Dying and Death: Implications for Health and Social Care in China - a UK Perspective

Brennan, Michael (2024) Dying and Death: Implications for Health and Social Care in China - a UK Perspective. In: Interdisciplinary Research on Healthcare and Social Work: Chinese and Cross-Cultural Perspectives. International Perspectives on Social Policy, Administration, and Practice . Springer, Switzerland, pp. 97-106. ISBN 9783031696022

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Abstract

The “problem” of death, and indeed, of dying, is a universal one. Humans are the only known species for whom knowledge of our own finitude presents psychological and existential anxiety. Yet how such anxiety manifests itself—socially and culturally—is open to wide variation. How health and social care are organized and delivered, whether formally or informally (in terms of unpaid care), especially at the end of life, is also open to wide variation, where it is influenced by politics, economics, and wider underlying—and often deep-seated—cultural attitudes and practices. Focusing primarily on China (while also inviting a comparative analysis with the UK), this chapter examines the landscape of palliative and end-of-life care in contemporary China. It does so against a backdrop of prevailing cultural attitudes and practices in China (such as filial piety) and the challenges facing China, such as a shift to a market economy, rapid industrialization, and a rapidly aging population—especially the implications presented by a policy of population restriction between 1979-2015. Health and social care, it argues, cannot be understood in abstraction of culture, nor of socioeconomic and political considerations. While China is ostensibly lagging behind other developed nations in the delivery and provision of end of life care, the chapter also cautions against simply transferring models of care from countries in the West (including the UK) that ostensibly perform better, without utilizing the cultural “resources” at China’s disposal.

Keywords
Aging Population, Culture, Dying/Death, Filial Piety, Neoliberalism, Population Restriction.

Item Type:	Book Section
Faculty / Department:	Faculty of Education and Social Sciences > School of Social Sciences
SWORD Depositor:	eprints api
Depositing User:	eprints api
Date Deposited:	29 Apr 2025 10:30
Last Modified:	29 Apr 2025 11:14
URI:	https://hira.hope.ac.uk/id/eprint/4306

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