This book looks at how seniors in Shanghai are using smartphones, seen against the backdrop of China’s digital and communist revolutions. It’s based on 16 months of close research where the author hung out with and interviewed many older folks to understand how the phones impact their daily life, relationships, health and feeling of purpose.
Recommended for:
- Scholars and students interested in the social, cultural, and technological dimensions of aging in contemporary urban China, particularly the experiences of older adults living in Shanghai.
- Researchers studying the impacts of digital technologies, such as smartphones, on daily life, intergenerational relations, community engagement, and individual/collective identities among aging populations.
- Those seeking an in-depth, ethnographic understanding of how China’s rapid social and economic transformations over the past decades have shaped the lived experiences of the older generation.
- Readers interested in the intersections of anthropology, sociology, media studies, and gerontology in the context of global digital transitions.
You will:
- Gain insights into how the older generation in Shanghai has navigated and adapted to the emergence of digital technologies like smartphones, against the backdrop of China’s complex social and political history.
- Explore how everyday smartphone use, healthcare practices, family dynamics, and community engagement are shaped by the life experiences and cultural values of Shanghai’s aging population.
- Understand how the older generation in China constructs personal and collective identities amidst the “two revolutions” – the earlier communist transformations and the more recent digital revolution.
- Discover the diverse ways in which aging Shanghai residents leverage digital tools to maintain social connections, manage health, and find meaning and purpose in life.
- Engage with the author’s theorization of the intersections between aging, technology, and broader sociocultural change in the context of contemporary urban China.
Detailed Overview
The book explores how these seniors’ past experiences with big communist changes in China shapes how they look at and use their new smartphones. The author closely watched and talked to many elders to figure out their unique ways of incorporating smartphones into everyday stuff like errands exercise, hobbies etc. The research also tries to get how smartphones are changing social ties for older Chinese folks – with family, friends, communities. Since this generation lived through major communist shakeups when they were younger the book looks at how those past experiences and now engaging with digital tech through smartphones gives these seniors their sense of meaning and wellbeing.
With insightful real-life stories and looking at various phone apps, the book aims to give a wide-angle view of modern China. It does this by placing smartphones within bigger social and historical backdrop. Themes include community involvement, dynamics between generations, how average Chinese peoples political attitudes are evolving – as they deal with active aging as well as digitalization.
Citation
Wang, X. (2023). Ageing with smartphones in urban China: From the cultural to the digital revolution in Shanghai. UCL Press. https://www.uclpress.co.uk/collections/anthropology/products/211138
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