Keren He

Traditionally privileged in family and politics, Chinese old age experienced a drastic devaluation in the twentieth century, only to become the target of public anxiety over population aging in the new millennium. This book leverages old age as an analytical category to illuminate a Chinese biopolitical regime governing individual life trajectories, revealing how forces of developmentalism—revolution, marketization, and heteronormativity—shape the affect of feeling old. It also highlights non-conforming aging performances that redefine vitality beyond a linear, biological view of life, decentering the hegemonic narrative of a “successful” Chinese later life. Ultimately, the book theorizes old age as a resistant mode of living, countering a century-long endeavor to engineer a “young China.”