A Study Of Cultural Participation Function Of The Elderly

By the end of 2006, in China, people who are more than 60 years old have been 149 million, and people who are more than 65 years old 104 million. And China was considered as the only country whose old people reached more than 100 million in the world and which had the most universal phenomenon of an aging population during its rise as a developing country. As our aging population is speeding up and becoming larger and larger, it has been an increasing focus of government of how to make the elderly live a happier life.Meanwhile, with the rapid development of the economy, increasingly improved standards of living of people and gradual contentment of basic material needs of the elderly, their spiritual needs at a higher level such as the needs for respect, entertainment, knowledge and self-actualization start to be highlighted gradually. Therefore, how to cater for old people’s spiritual needs and comfort loneliness of the elderly has become a new problem when handling with their issues in China. To solve this problem, the government of our country has developed cultural undertakings to encourage the elderly to participate in cultural entertainment activities, enriching their cultural life and helping them live a happy life at an old age.The community M in Wuhan city is taken as an example and the elderly who have participated in the cultural activities are considered as the major objects of the research in this thesis, and the data of this research is collected through the methods of observation and interview. The analyses have been made of the positive impacts of elderly people’s participation in cultural activities on the levels of the elderly individual, the family and the community respectively. From the perspective of the elderly individual, cultural participation is beneficial to improve old people’s body function, improve their physical health, help maintain and expand the social intercourse of the elderly, help them better adjust to new environment, new roles and new situations, broaden their social supporting network and help them realize their value. From the perspective of the family, cultural participation can narrow the generation gaps, make a harmonious atmosphere among families and improve old people’s psychological health. From the perspective of the community, cultural participation can enhance their sense of recognition and belonging and community cohesion, increase their motivation in participation in community public affairs and promote community governance. It can be seen from the analyses all above that elderly people’s cultural participation is of great importance to their happiness, their study and their achievement, which exercises a positive influence on the solution to the problem of an aging population in China, In the end of the thesis, some ideas are come up with about dealing with the problem of the lack and less variety of elderly people’s cultural participation. And discussions are made from the perspectives of the government, the community and social workers of how to improve elderly people’s cultural participation and meet different requirements so as to make the elderly live a positive later life.