Xinyan, director of the oil mill community, said: "There is a sick need to take care of him at home, there is a need to help him buy groceries, to help him clean up at home, and some of them to help them to go to the bath, foot bath, which we have done."
In addition to improving the security measures for the elderly at home, Henan Province has also recently introduced policies to promote the development of the elderly industry, and strive to build 50 to 60 elderly industry demonstration parks in five years, in the demonstration parks, the introduction of large-scale elderly service enterprise groups, in order to enhance the level of the construction of the elderly industry.
Single young people living alone in an increasingly large group
According to the reporter's understanding, single young people living alone in an increasingly large group is with the arrival of China's fourth wave of singles and revealed. Currently, there are more than 58 million people living alone in China today, and the number of single households in China is equivalent to 14 percent of the country's total households, a figure that continues to rise.
Surveys have shown that the more educated and better off the country's under-30 population is, the more likely they are to choose to live alone. There are more non-widowed people living alone in affluent areas of the country, with one in five households in Beijing living alone. The average age of marriage is rising in big cities such as Shanghai and Guangzhou, and divorce rates are also increasing, leading to more people living alone.
Jing Jun, a professor at Tsinghua University's sociology department, says "freedom and new wealth" are breaking down China's traditional family structure, and that while it was long considered taboo in the country to choose not to marry and live alone, more and more people are now living alone. Many well-educated people living alone are often the result of an active choice, symbolizing the rise of women's social status and improved employment opportunities.
In an interview, Li Jingjing, who lives alone in Handan, Hebei province, told reporters that she rented a 40-square-meter rental room in a residential area not far from her unit after graduation for the convenience of commuting, and has lived alone for years since then. Li Jingjing said: "From just work it to now, has been living here, 12 years also live accustomed to, their own small space, quite good!"
Talking about their own solitary life now, 36-year-old Li Jingjing feeling quite a lot, looking around their peers to get married, have children and live in a family reunion, they also want to become a family.
Li Jingjing told reporters: "It is colleagues and friends in the introduction, basically the second marriage, because the same age of the men who did not get married, basically no, either is the break of marriage or is married a few years with children, anyway, are divorced, you said I have not been married you let me find a second marriage, I feel that their own psychological simply can not accept. "
The reporter also visited Fuyang, Anhui Province, the local Ms. Fu told reporters that they are forty-five years old this year, ten years ago, she left her children and husband for the cause, and came to the city of Fuyang alone. Ms. Fu has been living alone for many years, and she comes home from work every day feeling empty, with no one to bother her or pay attention to her.
Ms. Fu said: "Definitely lonely, especially ten years ago, the child is only ten years old, came to the city of Fuyang, every day to think of the child, sometimes see other people with children to take care of their own children in their own homes, go to school, ah, eat, ah, I watched people with a tear."
The reporter learned that the number of successful women like Ms. Fu living alone is not small, in the economic status of women and independence after the increase, no longer as in the past, overly dependent on the family, but more attention to their own development, living alone in order to better realize their own value.
Another survey showed that there are nearly 20 million young "one-person households" between the ages of 20 and 39. Unlike the middle-aged and old-aged "one-person households" where women outnumber men, the proportion of men in "one-person households" between the ages of 20 and 64 is much higher than that of women. And unlike the middle-aged and older age groups who live alone because they are widowed or empty nesters, the "one-person households" of young adults are more likely to be due to the fact that they have no plans for their lives.
Contrasting with the high number of urban "one-person households" is the year-on-year increase in the age of first marriage among urban youth. Many young people are delaying their first marriages or even living alone without getting married. Dr. Dong in Fuyang, Anhui Province, thirty-five years old this year, is still single and living alone. He told reporters that he lives alone because he does not have the ability to get married.
According to Dr. Dong, he is surrounded by a lot of such people living alone, some because of the material conditions do not allow, while others because they are not willing to accept the life after marriage.
Dr. Dong said: "I have come across most of them are caused by the lack of material aspects, there is another kind is like living alone ah do not talk about friends ah, is addicted to the network, he lived in the imaginary world, do not need to accompany people shopping, do not need to coax the girlfriend, feel a person to eat and drink there is a pastime, the spirit of the place to vent. "
Foreign people living alone: advocate free life
According to the reporter's understanding, in August 2014, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics data show that the month the United States is in a single state for the first time more than married people, accounting for the proportion of the population over the age of 16 years old reached 50.2%, or 124.6 million people. That compares with just 22 percent in 1950.
This phenomenon is not unique to the United States. In Paris, France, the "capital of romance," more than half of the households are one-person households, and in Stockholm, the capital of Sweden, the proportion is as high as 60 percent.
In Australia, more and more Australians are turning to their pets for emotional attachments, especially if they live alone, due to the estrangement of human relationships. Many feel no need for a human companion at all after the loyalty of an animal companion.
When it comes to housing, many people also choose to rent for the rest of their lives because of the freedom of living. Because for a certain number of Australians, after buying a house, no matter how much the repayments are, it is always a burden. And they themselves prefer to live a carefree life, so for them, renting a house is not because they can't afford to buy a house, but because they prefer to keep changing their living environment.
Of course, in many countries it is not uncommon for older people to live alone because their children become independent earlier. However, with social security in place, living alone in this situation is less lonely and helpless, and more comfortable and down-to-earth.