Abstract
Rural China has recently witnessed a disproportionate increase in its aging population. Emerging community-based eldercare is driving transformation in the caregiving landscape in rural China. This study explores older adults’ experiences of community-based eldercare in rural Zhejiang Province. We employed a descriptive phenomenological approach and conducted face-to-face, in-depth interviews with older adults (N = 29) and village officials (N = 15) from 8 villages in Jindong region. Three themes emerged: Changing family support for older adults, emerging community-based eldercare, and community-based eldercare and aging-in-village. Community-based eldercare boosted older adults’ autonomy, protected their rural identity, alleviated their family’s caregiving shortages, and leveraged filial piety to a broader social responsibility. This study offers timely and contextualized insights regarding the implications of community-based eldercare in rural China for older adults’ aging experiences within the broad sociocultural transformation.