Ageing in Contemporary China: Urbanisation, Social Stratification and Later-Life Inequalities

How does rapid urbanisation reshape the experience of ageing, and who is left behind?
This book provides one of the first systematic sociological analyses of stratified ageing and later-life inequality in contemporary China since the 1940s. Adopting an intersectional life-course perspective and combining longitudinal surveys with ethnographic fieldwork, it explores how demographic transition, urbanisation and digital transformation reshape wellbeing, intergenerational relations and later-life experiences.
The book shows how institutional inequalities accumulate across the life course, producing divergent ageing trajectories and enduring inequalities. With clear policy relevance, it offers insights into one of the most significant demographic shifts of our time.