Abstract:

The conceptual connotation of the geriatric civilization within the modernization process has a dual structure of hierarchical progression and content elevation. This paper explores and clarifies how the geriatric civilization concept is identified and redefined within the discourse system, balancing it against the long-standing youth-oriented characteristics found in modernization studies. Through a geriatric civilization perspective, we can transcend the Western idea of modernization, allowing a new theoretical level of understanding through the study of Chinese civilization and socialism with Chinese characteristics. Regrettably, some of those aging civilizations around the world that entered their geriatric civilization earlier than China are confronted by predicaments. They include insufficient power mechanisms supporting modernity that are manifested in the absence of “spatial-temporal transformation” “disembedding mechanism” and “thorough reflexivity.” The modernization of China's geriatric civilization holds significant meaning and is bringing to the fore profound aspects of Chinese civilization through the new form of an aging society. This new concept possesses the “resilience” attribute in national governance, which will re-sort the “essential relationship” between civilization and the nation. This reveals how the nation maintains continuity in the modernization process under the guise of traditional culture. It also features the “solidarity” attribute in social governance. The combination of which will reverse the “individualized” perspective in previous research on aging issues, pointing towards collective mobilization and intergenerational sharing as a further development of modernization. China is both a developing country and the world's largest geriatric population. But it has developed a national response strategy. Part of that, as this paper shows, is understanding and constructing a geriatric civilization as a new form of human civilization which will require the strategic pursuit of new governance models to guide China on its new journey of modernization.

Key words: geriatric civilization, Chinese-style modernization, state-Society